Finally, time to post! I've been so busy with real life the past couple weeks, I haven't had much spare time. That, and my internet has been working sporadically at best. It is supposed to be fixed this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed!
I had family visiting from Kentucky last week, so I had to get out of the house and show them some of Fort Worth. I really haven't seen much beyond a five-mile radius from my house, so it was a good experience for me too.
On Monday we ate lunch at Terra Mediterranean Grill. They only offer a buffet at lunch, but you order from a menu at dinner. The hostesses were less than friendly, so I had my doubts about eating there. I can't stand walking into a restaurant and the hostess acts like you're not good enough to eat in their establishment. They even seated us in a room separate from the other diners. I honestly think it was because of Levi (I only saw one other child in the place, and that family was seated as far in the back as you could get without being in the separate room).
The food was really good though, and fresh food was constantly set out. The lady who refilled our drinks was nice, which somewhat made up for the hostesses' attitudes. She seemed to forget about us, though that's not surprising since we were in a little room by ourselves. The zattar bread was awesome. I could have eaten the bread with hummus all day. I also had pasta salad, kafta kabobs, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, and some other things that weren't labeled so I have no clue what they were. I liked everything except the grape leaves. They don't serve dessert, which was a little disappointing. I would have loved some baklava.
Josh wasn't with us, and I'd like for him to try the lunch buffet. But I will be reluctant to go back because of the less-than-stellar welcome.
After lunch, we visited the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. It is absolutely beautiful! I can't imagine the work it must take to maintain gardens in this weather. General admission is free, but you do have to pay to enter the Japanese Garden and Conservatory. We didn't get to explore the whole park because of the heat, but I plan to go back some day when it's not 104 degrees.
They have amazing water features including ponds, streams, and fountains. They also have turtles and koi. Some of the koi had to be at least 3 feet long. You can pay 25¢ for food to feed the koi. The turtles must be fed pretty often too, because they came up to the bank to look at us.
One thing I didn't like--and I probably wouldn't have noticed had my grandmother not been with us--was the stairs. She's 76 years old and can't climb stairs. I know she would have loved to look around more, but there were very few places she could walk. She was able to see very little of the rose garden (there's an overlook with ramps). She didn't even go in the Japanese Garden with us, which was a good thing. There were so many stairs and steeply curved bridges that she wouldn't have been able to access much at all. When I visit again, I'll be sure to find out if other areas are more accessible.
