‘Kensho: A Modern Awakening’ – Grand Prize Winner – Part Three

This is Part Three of the story of my luxury adventure at the Gaylord Texan resort that I won in a contest from Steinbrecher and Associates. You can read Part One and Part Two here.

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A Texas sized Sunrise

The next morning I got up early and took a sunrise run around their running trail. They have a 1/2 mile and a mile trail. I chose the mile trail but took the 1/2 mile trail after that and found a nice little loop in a depressed gladed area that I was able to run around enough to get in my miles.

 

We had a quick breakfast before Caitlin had to leave for work at the Texas Cantina along the meandering little river they have running through the entire hotel.  I didn’t take a photo but I did draw the waitress for my one and only napkin of the trip.  You can see the finished colored version here.

 

Linda and I were then treated to relaxing massages at the Relache Spa.  I had Carlos work me over pretty good and Linda had female massage therapist.  It hit the spot, no doubt. If I could have gone back in for another one later that day AND the next morning…I would have.  

HOT Couture in small town Texas

In the afternoon we drove a short distance to the small town of Grapevine.  It’s a quaint and cute main street type town. Fantastic shops of all sorts. They’ve done a great job of bringing in a mix of shops, part tourist, part local, part food, part products and services. It felt real and like it had evolved organically over the years.  We did mostly window shopping, stopping in here and there, meandering and just enjoying each other’s company.

We did find a fantastic resale shop, The Designer’s Rack, that just happened to have a new selection of designer shoes come in.  I took pics to send to Caitlin, who was at work, to see if she would be interested.  Turns out she was tempted but held off. Linda did end up buying a pair (not pictured unfortunately).

I ended up in a conversation with one of the sales people, a true Texan with big hair, bright pink nails & lipstick and the greatest Texas accent you could imagine. I really regret not getting a picture of her!  She did model one of the pairs of shoes so Caitlin could see it a bit better so I did get a photo of her foot.

 

I hung out at the pool again that afternoon while Linda napped.  I met a woman with 4 of her own kids who was also in charge of a slew of middle school kids from a baptist church. There was a big summer get together for baptist teens from all over Texas, Oklahoma and other states and that made for a LOT of energy in the pool.  How they have that much energy without caffeine is a mystery.  We talked about raising girls vs raising boys. I gave her an assurance it was likely (though not guaranteed) she would survive all their teen years.

Are You Outdoors if You Are in an Atrium?

That night we finally had our dinner at Zeppoles. It was mostly a seafood menu and none of it disappointed. It really was exquisite all around. The attention and knowledge of the waiter was a great benefit.  There’s nothing better for a diner than a waiter who knows what he or she is talking about.

 

This is our ‘outdoor seating’ within the restaurant within the atrium. It was a funny experience to have such a HUGE atrium in the middle of the hotel. The whole thing was nothing but light and air, no real feeling of being inside at all, except it was air conditioned to about 72 degrees, which is odd when you are expecting to walk out into 100 degree heat.  Here is what the very top of the atrium looked like.  Many people look very funny snapping this exact same picture. I am sure I didn’t though.

Planning

I ended the night organizing the next day’s schedule. I was going to finally meet Susan Steinbrecher, the woman who awarded me the Grand Prize.  I was hoping to have enough time to have a sit down conversation with her, perhaps show her a quick overview of my ‘Six Stop Signs on Creativity Road’ presentation I did at Blog World to see if she might have suggestions about where I might go next in my plan to conquer the world.  But we weren’t going to meet until 1 pm and I figured we would have to check out the usual hotel time of 11 or so.  Luckily, being served by Celebrity Services meant our check out wasn’t until 4pm.  Sweet!  That got one problem out of the way, but the other problem was I needed to be at the airport by about 2:15, giving me a pretty brief window of time to meet with Susan….

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Part Zero (the napkin)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four.  Find out if I get to sit down and talk to Susan!  Sit on the edge of your seat wondering if I will make my flight!  Laugh as we forget to check out!