Amy's Blog

I am an Omni Hotels Select Guest and often receive offers for free and discounted hotel stays at their hotels across the country. Earlier this summer, I received an offer to spend a weekend at one of their hotels. I decided that it would be fun to spend my birthday weekend celebrating in a city that is a cheap plane ride from Kansas City. Chicago and Dallas both came to mind right away. I decided on Dallas for several reasons.

The more I thought about it, I thought that it would be AWESOME to turn my birthday trip into a Brunch Club trip.

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I talked it over with the group and everyone thought the idea sounded fun. The more we discussed it, we decided that taking a road trip would be really fun.

Brittney, Marc, Richie, and I drove down to Dallas after work on Thursday. Mako had a work commitment and she flew into Dallas on Friday evening. 

We stopped in Wichita, Oklahoma City, and Denton before arriving at our destination in the Los Colinas area of Irving. The nine hour drive went by so fast. The four of us chatted, listened to music, read, and slept on the way. We arrived at the hotel at about 1 am on Friday morning.

Friday was nice and relaxing. I slept until I woke up without an alarm and then went for a nice run on a few of the paths/trails near the hotel. Luckily the staff met me at the door with an ice cold bottle of water and a towel. I spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. It was a nice break from my usual daily life.

Mako flew in Friday evening and we met a few of her friends for dinner at a Japanese restaurant near our hotel. The staff sang happy birthday to me and brought a very generous slice of cake for our group to share. The food was delicious but the service left something to be desired.

After dinner,  we headed to downtown Dallas to experience the night life. We took a lot of great pictures and met some interesting people.

Saturday, I went for another run and lounged by the pool while the rest of the group got out to experience some of the city. I attended 5:00 Mass at the University of Dallas and had a nice visit with one of the bartenders at the hotel bar. The driver that took me too and from church was very interesting. He grew up in Jersey and lived all over Europe and just moved to the DFW area. We actually talked quite a bit about his family that lives in the Kansas City area.

Our group reconvened and headed to Uptown Dallas for Tex-Mex and more night life.

Mako and I are pretty big fans of Kidd Kraddick in the Morning (www.kiddlive.com) which is syndicated out of Dallas. We actually stayed across the street from their studio, but the show was in Naples all week. Anyway, one of the cast members, Big Al Mack, owns a bar in Uptown, so we headed there for drinks in hopes that I could get a birthday picture with Big Al. Not only did I get picture, but we also received some drinks and birthday cake on the house. 

We met some really cool people at MAT…hopefully we can keep in touch.

A definite highlight of the trip was Sunday brunch at Blue Mesa. The brunch is all inclusive, all you can eat buffet with unlimited champagne and mimosas.  There are multiple buffet lines with traditional breakfast items, authentic southwest and Mexican dishes, and an array of desserts, fruit, and salads. Boy did we eat! I have to say the first hour or so of the car ride home was miserable as I let my food digest. 

We got a little “lost” in that we were on US 75 hwy as opposed to I-35 for the first couple of hours of the trip, so we had to take a few minor detours.  On the way home we stopped just south of Oklahoma City, Wichita, and Emporia.   It was a nine hour drive so we had plenty of time to talk and REALLY get to know each other.

All in all it was a fabulous trip and we had a GREAT time.