Fort Worth Stockyards

This morning, Diego, Luis and I went to the Fort Worth Stockyards. Fort Worth is about 35 minutes from us, and this was our first trip. They herd cows everyday (except maybe Thanksgiving and Christmas). It turns out, however, that the size of the herd is proportionate to the size of the expected crowd. On a Sunday morning in August, they weren't expecting a big crowd...

First we saw the cows in their pen. Diego and I were impressed with the size of the steer and their horns - both very large.

Luis, on the other hand, was impressed watching them poop. (I decided to take the picture of Luis laughing, not the cow pooping.)

After that, we walked around the commercial part of the area, waiting for the "cattle drive". There was all kinds of "Texas" memorabilia (read: cowboy hats & boots and Dr. Pepper), and almost every store offered to ship your merchandise. It was definitely made for tourists. Luis's two favorite things were the cowboy hats and the "merry-go-round" horses (that were everywhere).

He really, really, really wanted to try on the pink one.

We staked out our little patch of sidewalk to watch the cattle drive right next to a saddled steer and near a dog. Luis was initially much more impressed with the dog (who he rightly identified looked like Ashley). After a while, he warmed up to the steer and eventually agreed to sit on him.

Finally, it was "herd" time. Diego and Luis moved up to the edge of the sidewalk for a better view.

And, about six and a half minutes later, it was over. We found a place for some lunch (in a touristy spot like this, we didn't have to look far). Diego enjoyed beef brisket, a Texas version of BBQ. Luis enjoyed grilled cheese on Texas Toast. And not being a fan of any kind of BBQ, I enjoyed my turkey sandwich.

The proverbial carrot that we used to get Luis to eat his lunch was the promise that he could ride the "horses" again. Since Luis kept up his end of the deal, we kept up ours. Diego took Luis out to ride while I settled up our tab (often, Luis loses his restaurant stamina approximately 3 minutes before the check comes - so one of us takes him "for a walk" while the other pays). This particular ride was a horse pulling a cart. Luis b-e-g-g-e-d me to ride too, which I did. Then, Diego put a quarter in the machine. The way the whole thing lurched - as if the horse really was galloping - made me laugh really hard - which Diego tried valiantly to capture on film. But this scene really needed video.

Just before leaving, we took one last picture of Luis...

PS - When we got home, Luis slept from 1:30p until 5:15p!