A date day downtown.

Before you start just beware of the bad quality phone pics. I accidentally left my point & shoot at home so this was all I had. You have been warned. There will be some awesome pics at the very end of the post.

My mother-in-law was dying for some "alone" time with Micah and so discussions got started about her coming to visit. In the end, she volunteered to drive up from Mississippi so that Mr. C & I could have a day date. (Mr. C has one crazy schedule, and so a lunch date was the best we could do.) Original plans called for us to go to my favorite Thai restaurant in town since we had a few celebrations to celebrate (my graduation with my master's degree which has been put off since Micah was only 10 days old at the time, Mother's Day, and Father's Day.) One great benefit of this weaning process is that I can go out, I can leave Micah, and I don't have to be back in three to four hours to feed him. So our lunch date turned into a lovely "date day" as we headed downtown instead when Mr. C got in the car and said, "Let's go to Texas de Brazil."

Me: Choking for a second. That place is expensive.
Mr. C: Yes, but on Wednesdays through Fridays the lunch special is at least half off the regular price.
Me: That is still a lot. Although, I do love half off.
Mr. C: When have we gone out for something special this whole year you've been off with the baby? You only live once! Let's go enjoy our date.
Me: Um...
Mr. C: Look, you know how much that Thai place costs, and frankly, this isn't much more than that with this special. And it is all you can eat. And we can go downtown. And it is a special occasion.
Me: Um...
Mr. C: I'm driving, so we're going.

And go we did. End scene.

If you know me, you probably know that I can be very miserly. I like to save money, and I hate to spend it unless I'm getting a deal. Every so often Mr. C has to push me into buying something or going somewhere. He's a great saver, too, but he's also more fun than I am. See I've lived here my entire life (basically except a few brief years in Nashville that I don't remember), and everybody talks about this place. Why did I wait so long to go?

If you have never been to Texas de Brazil and can go...run, don't walk. Seriously. So much better than my Thai place. First of all, let me explain how it works. For a set price you get a salad bar (which is the Father of All Salad bars), but for $2 more you get all you can eat meat. When I say all you can eat, I mean all you can eat...

Yes, those are my two plates. Yes, they were just for me.

They give you those little tongs you see in the picture above, and then men come around the restaurant carrying huge chunks of meat on sword like skewers. When I say meat please do not let me underestimate the amounts or quantities of meat. We're talking top choice sirloins, ribs, prime rib, lamb, and who knows what else. I am not up on all the red meat vernacular, but if it is an amazing cut of meat you'll see it. I promise. Don't go if you hate red meat (although the salad bar was amazing full of incredible side dishes & veggies) or if you don't like your meat medium. I'm sure they can cook something for you to order, but mostly it was: Here's a hunk of meat. I slice some off. You use your tong to grab the meat. Then put the meat on your plate.

As far as dates go, the ambiance was amazing! Swanky, swanky. Although on a Friday at lunch I saw people in shorts, and we were wearing jeans. At night, I would definitely dress up.

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The funniest part of this place? They give you a red/green card to sit by your plate. If your card is on red the waiters with the meat will keep walking. However, if you keep your card on green the meat keeps flowing. Obviously, our stayed like this most of the lunch:

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We also shared a creme brulee dessert because I may have a beer saving budget, but I do have wine tastes when it comes to desserts. (Note: that was not part of the all you can eat. We were surprised. Whoops. Oh, well.) After that, we decided to walk around downtown for a little bit enjoying some music on Beale Street. It always amazes me that almost any time of day you can find somebody playing the blues down there.

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We walked around on Beale for a while. I have never seen it this empty, but the drunkards mainly come out at night with the vampires. Although, I did smell a few people who were a little too tipsy for two in the afternoon.

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I found this huge piece of valuable advice while walking back towards the car. We laughed so hard that for once Mr. C said, "You have to take a picture of that for your blog."

Don't worry, I'm not letting Puff Daddy anywhere near my heart anytime soon.

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In the spirit of random things you can see downtown, Mr. C also got really close to this car so I could take this picture "for the blog", too. One day I'll have him doing guest posts. Just you wait.

Another sound piece of advice to pray for the haters.

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Afterwards, we headed over to Harbor Town to walk around along the river. I hadn't been to Harbor Town in years, and it was so pretty! It really reminded me of Charleston, South Carolina. You can go to the slide show and look at pics here if you want. By this point, my phone was almost dead and not taking pics. However, it was a really neat place to visit. We decided that we might need to pack up and move down there. Mr. C said he'd give up a backyard for streets that he could roam like these. Although the price is mighty steep for a river view. Imagine that. I wanted to take a trip to Miss Cordelias, but Mr. C was tired at that point.

We had a wonderful day, and then came home to a baby who had been sleeping for two and a half hours. Why does he always sleep when we have a place to go or someone else is watching him?

His Grandmommy & PawPaw had gotten him this super cute bouncy seat. When we got home Mr. C put it together so his grandmother could watch him play in it. He loves this thing, and I'm glad he has something else to do now! We've talked about getting him one, but gifts are always welcomed! :)

Now onto the good pictures! These weren't taken with my phone. We actually got some supplies we needed to get Mr. C's fancy pants camera up and working. So some of these were taken with his fancy lens! Yeah! Finally! (Although he'd probably be mad at me for "fixing" them in Picnik. He's got a degree in Photoshop aka Graphic Design, so he always says I don't know what I'm doing. He's right.)

Micah & his bouncy seat.
(Taken with the fancy camera and zoom lens. I edited them in Picnik.)

This picture was taken by Grandmommy with my point & shoot after we returned from our date. Little Micah with Mommy & Daddy.


It was a fun day!