Texas has never been high on my bucket list, but when an opportunity arose to watch my Boston Red Sox play the Texas Rangers in Texas I jumped on it. The trip was an absolute delight and I was glad I took the chance to travel to Texas as the Fort Worth region was wonderful to visit. The food was out of this world and we were able to celebrate my birthday in a unique way with incredible food and whisky.
A bucket list item for myself and my husband is to visit all the major league baseball parks in North America, and this trip to Globe Life Field would continue the journey we started in Philadelphia.
We flew down to Dallas Fort Worth area and opted to stay closer to Fort Worth, on recommendation from friends and family. We chose to stay for a long weekend and worked remotely from our hotel. This gave us a lot of opportunity to enjoy the local cuisine.
Saturday – Texan Spirits & BBQ
My husband planned an entire day out for my birthday, and nailed all my favorite things.
We started the morning slowly and arrived for opening at Cowtown Brewery. This was an absolutely fantastic brewery outside of downtown Fort Worth with a passionate staff, a quirky atmosphere, and an incredibly vast selection of beers. I enjoyed a few flights of their best brews and some fantastic food as well from the brewery’s food truck.
The next stop was the fabulous Texas Whiskey Ranch. This golf course was bought by a distillery and now operates both the golf course and a fabulous distilling facility. We participated in a lovely distillery tour and tasting of their offerings. They had some unique whiskey made in a different style to my preferred malt whisky. The facilities were unique and had great views of Fort Worth in a tranquil environment. It was fascinating to see what the distillery could accomplish with the old golf course and how they’ve modernized everything.
One of the best rated BBQ joints in the Fort Worth area is Smoke-a-holics BBQ, and we grabbed food from this incredible venue that was some of the best food I’ve ever had. Their “Peach Thang” was tremendous, and every bit of BBQ we ate was mouth-wateringly good.
The final stop for the day was at Acres Distillery, a nationally acclaimed distillery that work with a variety of spirits. They occasionally hold pairings and tastings at their distillery, and my husband had booked us in for a cheese and spirit pairing. We were able to taste a variety of their offerings from vodka, to whiskey, to gin. They make exquisite spirits and we thoroughly loved the style and delivery of the tasting in this beautiful facility.
Sunday – Fort Worth
Our Sunday in Fort Worth was meant to be a slower day about town. We had debated visiting Dallas with our time but opted to explore Fort Worth a bit further, since that is the city we had come to see.
We started by visiting the Water Garden, a unique sculpture park with intricate fountains in downtown Fort Worth. Built in the 70s it was one of the more unique attractions we saw in Fort Worth. We explored the various parts of the garden, and found the largest of the fountains to be incredibly impressive.
Later in the afternoon we visited the Stock Yards, though we just missed seeing the daily stampede. Due to time constraints and weather we didn’t make it back but would love to see it on a future trip. The area around the Stock Yards is vibrant and incredibly busy. Parking was surprisingly expensive, since we’d not run into similar during our visit to Texas. The main road through the Stock Yards was full of cars wanting to be seen – and we came across a traditional wagon and mounted cowboys.
Second Rodeo Brewing had a great atmosphere when we stopped in to try a few of their beers on offering. It was a huge place, larger than I expected, with a fun vibe and plenty of choices. They had a lovely Octoberfest beer on offering during our trip as well.
Monday – Baseball
On the Monday we worked remotely from our hotel before heading west towards Arlington, not far from our hotel in Fort Worth. We had reserved our parking for the game when we purchased tickets, a nice easy way to manage it, and arrived with plenty of time to explore the area before the game. The amount of stadiums in the immediate area was impressive, but space is not a premium in Texas as it is back home in Massachusetts.
Globe Life Field was opened just a few years ago in 2020, and is the newest ball park we’ve explored to date. It’s a stadium with a retractable roof, for which I was grateful given the Texan heat. It had a wonderful atmosphere and a lot of great nods to Ranger’s history, like a great display for Nolan Ryan. It was spacious without feeling overwhelming and the food options were plentiful.
The seats we had booked were more expensive than in other stadiums (aside from Fenway Park), but had great visibility and was easy to find. The game was a great one, and despite the Sox having a terrible season they pulled out a win for this game to celebrate my Birthday. Globe Life also had a fun theme for Mariachi Mondays.
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