First Full Weekend in Fort Worth

Happy Monday!  Get ready because we had a REALLY productive weekend, so there is tons to write about.

Although we have had our apartment in Fort Worth for over a month, this past weekend was the first full weekend we spent in the area, and we made the most of it.  We barely spent anytime in the apartment, which means we were exploring Fort Worth and the surrounding areas.  We have found some great new places that I can't wait to go back to again.

The weekend began with pizza from Mellow Mushroom on Friday night.  I had found the Mellow Mushroom near the traffic circle in Fort Worth and had read about it in Fort Worth Weekly.  It is a psychedelic pizza place.  The Fort Worth location has limited parking but delicious pizza.  We took our pizza to go, and when we arrived to pick up the pizza, we saw people being dropped off in a limo!  The Mellow Mushroom is definitely not a fancy joint, but apparently the clientele is pretty ritzy... or the parking is just that bad.

Saturday started with breakfast at McKinley's, which is a local bakery and cafe within walking distance.  We had been for lunch before and really liked it, but breakfast wasn't as good.  The highlight of breakfast was a strawberry cupcake and a cookie with white and milk chocolate chips, coconut, and macadamia nuts.  After breakfast, we got an oil change at Flagship Carwash & Lube, which had amazing service and friendly staff. 

With our car looking and feeling like new, we were off to look at patio furniture and, possibly, bikes.  We stopped at the Chair King, which had an amazing selection of outdoor furniture.  I fell in love with a circular couch that looked super cozy, but in the end, the prices were a bit out of our reach.  Next door at Sun & Ski Sports, we spent time chatting with Jacob and ended up with two new bikes for riding around on the Trinity Trails.

 These are the bikes crammed into the back of our car

Here they are in the apartment

After buying bikes, we did the requisite weekend grocery run.  Trader Joe's in Fort Worth is amazing but still overrun by customers (at least on the weekends).  After running errands, we met up with friends at the new Flying Saucer location in Fort Worth.  I loved the old brick building of the previous location, but the new location (across the street) is larger and has a great outdoor space.  Even in the heat of the Texas summer, we sat outside and were (relatively) cool while we enjoyed some beers with friends.  We were so excited about our new bikes that we went bike riding later that afternoon on the Trinity Trail right by our apartment.  We road to River Park and back and saw the sunset, which was beautiful and the perfect way to end a long day.

Sunday morning, we greeted the day early.  Grabbing breakfast on the road, we drove to Grapevine, TX about half an hour outside of Fort Worth to go stand up paddle boarding (or SUP) for short.  We had made arrangements with DFW Surf for an introduction to SUP and board rentals.  I was hesitant about paddling around while standing on a huge surf board, but it was surprisingly fun... and that early in the morning, it was quite peaceful.  Hubby and I paddled around for an hour getting our Sunday work out in.

DFW Surf is run out of a trailer near the marina

Paddle boards set up and ready to go

We stopped for a snack at EatZi's after SUP.  Hubby had frequented EatZi's when he lived in Houston and explained to me that it is a market with lots of delicious prepared foods.  He got a gourmet sandwich on bone bread (something EatZi's is known for), and I got a sun-dried tomato pasta salad that I had sampled.  EatZi's reminded me of New York markets and was in some ways like a smaller Eataly.

A well deserved lunch

Small vs large at EatZi's... there is no medium

As if the morning's activities were not enough, we headed to Ikea.  The apartment is still lacking bookshelves and patio furniture, so we stocked up at Ikea for all our household furniture needs.  We stocked up so much that we filled our car completely in boxes with one box that had to go on the roof.  That is the most either of us had ever bought at Ikea.

All filled up ready to unload

Once we had returned from Ikea, the productivity of our weekend finally hit us, and we spent the evening building furniture.  Now that the weekend is over, it's time to get back to our routine... work outs in the morning, laundry on Mondays, and delicious meals made at home.