The next day, hoarse from whispering at my younger brother’s, I invited my mother to stay with me the second night. “I can’t, I’ll snore and wake you,” my mother whispered. I promised to get one of the larger two bedroom suites and she reluctantly agreed. The two-bedroom suite wasn’t as posh as the skyline but made up for it in size and layout.
If the Adophus is known for anything these days it’s the famed French Room. “Mark and I ate there a time or two,” my mother reminisced, referring to her ex. She and Mark lived just down the street from the Adolphus during my college days. My mother now lives in Phoenix and returning to Dallas stirs up ghosts of her past too. We settled on the hotel’s more casual Bistro Room restaurant, popular with the downtown business lunch crowd.
My mother ordered her usual club sandwich and I got a chicken salad. Both were solid, satisfying and service was attentive, which should’ve been since we were the only people in the restaurant on a Friday night. “Where is everyone?” I asked the waiter. “Thanksgiving weekend, quietest time of the year. This place was packed a few Friday nights ago during the annual JFK conspiracy convention.” The Adolphus was on the president’s motorcade route and is walking distance now to the JFK Memorial Plaza and museum.
Checking out that morning, the lobby was buzzing with wedding festivities taking place that evening in the Grand Ballroom. “Mother, three o’clock.” She looked at her watch. “No, to my right, top of the escalator,” I redirected her. There stood one of Dallas’ quintessential best. A woman gushing over a young girl’s wedding gown had hair teased up so high she looked like a cartoon character.
“Good God, that’s got to take half a can of Aqua Net to hold that up,” my mother gasped.
Returning to my brother’s that morning was like coming back to camp from a Survivor reward challenge sleepover—we’d had a good meal, a restful night’s sleep and both felt a little guilty for our grand night’s stay. “Here, we brought you some chocolate covered strawberries.” I offered, setting them down wrapped in a cloth napkin and propped up the white chocolate sign that read The Adolphus welcomes you.
