Hometown girl returns for a visit to Lubbock....Where should we stay/eat??

[setlung]

Let us know how our trip went. And what you thought about Lubbock.

[kaykay]

We ended up staying as I said at Arbor Inn which was very, very nice for the price. We tried to eat at some of the steak restaurants recommended but found on the 4th of July they were closed. We ate at BullBoxer31 (fair) and at Rain Uptown (a friend took us here. Italian. The food was excellent.) Had to eat at Abuelos on the 4th. Abuelos is always good, but we have one here and we've eaten there lots. So we had hoped to go someplace different but all but the chains seemed to be closed. We called Las Brisas, Cagles, Double nickel?, Triple J. All closed. We also ate at Ruby Tequilas and that was good.

We re-visited some personal sites such as the first house my husband and I lived in there and the Tech campus, house I grew I grew up in as a child. I was disappointed that the area where I grew up close to 50th and Elgin (close to Monterey High School) was not as nice as it used to be and the neighborhood of my husband and my first house had deteriorated quite a bit.

The Tech area, however, seemed to have gotten a lot of improvements and was quite a bit nicer than when we were there. My husband said, "what happened to the "Tech ghetto"??" The highway through the city was not there when we were there either. (North/South)

The hotel we stayed in had a little balcony and I sat out there at night very late enjoying the relatively cool night air. One night there was a breeze and it felt like Fall!!!! Glorious! The Dallas area just does not cool down substantially even at night. So that was refreshing.

Many, many changes. A lot of things were no longer there that we remember. Very interesting to return to one's hometown after 26 years. My husband noticed the friendliness of the people.

[losttechnician]

The "Tech Ghetto" (I spent a few years working there a couple of decades ago) is thankfully gone. McDougal companies bought everything up, scraped it clean, and developed the hound out of it. Just kind of spread the mean-ness into different parts of the city.

The North/South highway I think you are talking about is I27, which is a short little interstate from downtown Amarillo to just south of Lubbock. It replaced much of the old Ave H and Texas Ave downtown.

The new highway is the Marsha Sharp freeway, right now starts between Q and I27 around 4th and heads out to meet the Brownfield highway west of town. Freeway all the way, and the best way to bisect the city. IMO the best thing done for driving in Lubbock since I27 was finished up 20 years ago or so.

Did you also notice that Lubbock is now "wet"?? A couple years ago they passed an alcohol referendum that allows alcohol to be sold in the city limits.

"The Strip" is now all but closed down.

I moved to Lubbock in the early 80's to attend Tech, and have floated all over that part of Texas since, but still have lots of roots in Lubbock, and visit often. Was just there this past weekend even!