Granted, your mother had to carry and nurse you just to bring your lousy, gift-giving ass into this world, but a tie is a lazy symbol of the important role fathers play in a family's life, whether as a breadwinner or a house-dad. This neck shackle represents the sacrifices they've made to their aspirations: time and money to ensure their child has a life better than the one they had. Ties are a paisley noose that spells out their delicate mortality right in front of their tearful eyes. So what we're saying, obviously, is to give your dad anything but a tie. Got it?
Dads are a varied breed of human being. They all make the same lame jokes but have varied interests, hobbies and tastes. When they reach a certain age, they tend to lean toward an obsessive eye and ear for proper lawn care maintenance and unwanted noise pollution, but there's more you can give the person you call Dad depending on the type of dad he is. Here are the best things to do with every type of father this Father's Day.
The Tech Nerd Dad: Zero Latency VR
Today's fathers grew up in a generation that actually played video games, and you can play them together. One of the coolest gaming experiences you can play right now sits in the Village on the Parkway shopping district at Belt Line Road at the Dallas North Tollway.
Zero Latency VR (5100 Belt Line Road) is one of the most innovative virtual-reality experiences in operation. The games are designed to work in a wide-open space using augmented reality with shooting and exploration games such as sci-fi arena shooters Sol Raiders, the zombie shooters Outbreak Origins, Zombie Survival and Outbreak Arena VR and the cooperative puzzle game Engineerium. The place also has the only Ubisoft-approved VR remake of the Farcry first-person shooter series with Farcry VR: Dive Into Insanity. It brings players into a virtual version of Farcry 3, where they'll face off again the evil island mercenary Vass Montenegro, played by Better Call Saul's Michael Mando.
Hector Loya of Hurst steps up to the virtual plate during a game of Home Run Derby at the Crush It! Virtual Sports Lounge in Grapevine.
Danny Gallagher
Believe it or not, there are still dads out there who are willing to go outside and play catch with their kids. It's hard to plan those moments thanks to a climate that makes it rain in the middle of summer, but there's still a way to take your dad out to play a little bat and ball no matter the weather.
The Crush It! Virtual Sports Lounge (401 W. State Highway 114, Grapevine) is a unique gaming experience because all the games are sports-related and require players to swing, throw, pitch or shoot at something on a virtual screen. Each group gets its own individual pod with a screen that reacts to the players' movements using real sports equipment like golf clubs, baseball bats and T-ball stands, soccer balls and bocce balls. Even if you go through all the virtual games, you can play real ones like giant Checkers, UNO, Jenga and others from the club's board game library.
Get your dad out of the house and off the ground this Father's Day.
Courtesy of Trinity Groves Adventure Park
Whatever happened to just going outside and wasting away the summer by climbing the biggest tree you could find? That still exists. There's just a much cooler way to do it.
The Trinity Forest Adventure Park (1820 Dowdy Ferry Road) is a 50-foot-tall rope and climbing course that will take you across the treetops. The self-guided courses are color-coded for a variety of difficulties from the novice to the experienced tree climber.They contain obstacles like rope and beam bridges with clamped harnesses in case you slip and prefer not to fall. The park also has 20 zip lines because you have to climb down and you might as well make it an exciting exit.
The Movie Snob: Alamo Drafthouse's Fathers' Day Screenings
Some fathers don't want wrapped gifts for Fathers' Day. They just want control of the television so they can watch whatever they want. If you've got to watch something the old man wants to watch, you might as well make sure it's something you'd like to sit and watch too.
The Alamo Drafthouse movie chain isn't just showing the newest releases on Fathers' Day. Some of the local theaters are holding special screenings of classic movies that dads like to watch, such as the 1988 romantic baseball comedy Bull Durham, starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, and director Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day Lewis as the conniving, troubled oilman who has an infamous showdown with evangelical minister Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano. Both screenings are scheduled for Father's Day (June 18). The Bull Durham screenings start at 11:45 a.m. at the Lake Highlands theater (6770 Abrams Road) and 1:05 p.m. at the Denton theater (3220 Town Center Trail). There Will Be Blood screenings start at 6 p.m. at the Richardson theater (100 S. Central Expressway) and the Cedars theater (1005 Botham Jean Blvd.).
The Dad Who Needs to Chill the Fuck Out: Russian Banya
Do you have one of those dads who goes to pieces at the littlest things? Does he spend a large portion of his time stuck in traffic on one of the Texas Department of Transportation's endless expansion projects that only expands the amount of time he has to spend in his car? There's a way for dear old Dad to have his own spa day.
The Russian Banya and Restaurant (251 E. Rosemeade Parkway, Carrollton) has a bunch of ways to help folks relax on Fathers' Day and sweat or freeze away all the stress they've built up for the previous 364 days. This authentic Russian spa has coed saunas that can heat up to 194 degrees if Dad needs to relax and a cold plunge bath that simulates a 45-degree snow bath if he needs waking up, and right now. Dad can also get a massage, a Venik Platza treatment using natural ingredients to relieve muscle and joint pain or a Hammam scrubbing to help exfoliate his skin because Dad wants to feel pretty sometimes too.
El Vecino is participating in the summer cocktail tour this summer. Let's hope this margarita is on the itinerary.
Taylor Adams
There are plenty of places to take your Dad out for a filling Fathers' Deal meal, but what if you've got one of those Dads who likes to have a stiff drink or 12 after a heavy lunch or dinner?
The whole family (assuming all of them are legal to drink alcohol) can tour East Dallas' best bars and restaurants on the self-guided East Dallas Cocktail Tour running every day this summer until Aug. 31. This drinking tour of East Dallas includes 10 bars and restaurants, among them the White Rock Ale House, El Vecino Tex Mex and Good Friends Beer Garden and Burger House, where you can get special prices on some of signature drinks. All you have to do is pick up a passport from one of five East Dallas businesses on the tour's official website and make sure you bring it with you when you visit participating bars and restaurants.
