Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Warning- Vacation Pictures

You should see all the "thumbs up" he gets in this truck!
I know I told ya'll about my brother and sister-in-law coming to visit last week.  We had a wonderful time with plenty of BBQ and Beer. Not to mention music and laughter.  I haven't seen them since before they went to Japan about 5 years ago so we had lots to catch up on.  They are stationed in Kingsville, Tx now and she's due to retire from the Navy in about 3 years.  Anyway.... My brother had a conference he needed to attend in Oklahoma City over this past weekend.  My SIL asked me to come with them so we could hang out while he was tied up Friday- Sunday.  She didn't really want to sit in the hotel by herself all weekend and so we played tourist all weekend. 
Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill
I didn't think to toss my camera in my purse our first night in OKC so I can't show you the awesome food porn from Toby Keith's but I DID snag a picture of the place the next day.  I had me a good old fashioned chicken fried steak.... Oh so good.


I had no idea there are actually bears IN Oklahoma.

  SIL and I went to the OKC Zoo on Friday.  I was surprised at how nice a place it was.  The zoo is 109 years old (which is 9 years older than OKC)   
The pink flamingos were sooo pretty.   

This guy's face just makes me giggle.  It kind of looks like E.T. don't you think?



 
This mountain lion paced and paced then came right up to where I was standing and seemed to say hello. 



 I sure wouldn't want to happen across this guy out in the woods.  He's HUGE.

 Saturday we went to the Red Creek Festival.  It was held in the convention center which was great because it was air conditioned.  
It's a Native American Festival and they were having dancer contests. 


 I'm not familiar with what the dances actually are but it was awesome to watch them in their finery.  

Sorry about the pictures not being very good here.  I was just too far away I think.
This brave allowed me to take his picture.  I told him I'd make him an internet star for a day! LOL!
Check out the look on this Brave's face.... Scary!

We walked through the Botanical Gardens.  The pictures just don't do it justice. 


 This is a shot of the tropical gardens.  We decided that the cost to go check it out just wasn't worth it though.  Instead we toured the gardens and people watched.


You can't tell it in this picture but the dream catcher here is about 10 foot tall.

Saturday evening after my bro got out of his "class" we headed down to Bricktown for some dinner. 


   Again, no food porn but I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture before digging into some awesome Fuzzy's Taco's and a mega Margarita.  

There's a riverwalk that is really pretty to walk along.  Ducks and water taxi's play in the water.
                             This guy play's a mean bucket!!!
There was a group of young men breakdancing.  They had a pretty good crowd of onlookers.  
They have horse drawn carriages in Bricktown.  Here's a Cinderella Princess Carriage.
The Bricktown area is chock full of live music on Saturday nights and lot's of them play outdoors.  
My brother is a beer snob.  No, seriously... he is.  So what better place to down a couple than The Tap Werks.  It's an old brewery turned bar and grill with over 100 beers on tap.
   He talked me into trying a "Black and Tan".  Now I'd heard of this beer before but had never had one.  It's a "layered" drink made from half stout beer and half pale ale. 
 In this case Guiness Stout and Bass Pale Ale.   I've had several folks tell me how good they are.  THEY LIED!  That was one of the nastiest things I've ever tried to drink.   hehehehe

Sunday my sis n law and I went to the OKC Memorial where 168 people, including 19 children died that horrible day.



The Reflection Pool.  We didn't go to see it at night.  They say the chairs seem to float on the water's edge.
The chainlink fence that was put up when the explosion happened is still here. A memorial all it's own.
Across the street from where the Murray Building once stood is a catholic church.  They erected this memorial in honor of ALL the children who died that day.  Two pregnant women died in the blast as well.  There are 22 stones.  The statue of Jesus has his back turned away from the Murray Site.  
The inscription reads "Jesus wept".....
There is also a Memorial Museum.  We couldn't bring ourselves to go in.  The chilling and depressing effect of the Memorial site itself was almost too much to bear. I'm so glad we went but I'm really glad it was the last thing we did while we were in OKC.

All in all it was a wonderful get-away and I enjoyed every minute of it.  It's good to be home though.  The weeds seem to have missed my attention while I was gone.

19 comments:

  1. I'm glad you all enjoyed yourself! It looks like you saw a lot of sights!

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  2. So many pictures to share! Love the sticker on that truck, I don't think I'd ever get my boys out of a vehicle like that! Love the pictures at the OKC memorial and also that tortise - He reminds me of Morla from the Neverending Story! :) Looks like you had a great time, and thanks for sharing all those pictures so we could experience the trip with you! :)

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    1. Amy,I never thought of Morla! How funny!!! We did have a great time for sure. Thanks for stopping by~

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  3. Glad to hear you a had a good time and a break from the homestead. I've seen that sticker on the back of an ambulance and nearly ran a red light LOL!

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    1. LOL Kati... I probably would have run off the road seeing that on an ambulance. hehheee

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  4. My Friend Sci, I'm so glad you really had a wonderful time with your brother and SIL in good old OKC. I'm Sorry I missed the opportunity to catch up with you while you were down this way. I just returned from Texas this morning. Maybe next time! Love the pictures of the zoo, can you believe I've never visited the place and I've been here coming on 5 years? Brick Town has some really neat things, did you get to go to Bass Pro Shop? The National Memorial is setup beautifully. What did you think about the tree that remains standing after the explosion? Remarkable!

    Don't mention weeds............my garden has plenty and hubby didn't get to weed for me while gone. He was able to water though.

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    1. Awww Sandy. I'm so sorry I didn't try and get in touch while I had the chance to be so near your area. Honestly? I was so "into" the family thing I swear I never even thought about it. I'm ashamed to say that but I'm willing to be honest here! ;-)
      We didn't make it to Bass Pro even though we drove by it several times. My "brokeness" and my SIL's lack of enthusiasm sort of prevailed. As for the OKC Memorial... my heart still aches at the horror of it. The tree sure does have one hell of a history doesn't it?

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  5. Awesome pics, Sci!
    It looks fun, would have loved to be at that powwow, that arena is huge! I'm glad you had a great time.

    Hugs
    ~Fel~

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    1. How funny! I was thinking about you while we were there. You would have loved it AND been able to explain some of the stuff I was watching

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  6. It's good that you got away for awhile. I think you may have needed a break. And the weeds are ALWAYS there. Hope you get to see more of your brother.

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    1. Momlady,
      You know I didn't realize how much good a break from the homestead would be. Then again, until I came back home I didn't realize how long it had been. And you are sooo right about the weeds, they never seem to disappear for long!

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  7. Great trip!! Also, shoestringmanor had a domain screw up so I had to start a new blog. I'm over at http://shouldbelimited.blogspot.com/

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    1. I wondered what was up! I've bookmarked your new site. Thanks for letting me know.

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  8. Thank you for sharing all the pictures. I'm glad that you had such a nice visit and some great food!

    I know the weeds missed ya!

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    1. LOL Jim!!! You always make me smile. Yeah, the weeds were so ecstatic to see me they doubled in size overnight!

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  9. Breaks are good, but being home seems soooo much better when you return. Glad your back.

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