Oklahoma - Nope

I'm back and it's December 2nd and if the pace of this Monday has been any indication, the final month of the year is off to a frantic start!

Instead of recapping the weekend, I'm recapping what is essentially the past week - and while there are a fair few pictures - there aren't as many as I might normally take because 1) I was under the weather for most of the trip and 2) Oklahoma isn't that exciting. Sorry Oklahoma! *grimace*

We flew out from DC on Tuesday night and man - what a flight it was! That plane bounced and bobbled along almost the entire three hours of the flight; my sweet Momma who is rarely bothered by airplanes, was left clutching the sick bag for most of the flight... and my hand too! *sigh* Once we arrived, my younger sister picked us up from the airport and we made the drive across the plains to the little town of Altus.

After crashing at the hotel - on Wednesday morning my sister met us for breakfast at the hotel and then took us on a tour of the base where she is learning to fly her next plane. I had to have a whole visitor pass thing done because I'm the only member of my family that's not military... *sigh* I was most fascinated by the mock cockpits and while I don't love airplanes... I did fully love messing with all the buttons and levers! 

The buttons I'm pointing to in the above picture say "strobe lights" and I wanted that to be proof that you could have a party plane but I was told that's not the case. Oh well - whatever. *shrugs* Lindsey introduced us to her friend Kaycee and then we grabbed lunch at a really cute little cafe in the downtown area before perusing the shops that lined the square - they were festive and had some really cute things!

As you can see - I even pretended to be Belle at the bookshop on the square - as one does when given the option to hop on a rolling ladder! I have not a single picture from Thanksgiving because the cold I managed to get shortly before leaving for OK was at it's peak on Thanksgiving Day - it was rough. I laid on the couch while my family cooked, I had lunch - and I'm 100% sure it tasted amazing but I couldn't really taste anything...

I took a short nap after our lunch and then we went to see Frozen II in nearby Lawton - another drive across the plains - and well, that movie was fabulous. Once we made the drive back across the plains, we had leftovers for dinner and I was starting to not feel quite so retched - so I could actually taste things and it was just as delicious as I'd imagined! 

The weather in OK was not great for us - my sister assured me that it wasn't normally so tragic - but all day Thursday and Friday were dreary, misting rain and with fog so thick that you couldn't see ten feet ahead of you. It was wild. We got up on Friday morning and after lounging around a little and watching the newest episode of The Mandalorian, we headed an hour along the plains in the opposite direction to Elk City - where the first stop was lunch at Country Dove, which was a charming little tea house. 

Elk City is located on Route 66 - they have a fun little museum (really - it's not that big) and so we went to check that out. The displays were really neat and the museum was set up like an old prairie town... alas, the really crummy weather made it less than fabulous to wander through all the buildings but we made the best of it.

I confess - with the rain on the sidewalk, I wasn't 100% sure what the bricks said... hence the picture...

I truly do wish the weather had been better. If you're trying to recover from a cold - the last thing you want to do is wander in the mist, wet and cold - but again, you've got to make do with what you're given from day to day. 

We perused some really neat shops throughout the town - we didn't purchase crowns (I really wanted to) but I did grab a Route 66 shirt that was pretty great. I also picked up a new pair of shoes on sale from $106 down to $28 and a purse on sale as well. So Elk City was very much a win for me in regard to shopping, ha-ha! Lindsey wanted to take us to a restaurant called Prairie Fire Grill - but we discovered that it was closed on the Friday after Thanksgiving... so we ended up getting BBQ from The Rib Crib. While I'm sure it was no Prairie Fire Grill, it was still quite tasty!

Saturday morning dawned bright - the sun finally appeared on our last day in Oklahoma and with it came the winds that "sweep across the plains..." We grabbed a quick breakfast from the hotel and then made our way to Oklahoma City for the day, where our first stop was a restaurant called The Pizza Hall - a recommendation from Lindsey's friend Kaycee and it was some of the best pizza I've ever had. 

We then made our way to the Oklahoma City Memorial & Museum and spent a few hours wandering the exhibits and taking in the Memorial. I admit I don't know/remember much about the Oklahoma City bombing... I remember vague things about it, but I was only ten when it happened, so I don't know a whole lot about it. The Memorial is very lovely and the Museum was very informative... I know there is so much importance in remembering things like that - but I have to confess that it just usually makes me feel a little bit sick to my stomach...

The gates that span the reflecting pool are marked with 9:01 and 9:03 - the bomb went off at 9:02 and the gates and the pool are meant to span and reflect on how much a life can change in just one minute. There are 168 chairs to memorialize the victims killed in the bombing... the smaller chairs for the children that were killed. There is a large tree called the Survivor's Tree because it survived the bombing and the fires that followed and still blooms and grows today. The foundation of the Alfred Murrah Building lines one side of the Memorial and there is an overlook to see the entirety of the Memorial from where the building once stood.

The wind on Saturday was absolutely wild - I think it was gusting at something like 40 MPH, so I'm telling you that they aren't kidding about the wind when they sing the song Oklahoma! We drove over to Centennial Park to see the Centennial Land Run Monument - did you know that a Sooner is essentially a land thief? The Sooners were people who staked claims on land in Oklahoma before they were actually eligible - named Sooners because they literally arrived sooner than the Boomers! Who knew? 

We checked into our hotel and then grabbed some dinner at a place called Charleston's before I was subjected to a cheesy Hallmark movie while packing my bags for the return trip home. Our flight left Oklahoma City at 7:10 and we were airborne right on time... we even arrived back in DC early, at 10:30(ish) and thankfully this flight was much less bumpy!

I enjoyed being with my family and especially getting to spend time with my sister since we see each other so little now that we are adults but I have to say that Oklahoma didn't leave that much of an impression on me. The people were met were nice but I just don't know about all that flat, flat land... man - no way!

So - that's all I've got for the past week and my Thanksgiving in Oklahoma! Hope you and yours had a lovely Thanksgiving!