Last week we made the 9+ hour drive to north Tulsa to go up and visit Pawhuska, OK.
Tulsa was chosen mainly for the zoo, gotta give the kiddos a chance to run off the trapped car energy and not start a revolt against every mother in that town.
I took a good handful pics, so let's walk around and I give you the deets on everything we did and how beautiful the area was. (true story I've long since longed to live in the country... my disdain for the deep deep south of Louisiana runs equally deep. I despise the swamp to be honest.)
I had to snap a few of my nutcase running wild in the upstairs coffee bar area. He was completely done with being held captive and let it be known while his grandmother spent the rest of our yearly earnings at the bakery/coffee area collecting everything else we didn't require to live.
The coffee there is honestly the best I've had in my entire life. At least an insanely close tie for first with the frozen Cafe au Lait at Cafe du Monde in NOLA.
We shared a pie (7 year old who wasn't fussing over the pie not pictured) and I went against everything I subscribe to and not only drank caffeine but I drank it well after lunch time. The Spicy Cowgirl is TO DIE FOR!
However I was informed by my mother that my chocolate pie tasted better.
More bakery shots.
The couple they have in charge of food are clearly amazing.
Now for the phone photo segment of the post. I can't drag out the big one for everything, makes me feel like a weirdo.
So up above is our little crew eating lunch, word of advice... split everything. If I can't get a whole something then I promise you more modest eaters can't eat a whole something.
Hyacinth was in the store, however she looked like she was legit busy and I didn't want to be that nutcase bugging her. So I stalked her from a distance. Oops. Chuck was ever around opening the door in the front, I didn't see him but Mom recognized him. I was too spazed out in the crowd and 30 mile per hour wind to recognize Paula Dean if she was in my face wanting to hug me.
Also, the lemonade there is stellar. Go and grab yourself the blueberry lemonade recipe from Ree's Food Network list of recipes. It was a game changer and made me remember the days when I made such things trying to impress my hubby when we were first married.
Note to self: make blueberry lemonade again.
Just some shots of the restaurants before they got busy.
We drove out to the ranch to tour The Lodge after eating and shopping and luckily Mom pointed out the sign so I could tick off truckers who were trying to drive by as we took a pic or two.
The herds of horses were way off in the distance for much of the drive through the ranch, luckily just at the end there were a small group near the fence.
Clearly I have no shame and ticked off yet another set of drivers.
Shots from inside The Lodge.
Obligatory pose behind the stove top & counter pic.
Ree has the most epic of storage areas for her dishes and everything related to food staging. That spot though is right past the 3 stunning guest rooms/bathrooms and is clearly a recent add on. I can't imagine the Food Network worthy prep kitchen was part of the original plan. Plus the flooring was totally different and you could tell it was newer.
I call this series of shot "what happens when you let the toddler out of the stroller."
The Lodge has a two sided fireplace in the middle of the main room with some odd insert/hole/area on the side. Harrison immediately crawled in and wouldn't come out.
In the event you've ever wondered "How windy is it in Oklahoma?"
It's windy.
Insanely windy.
I shouldn't have worn a kimono windy.
The song from the play Oklahoma wasn't a joke. The wind was more than racing through the plains.
That's all for today peeps. I'll leave you with Walter, who has certainly aged and was sitting around waiting on someone else to pet him the entire time we were there. The dogs didn't seem to mind the influx of visitors one single bit.
Once your hand has recovered from the intense amount of nearly workout worthy scrolling I'll share the rest of the trip.
