Happy Anniversary

I sure am getting behind--I keep meaning to write about our fun anniversary, and that was over a month ago now.

The anniversary itself was on a Thursday, so we kept it simple (to start with) and went to Tulsa for dinner. I had to show Uchenna the online menu to convince him that the Cheesecake Factory served more than desserts, but once we got there we both quite liked it. Perhaps a tad pricier than our usual, but good for a special occasion.

Since we were by a full-sized mall (not a common occurance) we perused the sales for anniversary gifts. You can't beat coming home with yummy left-overs and a new red sweater.

Uchenna had taken Friday off, so we slept in the next morning, then took off again, this time for Oklahoma City. It takes 2 1/2 hours to get there, which somehow feels significantly longer than the two hours it takes from Ponca.

There's stuff to do in Tulsa, surely, but we know OKC better and besides, that's where the temple is (which we've tried to make an anniversary tradition). After the temple Friday night we wanted to find a cool little place with live jazz, but apparently we don't know OKC that well after all.

The next morning we went downtown to the Crystal Bridge, a tropical and cylindrical green house. True to its name, it has a bridge through the treetops two stories up. It also has a waterfall. Pretty darn cool.

(An outside view of the glass-clad cylinder that is the Crystal Bridge. It has a bridge inside, but the building itself is also a bridge in that it spans a pond; as you walk around the pond, you walk right underneath the building.)

Uchenna pointed out lots of plants he knew from home--it was like a reunion of old friends. We saw banana trees, cocoyam, pineapple plants, opetemmuo (that's the Igbo name, we're not sure it has an English name), big bamboo trees, and others too numerous to mention. Uche told me how each one grows and how they're used. Like the enormous cocoyam leaf that can act as an umbrella in a pinch. Now I know what to expect when we go to Nigeria.

(We're sitting in front of the opetemmuo--the long stalky plant on our left. On our right is a little thatched hut. On the bench you can see our coats, which we needed outside but which were too warm inside the green house. That's how you keep tropical plants happy, I guess.)

(Up on the bridge amidst the tops of the trees--can you see the coconuts in the tree behind me? I'm squinting because it was so bright up there.)

(Back outside. There's Uchenna at the end of the bridge. And if you look carefully, on the right you can see the sillouette of a person walking along the water, under the building. And you can see daylight from the other side.)

Afterwards we walked around the park outside and enjoyed the crisp weather and fall colors--a perfect fall day, just like the day we got married.

(Fall foilage, with a tall building in the background to remind you that you're still in the city.)