Labor Day (vol 2)

In our last exciting episode we found ourselves in rain-soaked Oklahoma City, but well fed and settled into our hotel. By the way, we found the hotel through hotwire.com. The funny thing about that website is that they tell you the general location of the hotel, a price, a list of amenities, and some hotel chains they work with, but they won't tell you the actual hotel you're booking until after you've booked it. It's cheap, but it's non-refundable. So getting the hotel felt like a adventure all by itself. Fortunately, it turned out fine, despite its hard-to-find location behind Office Depot.

Saturday got started a little late. I had run over to Target (also right next to the hotel--I'm telling you, weird spot) for milk and cereal and so forth (we were in an extended-stay hotel--though I don't think 3 nights is that extended--so we had a fridge and stuff), and we actually sat down to breakfast at noon. Oops. Oh well, it was vacation. Then we went to the temple. So we did get that in.

That evening we went to dinner in Bricktown, a downtown warehouse district that's been repurposed into a nightlife restaurant district. Our jazz-themed restaurant looked over the canal and had a live 3-piece combo playing. We walked along the canal and even took a carriage ride. I've always wanted to do that! It was much comfier than I thought it would be, even though our driver had to keep the horse from trying to race the carriage in front of us. Just as we got in the car to head back to the hotel, the rain started again. I wondered about those carriage drivers; the weather must really give them fits sometimes.

On Sunday we found a ward (yay church website!) and drove around a bit studying the map. We'd been getting confused because like every few miles, no matter what highway we were traveling or what direction we were going, we kept running across highway I-44. But after exploring with map in hand, I think we've got a better sense of the city, even that crazy I-44. In the evening we ate dinner at a park surrounding this surprisingly large lake in the middle of town. Late afternoon sun over the water and through the trees is one of my favorite things in creation.

Then Monday we hit Sam's Club (where we showed remarkable restraint) and headed home. I always feel like Millie from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers when I go into town and stock up on supplies--last month we even invested in a double-walled cooler so we can transport perishables. Of course when we got home, the lawn looked like it was trying to swallow the house (you've got to watch that lawn every minute), so after a moment for a relaxing breath, Uchenna took care of that. What a trooper. What a perfect vacation: no conference sessions or interviews or looking at houses and asking essential, insightful questions, or even rushing to graduation. Just sleeping, eating in lovely settings, and exploring. Shwew.