It was our 27th wedding anniversary this past Friday. Julie had looked at all the places we hadn’t been that were within a day’s drive and we decided on Oklahoma City. We heard it had cool architecture, food, and gardens so off we went!
We first had our anniversary dinner at Bar Sen. I had a transcendental experience with some chili paste. On the way out we took a selfie with the amazing sunset in the background.
A waiter made a comment about how amazing the sky looked and we thought he was talking about the sunset. But he was talking about the lightning happening in the middle of the sunset that we didn’t see. Then he showed us lots of sunset pictures on his phone. I’ve gotten to meet many interesting people hanging out with my wife for 27 years.
Feeling a bit wind blown Julie asked if Oklahoma was known for being windy and I launched into:
| Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain
Turns out there’s a reason that’s the first line in the chorus. Clearly Oscar Hammerstein’s first impression of the state was similar to ours.
They have a night market at Scissortail Park, so we headed over there. This was definitely something Austin needs to get into. We are way too precious about our parks being free of commerce like we’re some sort of 90s rock band. This was amazing. It’s nice and cool. This is how all of our markets should be. What are we doing holding them during the day? Nighttime farmer’s market. Nighttime queer market. Nighttime witches market. All of these make more sense. What are we even doing Austin?!?
What are we doing Austin? They have a shaded, outdoor roller rink. We NEED 4 of those. Please.
The next morning we went to the Myriad Botanical Garden. My gardening friend Bob used to go on a cheerful rant about how most botanical gardens aren’t really botanical gardens. They tend to be low on educational quality and have few interesting specimens most of which are struggling to live in unnatural conditions. Myriad was quite the opposite. The space was beautiful, the specimens were thriving, and there were educational plaques. Julie and I really like their fragrance garden.
We went to the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Julie really enjoyed it because unlike Seattle it was not completely crowded.
The next morning was another garden - the Will Rogers Garden. They had an amazing collection of irises and day-lilies, but I think Bob would have complained that this was not a botanical garden. It was mostly a very beautiful collection of adapted and native plants with no context. But the strolling was great and we enjoyed it.
We had a great trip, and really enjoyed our couple of days in OKC.