My sisters, Anne and Liz, and their husbands, Don and Frank, made a trip to Oklahoma this past week for a get together with John and I and the girls. Our Aunt Shiena was hoping to join us from Oregon but due to some surgery she was unable to make it. Shiena -- we missed having you with us. The snacks you sent were yummy and we them all! Thank you again for thinking of us with those. Hope you enjoy the blog.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Norman and had a great visit. The hotel was great. The rooms were 2-room suites with enough seating in the living room for all of us to visit. They had an enormous breakfast area with the option of having made to order omelets and so on included in the price of the room. Every evening for about an hour and a half they had a managers reception which included free drinks and some munchies. You could gather at tables in the breakfast area or the center courtyard area where they had comfy chairs and coffee tables.
On our first day we brought them out to the RV to let them see where we live and the inside of our digs. Then we toured through the tornado hit areas from Newcastle and into Moore showing them where our home used to be as well as all the other horrific damage. After that we headed up to Bricktown and had lunch at Earls BBQ and followed that we a ride in one of the taxis on the Bricktown canal. That ride allowed them to see all the
wonderful metal sculptures depicting the Land Run. These huge sculptures are right beside the canal. Following that we headed up to the Bombing Memorial. Our tour the first day ended with a visit to our sister, Beany's, grave site in Norman where we cleaned up the headstone and put in some pretty yellow flowers. That evening we had dinner at Outback and then visited a bit and looked at old family photos.
On our second day we headed south to Fort Sill in Lawton. My Dad was stationed there from 1941-1944 as a physician and both of my sisters remember living there. Several buildings of the original fort are still there and in use. It was interesting going through a couple of the museums. Anne and Liz had a family picture of the old post chapel which is still there and in use. Also the building that housed the hospital at the time my Dad served there is still there and in use but not as a hospital. There was another hospital prior to that building in the same place and the hospital has been in two other locations since. The gals could not remember where the houses were that they lived in. The picture they had of one of them seemed to be base housing as it had the family name on a plaque out front by the street.
Then we checked out the old guard house. Geronimo spent a little bit of time in this
facility. He is also buried on Fort Sill land about 4 miles out from the main area so we drove out there to see it. He is buried in a cemetery with other Apache Indians.
After our tour of the base we checked out lunch at a place in Lawton called the Backporch Drafthouse. It was quite good and popular.
In the afternoon we headed back to OKC and visited the Oklahoma City Museum of Art which neither John nor I had ever been to. It was an awesome visit. The glass work made by Dale Chihuly is incredible and it is a permanent exhibition. There was also an interesting exhibition by Ansel Adams and another one by Lisa Hoke. Lisa Hoke's display is one large display in a room on three walls that is made up of things we all throw away, such as any kind of paper good, plastic cups, boxes from food products. It's all arranged by color and is really fun to get up close to and check out.
We finished up the day by picking up the girls (our dogs) from our friend Priscilla, who was so kind to keep them a few days, and having a light dinner at Zios.
On Wednesday Anne and Don headed home to Houston and I drove Liz and Frank to the airport in the morning for a flight home to Potomac, Maryland. Then we headed home to the RV, picked up groceries and drove down to our place at Cedar Blue for the rest of the week. Potentially bad weather had been forecast for Wednesday so we watched it carefully and got the tornado shelter prepped for the spring storms. Put in a lantern, bottled water, snacks, work gloves, a flashlight and battery operated fan. Thankfully nothing transpired.
I ordered in Earls BBQ and had a birthday cake and ice cream. Then we all played Catch Phrase which was great fun. The top photo is John with his new scanner. Now we get to hear all that is going on around us!! Oh boy! John also got an Apple TV so the next picture is of him and the girls trying it out at the hotel. It is a pretty neat 'toy' as we can see anything he can see on his IPAD on our TV. Great for showing photos, watching movies and so on. 
Our next milestone will be John's retirement.
