Girls Weekend Journal

 Monday morning!!  Up at 8, shower and out the door for our massages!!!  Once we arrive, however, we have disappointing news. One of the massage therapists has called in sick and one of either needs to give up our appointment or take an appointment AFTER the other, rather than simultaneously.  I feel that this will just eat up too much of our day (and it is an overcast but warm day out....a perfect zoo day), so I let go of my appointment so that Kathi can get a massage.  It has been a bit of a rough morning for Kathi because Ridley is having a very rough morning and has been on the phone with Kathi much of the morning, so I feel that Kathi could use the massage and relaxation much more than I.  So I leave Kathi and the massage place and I go to put gas in the car and do a little solo exploring.  I was hoping to come across a mall or a Starbuck's or something along those lines where I could go and kill some time browsing stores or reading and having a...

Sunday morning already!!!  How can that be?  We want to make the most of the day, so we get up around 8:30 or so with a plan to have brunch in the lobby of our beautiful hotel before we go to see the Tall Grass Film Festival film of our choice.  The lobby has a courtyard feel to it with a fountain and with balconies off of some of the rooms that look into it.  After our brunch of scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit and yogurt, we walk the few blocks from the hotel to the beautiful Scottish Rite Auditorium where the film we have chosen, Call Me Kuchu , is playing.   Call Me Kuchu   is a heartbreaking film about a bill that is currently being argued in Uganda that threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death.  It is an eye-opening and thought provoking look at how homosexuals are treated elsewhere and, in my opinion, it is quite tragic.  Upon leaving the movie we decided that we wanted to sit outside somewhere and finish, or in my case a...

Today is a travel day!!  We leave our digs in Tulsa and head 3 hours northwest to Wichita, Kansas for the remainder of the trip.  Before leaving Tulsa, however, we decided to do a little shopping for our families at the TJMaxx store that we had spotted during our outing yesterday.  We stop first at Panera for a bit of breakfast/lunch and some coffee as well as a stop at Michael's for Kathi to get some supplies to work on wedding photo book.  TJMaxx turned out to be a GREAT place for us to do gift shopping for our friends and family.  Lots of local team shirts and sweatshirts at very good prices.  This is something that we MUST remember on all of our trips from this point forward, if there is a TJMaxx, we should shop there!  After a successful shopping experience we hit the highway for the drive to Wichita. Kathi turned on her reliable GPS program on her iPhone and we successfully arrived in Wichita around  6:30 pm.  Upon finding our hotel...

I am laughing as I look at this picture of Kathi and I at the entrance to the Tulsa Oktoberfest with the outline of a person on the ground behind us and the shadow of our photographer also visible.  A professional photographer would probably be absolutely horrified by this picture, but it captures the moment and that is what I love about it.  Kathi and I have become pros at asking people to take pictures of us together on our trips, so this shadow represents ALL those people who, over the years have been willing to take a moment to help us perserve our memories. So, Friday morning we slept in a bit, since we had both been so tired the night before, but once we were up and moving and ready to go we left the hotel room in search of boots for Kathi, souvenirs for our loved ones, and Oktoberfest.  In our research of the area we discovered that there was a mall located fairly close to us, so that's where we headed in search of a pair of boots for Kathi.  Across from t...

Livin' on Tulsa Time........Oh yes, it is that time again.....Girls Weekend.  And, as promised at the end of last year's trip, I am writing this while lying in bed in our hotel room in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where, just so you know, it is illegal to bring an elephant into the downtown area, and where a bartender cannot allow you to pretend to have sex with a buffalo while in the bar (tidbits of info found on an Oklahoma trivia website....you didn't really think I just made that up, did you?) Kathi and I arrived in Tulsa to a windy 70 degree day.  When researching Tulsa for this trip I was unable to come up with that fun, funky, unique kind of place to stay that I am always looking for, so I opted for a Marriott Courtyard hotel close to the airport.  I wanted something downtown, but couldn't find anything that looked interesting that was in our price range, so here we are.  Once we got to the room, we settled in for a while and talked and caught up with what is going on i...