Last weekend after my niece's graduation, Chief and I had planned to spend the weekend in the City. We wanted to do some things we hadn't done before, go places we hadn't been, eat at new places -- the only plans we had were for a nice dinner one night, and the Thunder playoff game the next night. I got the name of a funky new place in midtown from a friend, and started filling up our time. The Ambassador Hotel is a quaint little Art Deco place, unassuming and only open for the last two months. It had a great view and atmosphere in the top floor restaurant and bar. It was perfectly placed to some of my favorite eateries, and we found a couple of new ones, too.
It has been said that I am the Mistress of Google. I found so many cool things going on during Memorial Day weekend, and I think we did everything we wanted to do, and then some... First stop was the Paseo Arts Festival held each year in the Historic Paseo Arts District between Dewey and Walker. I've always wanted to go, and this was our first. We knew we would find local artist, Kristy Patterson, and we bought some awesome salsas on our search for her.
Found her and her daughter busy, busy. I borrowed this picture from her Facebook page, and her booth was much more loaded when we were there. She is really doing well with her dream. Turns out she was also able to celebrate her anniversary over the weekend. Check out her blog and webpage.
Google also told me about the Big XII baseball tournament. We chose a great game to go to, although the ultimate finish of the tourney was not what we had hoped. TCU showed up in our conference this year to show everyone they were here to compete. I was unaware. Our team was the runner-up, but we sure were hoping to add to our 51 national championships. Oh well, number 4 in national championships overall in the NCAA is certainly above acceptable.
Always on the hunt for the best steak ever, we just may have found it. Again, on a suggestion from a friend, we ended up at The Ranch on Britton Road. I normally don't order steak away from home, but this was the bomb of a steak. Chief ordered a wine we hadn't had in several years. It just isn't available in our area. Oh. My. ZD. Visited the winery about 20 years ago, and we had forgotten how smooth and perfect it was with beef. What a treat! And there was dessert. We never do that.
Up and at 'em the next morning, we found a breakfast place with a line out the door. We always consider that a good sign. Delish waffles, and I was on my way to see my cousin. She just finished beauty school, and after seeing that on Facebook, I scheduled a blow-out during our time there. You can't visit the City without a tiny bit of shopping, so we grabbed a bite and then dropped by our fave mall before getting organized to hit the basketball game.
It was great to have Ibaka back for this big game. Seemed to make all the difference.
And yes, I realize he is not in this picture.
I hope we can make 7 games out of this series. Looks like we are going to need it.
As we left town on Monday, Memorial Day, we decided to stop by the OKC Murrah Building memorial. A cloudy, dreary day, it was every bit as moving as I remember last time I saw it. If you have never seen it at night, that is worth a special trip.
After reading the updates on the culprits of this act of terrorism, neither of us remembered that two other individuals were implicated in this crime. After 12 years in a federal prison, which in my opinion is somewhat of a day camp, one has been released into the Witness Protection Program. We didn't understand where the other one was. But really? In return for his testimony, he is now free somewhere? Unbelievable. And scary.
Speaking of scary. Not kidding. When we parked here to go into the memorial, we were the only car on the street. This was freaky to come out and see a U-Haul parked behind us. Really? I know the guilty one was a Ryder, but seriously, who drives their U-Haul up to visit the OKC Murrah Federal Building Memorial? Who does that? If I was driving a rental truck, I would no doubt park 4-6 blocks away. Good grief. This was 20 feet away from the entrance.
We took it as a sign that it was definitely time to go. We headed home, and made it here just in time to play a quick nine holes of golf. I believe we crammed every sport of the season into this weekend. It was wonderful. Did I mention it was our 30th anniversary?
