arrival in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Gus and I thought this was hilarious. Honk-n-Holler gas station,

somewhere on the road in Oklahoma.

Today is day 3 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a very long drive we made it  and the van is hanging in there. When we arrived we were warmly greeted by Gus's grandparents, Tom and Laura. Oh yes, and 3 super sweet doggies named Colin, Joe Tucker, and Betsy.
 

After we got settled in, it was decided we would go out to dinner. Gus's brother, Kevin and his wife Linda live close by so they came over to introduce us to their new baby girl, Layla. She turned 6 months old yesterday. Oh is she a cutie.

We all enjoyed a really delicious meal at one of Tom's favorite restaurants called Te Kei. It was a japanese/asian style restaurant. Gus and I shared a really tasty sushi roll and I had a calamari salad. Yum. I sipped on some tasty plum wine and enjoyed conversation with Gus's sweet family.
 

this art piece is made out of tiny beads.  the work was incredible.

from right to left (Linda, Layla, Kevin, Grandpa Tom, Grandma Laura, Gus, and me)

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's, Kevin shared with us some of his tasty beer he made. He is making a pumpkin chocolate stout that will be ready in about a month. Kinda bummed we can't stick around to try it, because the beer he did share with us was super tasty.  : )



 

<-------------------The soon to be pumpkin chocolate stout
                        made by Kevin Snell













Before everyone decided to go to bed, Gus asked grandma "tulsa" if she had any photos we could look at. This is always my favorite thing to do! Reminisce on the days long ago. Looking into the window of the past. When our hands and feet were just a bit tinier. The high fashions of the early 80's and beyond. Gus shared with me the pictures of his childhood, telling me stories of the memories when he was just a wee one. We stayed up for a while until we looked at all the albums of the grandkids.

Gus and Kevin enjoying some pics of the past too!

This morning we watched Grandpa Tom's video of his road trip adventures back in 2004. He traveled all over the perimeter of the US in a 3 month time span by himself. He met up with lots of family along the way and even Grandma Tulsa met him in a few spots. It was fun to see his love of the open road and the adventure in him. We later found out he also set out on foot to hike the Appalachian trail this past year. He was planning to be gone for 6 months, but due to an injury he had while out on the trail, he had to cut the trip short. He has since written a book on his travels and was even so kind to give me a copy.

This afternoon we went for a visit to The Stone Horse, where Kevin works as a chef. He went to culinary school and is now working for a very incredible restaurant. Everything is made in house, with super fresh ingredients. We ordered a crab cake appetizer, shared a french onion soup and each ate a yummy steak sandwich with roasted bell peppers. I'm not sure how we managed to have dessert but we got spoiled because Kevin put a huge array of raspberries on our Crème brûlée custard. He told us a cool story of how they make the Crème brûlée the traditional french way by using a heavy iron puck like thing to set on top of the sugar to create that crisp finish rather than use a blow torch.
Outside the restaurant is an old telephone booth. love that.

Gus and I had to walk off some calories after that late lunch and so we decided to check out some shops. Using the handy dandy yelp website, I discovered 2 vintage shops here in Tulsa. We checked out the first one and I scored a super cute sailor suit outfit. It turned out to be deadstock from long ago! The 2nd vintage store I scored a super unique ethnic inspired dress with the coolest sleeves.
(pics coming VERY soon)  : )

 
 

Grandpa Tom asked us if we would like to go the the college basketball game the other tonight and of course we said yes! It was a ton of fun and we had really great seats. I haven't been to a game in ages. It was fun getting all into it and listening to the crowd get all riled up on plays and fouls. One guy behind us was so passionate about the sport, when he got angry at the refs he shouted " go back to Footlocker." Pretty funny. Tulsa ended up beating UCF by 4 points. The game was so close from beginning to end. A fun fact we found out, Michael Jordan's son was on the other team. I snapped a few photos of him for the blog. : )

(Marcus Jordan- 2nd to the left in the glasses)

Tonight we all got together for a nice dinner with some more of the family. Yay, Gus's mom Darby arrived here in Tulsa from Arkansas. We hung out with some of the cousins and drank yummy wine from our home in Mendocino County and ate a delicious meal Laura made. Complete with cheese and cracker appetizers.

After dinner I heard the sound of legos emerging from a box.
"You are never too old to play with Legos" as Gus says.

Tomorrow Gus and I are going to the flea market at the Expo center.
Excited to see what treasure we may find.
This is an amazing espresso machine that Kevin scored at an estate sale.
I couldn't believe how cool it was. It makes several espressos at once.
Mocha anyone?

colorado love

Location: Pueblo, Colorado

Destination: Oklahoma

Mood: Sleepy

Yesterday we left Steamboat Springs after having a great breakfast with Nicole. The night before we went with her boyfriend Taylor, and drove up to Strawberry Hot Springs to an enchanting place with multiple pools. It was surrounded by Aspens and snow. This place was very unique because although we had to pay, the vibe was very rustic and natural. We arrived around 9 pm and had to bring our headlamps for this adventure because the pools have no lights anywhere. This made it a bit tricky because of all the rock steps and different pools. There were a lot of people but you couldn't see anyone due to the steam and darkness. A lot of teens laughing about being naked. Gus and I much prefer the more silent places but did enjoy this hot spring for the amazing pools. I wanted to get pics but didn't want to set off a flash on all the nudies! : )   They have a tipi that you get to change in which I really liked. We stayed till we all had raisin hands. When we got home we all just crashed out. Gus and I wanted to stay another day but there was a storm coming thru that was expected to dump 2 feet of snow. Yikes for us with no 4WD! So we left in the afternoon, headed to Sulphur Hot Springs for another unforgettable soak. I think we are both getting super addicted to hot springs at this point. Nothing like taking a bath in mother nature's arms.

 Winona's Breakfast restaurant... they serve grits here

 Nicole's dad built this sweet little wagon for her cute doggie Shanti. 

This is one of her first lessons getting familiar with it.

 We decided to head to Boulder and made it in just enough time to get a beer and some grub at the local pub called the Mountain Sun. We played boggle while we waited for our food and enjoyed the flavors of our beers. Mine was a blackberry wheat ale and Gus had the Illusion Dweller IPA. Super tasty!!! The place was powered by the sunshine too. We walked the streets of downtown to settle out our stomachs and I found a vintage store called Goldmine. It was closed so we decided to check it out this morning. Glad I did because I scored a beautiful embroidered vest!

 Gus is finding all the words

 I love how the crosswalk hand is just an outline. Reminds me of light bright.

 We stopped here for an AMAZING cocktail of herbal infusions, gemstones and flower essences

Just to blow your mind about what one drink had:

organic plum, passionfruit, pear, angelica, rose, sage, dong quai, lotus root, lemon balm, damiana, lingzi, acacia, african blue lily, dates, cardamom, saffron, senna, chamomile, lovage root, cinnamon, red raspberry, comfrey root, catnip, coltsfoot leaf, raw sugar, bee pollen, stevia, frankincense, juniper berry, periwinkle, willow bark, lobella, clove, bergamot, wild indigo, myrtle, queen anne's lace, rice wine, cassis, passion flower, honeysuckle, cherry plum, wisteria, hollyhock, digitalis purpurpae, gem essences of black and clear volcanic glass, lapis, seraphinite, serpenitine, gold, silver, tetrite, moonstone, sunstone, moldavite, and clear quartz

 

  

Gus convinced me that we needed to take these pics. 

He sure does bring the kid out in me.

 rainbow salt and pepper shakers 

 Now this man is ready for some breakfast. He's so goofy sometimes. I love it.

 cheers to wheat grass shots

 

 Amazing stain glass work on the ceiling

 Stopped inside a historic hotel for a bathroom break. Found this rad original elevator from 1906.

Went to the movies tonight and saw War Horse. This movie definitely requires tissue. 

It was a bit tricky to find a place to sleep last night because there were signs everywhere off the side of the road saying NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING... So we had to drive out of town a bit and found a cozy spot to park the van for a good nights sleep. We woke up this morning and headed into town to check out an organic breakfast spot. They served fresh wheat grass shots and fresh oj but the food wasn't as great as we had hoped but we were both happy it was at least organic. It feels like as the years go by, more and more organic options are sprouting up everywhere. Puts a huge smile on my face! We are now in Pueblo, Colorado and about to rest our heads for a long drive tomorrow. Our goal is to make it to Tulsa, Oklahoma by the evening to meet up with Gus's brother and meet his new little baby girl. And so the adventure continues...