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?