Tulsa Woodward Park and Conservatory

Back in August, Tyler and I visited Tulsa while he had a work conference.  So it was more like I visited Tulsa by myself and then ate dinner with Tyler after he worked.  I made a draft for this blog post in August and forgot about it (we've been really busy these past few months), so it is going to be posted in November.  Lucky for you me hubby is working this Saturday, so I have some time to do some things for myself and with the blog!

Although I've lived in Oklahoma all my life, Tulsa was usually a bit far for my family to travel since we've always been in the central part, so I haven't been there many times.  I went to the renowned venue Cain's Ballroom for my first concert when I was 15, another concert at the BOK Center in college (do you get my drift that Tulsa has all the good venues, OKC is trying to catch up but not quite there yet).  I went to the art museums while in high school, but otherwise I have not been there besides trips that were for very specific purposes or that were under close supervision.  

This trip I discovered that Tulsa has some very amazing recreational areas and parks - Woodward Park reminded me much of some of the large parks I saw when I visited the U.K.  This particular post I'm going to focus on this beautiful conservatory.

Near the historical society there is the Lord & Burnham Conservatory with some very beautiful cacti, ferns, orchids, and other exotic plants.  It has separate rooms, all with their own climate to accommodate certain species of plants.

From the Cactus Room:

I really can't get over the webbing on these.  I think they are so beautiful. 

The gardener there said he had just watched this flower open up about 45 minutes before I came there.  The flower emits a smell to draw the flies, which in turn pollinate it.  

The Tropical Room - has palms, ferns, etc.  

I just love the white infrastructure - it was built in 1924.

I enjoyed at least a good hour walking through the conservatory observing the different plants.  The gardener was also happy to walk me around and show me some plants that were particularly special or difficult to care for.  There's just something about this old structure that is also pleasant.

Hopefully I'll have some time now to share a little more often on the blog what we've been up to and maybe some projects here and there.

Birthday Party Extravoganza

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably already seen some of our pictures from New Orleans last weekend.  Keep your eye out for posts on our trip there soon.

While Tyler and I have wanted to visit NOLA together for a while, the drive is really just too far to take for just a couple days of vacation and then to come back.  But we also had another reason for making a trip to Louisiana, and when we found out about it we knew we could turn two trips into one.

For years, various parties have been hosted for various reasons in Shreveport (where my Uncle Bob and Aunt Chris are from).  A couple years ago we just went down for my Uncle Bob's 80th birthday, and this year it was Aunt Chris' 80th, my grandma's 70th, and various other birthdays in the family that were celebrated at one event.

My grandma with a picture of my mom and dad.

Aunt Chris on her 80th

My cousin made all 5 cakes for each birthday!  She's pretty talented, and all the cakes were really unique.

My grandma's cake.

Aunt Chris' cake.

 This side of my family is really big, so Tyler always gets to meet someone new to talk to.  This time he talked to some of my cousins that he hasn't met yet, and revisited with some other family.

My parents at the party.  The party was held in the conference room of a casino/hotel in Bossier City, and lunch was catered in the conference room across the hall.  

Anyone notice how similar my dad's and Tyler's shirts are?  We thought it was funny that they were unintentionally twinkies.

 Aunt Chris' "80" balloons, and Grandma's bouquet of flowers for the table.  Each birthday person got their own set of flowers to take home that were unique from the other bouquets.

This is my Uncle Bob, Aunt Chris' husband and my grandpa's uncle by blood and brother by adoption.  Since my grandpa was adopted by his grandparents, it sometimes makes family relations confusing.  That and, there's just so many of us that we'd probably get confused anyway.

My dad with my little cousin.  Many years ago at Christmas, he gave her the nickname "Evelyn."  She was pretty young, and it hurt her feelings a little bit because Evelyn was not her name.  To make up for it, her mom told her to start calling my dad "George."  About seven years later, the Evelyn/George feud still lives on.

This shindig began about 1:00 in the afternoon, and ended at 7:00.  Since Shreveport is sort of the mini-vegas of the south, all the adults went and wandered all three floors of the casino that is connected to the hotel.  Tyler and I don't really enjoy gambling, because it is a gamble, but I put in $2 to one game so that I could get a free cocktail from the waitress and ended up with $24 back from the same game, so that was the extent of our gambling experience.

After everybody left, we stood out front to take some pictures by the grand fountain in the front of the casino.

While I was changing my camera settings, a guy started talking to Tyler and told him that he lost $1,000 that night gambling....which is why we don't really gamble much.  My personal belief is that if you are going to gamble, you should count the amount you decide to spend as "fun" money.  If you make more, good for you, but if you lose what you had then you stop there and you had your fun for the night.  I'm just glad my "fun" money was only like $5 and not more.

Tyler and I in front of the fountain.  

Birthday parties in our family feel more like family reunions, it is always fun to see family again.  One of my aunts commented on how it is sad that some of us who just live 2-3 hours away have to drive 6 hours every couple years to spend time together.  I guess busy schedules just get in the way too often.

What are birthday parties and reunions like in your family?

A Month in Cardiff, Wales {Travel Tuesday}

The summer after my freshman year was the first time I'd ever ventured abroad.  It was my first plane ride.  My first time to be a leader in a place that I wasn't very familiar with. It was a lot of firsts for me.  The place that brought me to many of these firsts was Cardiff, Wales.  My first time to experience  a country where there was a native language present.  My first time to see London.  My first time to go to IKEA (in my defense, I'd have to drive 4 hours to get to the nearest IKEA).

 Flying into the London area...the fields were so pretty from the plane.

My Flat

We stayed in flats where 5-6 people shared a kitchen and living area, and each person had their own bed and bathroom.   

I stayed there with a group of Americans for about one month, and it was a really great experience!  I got to lead younger high school groups to meet local people and learn about many, many different cultures.  If you weren't aware, the UK has a very culturally diverse population due to the many ties it has had all over the world. 

Random Things Around Cardiff

One thing I dearly miss (to this day, over 4 years later) miss about Wales was the food.  I seriously gained like 10 pounds while I was there.  I am not even kidding.  (Did I mention that was only there for a month?) Oh well, I made up that by losing those pounds plus some a few years later when I lived in China. ;)

The Ernest Willows bathroom...I wonder how many pictures there are of this wandering around the internet? If you haven't seen it in person, or if you can't tell by the pictures, this pub has some pretty extravagant bathrooms.  And silly me, being my first time to really travel anywhere that was different from my home, found it more interesting to take pictures of this rather than things I did. haha

This is near the Cardiff train station at sunset.  The sidewalks and skyline were beautiful!

I also was intrigued that even the parking garage was pretty.  Okay, America.  Our nasty looking solid concrete scary looking parking garages can take some lessons from this one.

A pretty evening view from the flats.  

I saw this IKEA truck with a display in the back one day as I was walking.  

I really just thought this was so weird.  Why does IKEA have a mobile model room?  Does the fact that it is in a truck with clear glass windows make people want to buy it more?

Cardiff Bay

This wall had paintings that related to the culture and history of Butetown.  

Milgi's was a pretty cool local place that a small group of us visited one night!  I think the right word to describe it might be... bohemian?  They mostly serve drinks, but I think they might have served sandwiches or light food as well.

We visited this park pretty often to play soccer, and it had this really cool toy on it that would probably cause a million lawsuits in the U.S. (which is why the toy is actually awesome).

The Coffee Lounge
My favorite coffee shop in Cardiff.  I really spent a lot of time here getting to know the owners and eating the yummy sandwiches and donuts, drinking tasty coffee drinks, and enjoying the fun atmosphere.  It is in the Canton neighborhood, on Cowbridge Road.

Everyone in our group signed an American dollar and left it with them.  The next time I came in they had it taped up on the menu. haha

I liked the local art flare they had going on with the decorations and the art for sale by local artists.  Those leather couches were comfy too!  It of course helped that we made friends with the staff!

This was the owner of the Coffee Lounge, we got to know him really well, which was really cool!  I really loved this little shop, and would love to visit again one day if it is still there.

A Quaint Beach Retreat

The leader group took a trip to a quaint little bunk house on the beach in the northern part of the country.  I honestly couldn't tell you what town it was!  (My attention to detail back then was obviously really bad).

See, I told you it was quaint!  I love the window, and I don't have a picture, but the kitchen had like a full wall of tea mugs that hung...and thus captured my coffee/tea-lovin heart.

Right after we arrived on the first day, we played in the water and built sand castles.  It is also safe to say we were the only people on the beach not wearing wet suits...and it was COLD!

Later that evening, we had a beach campfire...which was also my first camp fire on a beach.

Let me just put it out there that beach campfires are way cooler than regular campfires.  :)

We took some surf lessons the next day...and here we all are in our wet suits.  My first time to wear one. (I'm in the blue suit on the far left).  Somehow I got stuck with one of the "pooch revealing" blue ones, but I guess I didn't get the memo to hide behind everyone wearing the snazzy black wetsuits for the picture.  I can see that extra 10 pounds starting to come on in this picture! haha

Caerphilly Castle

Not long before my month in Wales was up, we took a visit to the Caerphilly Castle.  It was really cool touring it, and the grass was oh, so soft!

This was the 'crazy American' thing I did with my friend...which we would randomly do in the middle of Queen street (a busy shopping street).  Wow, I'm not quite that extroverted these days!  

Pictures at castles just look awesome.

If I could go back, I would definitely take pictures of different things...things that would help me remember the city streets, buildings, and places I passed every day.  As a youngster, I mainly took pictures of things that I found funny, extravagant, or different.  I guess that's okay, and that is part of "growing up" as a traveler...learning what to value in your photographs.  I've learned now that the things I value in pictures are people, details, and things that give me a strong sense of the places where I spent time.

Oh, and I should mention that I also lost my camera on this trip, so a good 60% of the pictures are probably taken by someone else on my trip...most of those being toward the end of this post.