24 Hours in Tulsa
My daughter, Mary, and her boyfriend, Jacob, were visiting from college over the weekend, and we were busy from morning to evening on Saturday, most of it free. Twenty years ago…heck, 10 years ago…most of the things we did wouldn’t have been available. And here’s the cool part, everything we did was something that all ages could enjoy.
On Saturday morning, we all went to the Cherry Street Farmers Market. My daughters and I started a tradition of getting coffee and some food at The Coffee House on Cherry Street (CHOC) before heading into the market. I used to take Lucy the dog along, but had to leave her at home. No dogs allowed at the market. Lucy was disappointed, but I understand the reasoning for it.
It took some time to get out of CHOC because we saw several friends – one couple had ridden their bikes along the trails all the way from south Tulsa. (Just one more fun activity you can do in town). We sat outside to enjoy our coffee and a little conversation in the beautiful spring weather.
If you prefer to get some food as you walk, there are plenty of choices at the booths. Elote has some delicious breakfast tacos, and there are muffins, cinnamon rolls, breads…you name it.
On Saturday, I was in search of some herbs and tomato plants to complete my garden. At the tomato plant booth, I got to witness a fun discussion between the woman selling the plants and her much younger customer who didn’t want to wait 60 days for his tomatoes to grow. He decided he would just buy tomatoes at the grocery store. She chided the young man for his lack of patience (and lack of work ethic, which he took good-natured offense to). I bought my tomato plants and moved on. I found the herbs I was looking for, and, in the process, we spotted a group of friends having coffee at Café Cubana. We stopped there, and my daughter had fun catching up with the mom of a good friend.
The farmers market is awash with babies in strollers and lots of children having fun helping pick out vegetables, watching the street musician and the magician. Everyone was out enjoying the weather. It was certainly an all-ages event.
Driving home, we made a stop at Westlake Hardware to pick up some extra dirt for my garden. At home, Mary and Jacob helped me unload the dirt. Gardening – another great activity to do with children of all ages.
I finished planting while Mary and Jacob went off to the library to do some studying, find a book Jacob needed for class and also to do a little shopping at one of the local vintage consignment stores.
Our next excursion was to the Brady Arts District in the afternoon. Our first stop was at AHHA. We wanted to see the Art in Mosaic Exhibit by Jacqueline Iskander and Brooks Tower, and Chasm, the paintings of the Grand Canyon by Liz Roth, an OSU art professor. If young children had been part of our group, we could have gone upstairs to do art activities since it was the third Saturday of the month, which means it’s IMAGINATION DAY at AHHA.
As we were walking to Guthrie Green to hear some music, we stopped for a picture in front of the giant Bruce Springsteen poster on the wall of the Woody Guthrie Center. We’ll certainly be coming back to see that exhibit.
Guthrie Green was full of people having fun. Kids (and adults) were hula-hooping and running through the fountains, people of all ages weredancing,children were painting on a large easel, creating a community art project. Besides the great bands, there were hula dancers shaking their hips on the Green. My little group sat on the steps enjoying an adult beverage while we people-watched. Who knew Tulsa had so many hipsters? For a moment, I thought I was in Austin.
To end our day of Tulsa fun, we went to a Drillers game at ONEOK Field. The evening was beautiful. Downtown was glowing and the Drillers won! A bonus was that we got to play “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on kazoos during the 7th inning stretch. How fun is that?
All in all, Tulsa has a lot going on. Most of it is free or low-cost and all of it is enjoyable for kids of all ages!
Gotta go! It’s lunchtime, and it’s Food Truck Wednesday at Guthrie Green. See ya’ there.
