Part of why I write Weekly Findings is because there's so much I don't want to forget as we travel around the country and explore new places.
After a few false starts, we left Oklahoma City (for good) on Amtrak this past Saturday—and, though we're both really glad to be moving on, I realized there's a lot I want to remember about this place that held onto us for almost an entire year.
Today, then—before it all blurs together or becomes a relic—I'd like to share a few of my city notes with you.
GOGUMA (SWEET POTATO) LATTE TOPPED WITH TOASTED PECANS
What you go for: coffee
What you leave with: an appetite for flavors and types of Korean tea and coffee that you never knew existed, all in just two size options, Love (small) and Passion (large); bibimbap; a teapot of London Fog and a double-walled glass cup to sip from
What you go for: a walk around an urban greenhouse and some gardens
What you leave with: the feeling you've been transported to someplace; glee at watching koi dart beneath the water to retrieve food pellets before thieving geese beat them to it
The American Pigeon Museum & Library
What you go for: a Saturday afternoon amusement
What you leave with: a pigeon tote bag that makes you smile with every use; appreciation for an oft-overlooked bird; amazement at the variety of breeds; cooing conversation with the most exotic-looking pigeons you've ever seen
What you go for: dinner; also, to satiate your curiosity, since you pass this place most days
What you leave with: celestial-looking light fixtures; orange upholstery; falafel and bread pudding so tasty, you wonder why you waited until three weeks before leaving town to venture in
What you go for: long, weekend walks
What you leave with: urban fossils; the feeling that you're not landlocked (even though you are); more feathers than you can count; seagulls galore; new perspective on the city; serious cyclists; model airplane sightings
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
What you go for: culture
What you leave with: stealthy snaps of paintings; sightings of real cowboys on dates with their girlfriends; frustration at under-representation of females (prompting a visit to the National Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth on your wedding day)
What you go for: miso soup starter followed by massaman curry with tofu (spice rating 2); maybe a glass of plum wine
What you leave with: interaction with truly lovely restaurant waitstaff and sushi chef who notice when you haven't been in for a few weeks; booth selfies
Grand Boulevard Park
What you go for: afternoon walks in a neighborhood that isn't the RV park
What you leave with: trees blooming in February; breathtakingly large and elaborate mansions; constellations in thermoplastic road markings; more urban fossils
Museum of Osteology
What you go for: a Saturday afternoon amusement; also, bones!
What you leave with: a surprising (morbid) fascination with forensic pathology as it applies to household pets; an up-close visual of flesh-eating beetles (both their process and the aftermath)
What you go for: the best thin-crust margherita pizza of your life
What you leave with: countless Friday night dates; a discussion of the shmoo (thanks to the company's mascot, a blob that looks like a piece of mozzarella cheese wearing a black yarn wig)
Martin Park Nature Center & Trail
What you go for: long, weekend walks
What you leave with: the feeling of being a small child exploring a big woods; bench wisdom; bird sightings; head-in-the-hole pictures of each other; leaf-kicking; long, perfectly ambling conversations about the future
Notes from the week of July 31
DISCOVERED
+ Norwegian 'Slow TV' (via Addie K. Martin)
ADMIRED
+ "When someone is sad, you don't run away. You hug each other"
ATE, DRANK
+ two more goguma (sweet potato) lattes
+ lots & lots of berries
+ fish tacos
+ veggie lasagna
+ two cupcakes (red velvet & strawberry)
READ & LAUGHED LOUDLY
+ "The other day I was out running and someone yelled at me from a passing pickup truck. I think he called me a pansy (or maybe a Nancy?) It startled me, and I might have even jumped a bit. They probably laughed or high-fived each other or whatever those kinds of douchebags do after a successful drive-by shouting" (via Jill Salahub)
READ & NODDED MY HEAD
BEFRIENDED
+ Cindy at The UPS Store, with whom we had the most thoughtful conversation about voting that I've ever had with anyone
+ Reggie, our car attendant on Amtrak's Texas Eagle
+ Charles, one of our table companions in the dining car