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| Sweet lady that was excited for us to buy and taste her home-made fruit cake. |
Shalane (the wife :O)
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| Jingle and Jangle Candy Shop in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. |
As all of our followers know, Dean and I are on vacation, traveling from Nevada back to the mid-west to visit with family and friends. Friday night, we arrived here in Noble, Oklahoma to visit with my mom. (Go Sooners!) Right away, mom and I started figuring out what we wanted to do the next day and how we were going to make every minute count. Saturday morning we were ready! We started by hitting up the Stratford Peach Festival, where we enjoyed a live band, bought homemade fruit
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| Mom and I decorating a gingerbread house. |
cake, had a brunch of smoked brisket and freshly-squeezed lemonade and purchased a beautiful, hand-crafted cedar chest. Next, without thinking too much about it, we headed to the chocolate factory. We GLADLY accepted and enjoyed some free samples, then purchased some chocolate covered potato chips and mint melt-aways. Now, mind you, we planned on spending the entire day out and about, and the temperature
outside was about 100*. Inside the car, where the chocolate would sit, while mom and I went in and out a various places, it was about 115*. Yup, we weren't really being thinkers on that one. Letting our sweet tooth lead the way, we continued on to the Jingle and Jangle Candy Shop. Here, you can choose a cookie or ginger- bread house and spend as much time as you like decorating it. They supply several different kinds of candies and various colors of icing. Mom and I didn't realize we would have this opportunity, but it sounded like something fun and unique, so we
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| The entire activity only cost us $15, and the employees we fun and friendly. |
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| You gotta try the pie! |
chose a small gingerbread house and let the creative juices fly. (That was messy.) As I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, the venture took us nearly two hours. It was fun though, and mom and I made a great memory together. (Of course, in the midst of making this memory, we were forgetting that we had expensive chocolates turning into soup out in the car. :O) Now, looking at the pictures, you would think that the only thing we did yesterday was eat. And, truth be known, we did eat WAY too much, but, we did other things as well. After finishing our little house, we drove down to the lake. We didn't
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| My favorite! |
really do anything when we were there except enjoy the drive, as we were mostly just soaking up the scenery from the nicely air conditioned car. :O) We were headed to Turner Falls, when we came across Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies. I couldn't resist such a "touristy" treat. They were DELICIOUS! The freshly fried, warm coconut was my favorite! If you ever have the chance, you should really give these a try! With full tummies, we made out way down to Turner Falls. Unfortunately, because of the drought, there wasn't much to see, but the drive was enjoyable anyway, and it was good to spend some time with mom. Now, believe it or not, by the time we drove all the way back to Noble, we were ready for dinner. Since we were playing tourist all day, we didn't want fast food. We wanted something a little more unique, so we went to Cracker Barrel. The food was good, and we loved the cute little shop, BUT we were EXHAUSTED and ready to head home. Mom and I had a wonderful day, but what I know is that all of the thousands of people living in this area, that could've had the same kind of day that we had, didn't. Why, because they weren't on "vacation." Dean and I have had a few people respond to our blogs, indicating that they can't do all of the wonderful things that we do because they don't have summers off. But, think about it, anyone can take a day and "play tourist." I remember one day when my youngest daughter and I went out, bought a disposable camera and went down to the strip in Vegas and played tourist. We went to places that are most common for tourists, took tourist type pictures and purposely acted excited and amazed by all the lights and entertainment. It turned out to be one of the funnest days that we have ever had. Point being, everyone can take a day and be on vacation, even when they're not on vacation! :O) So, here's your challenge, this Saturday, take a friend or family member, and make a plan. Pretend that you're a tourist in your area. Think about what you would do and where you would go if you had a friend coming in from out of town, and do those things. Those of you that take the challenge, we would love to hear about your experiences and to share them on our blog. So what if you don't have any vacation days, don't worry about it! This weekend, if only for one day, GO ON VACATION!!! Happy Trails!
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