ceridwens_descent

grove sux, jay rulz!

i’ve lived in oklahoma pretty much my whole life (but have traveled a bit) and can say that oklahoma is truly beautiful.

the cool thing about oklahoma is that if you don’t like where you are, keep in mind that there are four distinct regions in oklahoma: green country, where i’ve been blessed to live…rolling hills, lakes, rivers, beautiful countryside, etc.

the mountainous region in SE OK…i’ve never been down here, but here it’s beautiful, like green country but with the ouachita’s…they have viking stuff! lol

the panhandle…desert-y, mesas, flat, fairly boring. along the red river southern border, it is also like this. this is the red dirt you hear about that sucks. not to be confused with red dirt music, an awesome genre of music particular to oklahoma.

and the SW region, also kind of desert-y, but more populated. and there’s a town called happyland.

all throughout oklahoma there’s tons of native history, culture, and education. this is a truly wonderful thing that is absent almost ANYWHERE ELSE you could go in the world (besides new mexico).

tulsa is an excellent place to go for those who can’t quite separate themselves from served-on-a-plate insta-entertainment. opera, ballet, excellent museums (philbrook!), awesome range of restaurants, nice parks, good zoo, etc.

all in all, i love this state, and i’m glad that i grew up in a place that emphasizes slowing down, appreciating nature’s beauty, cultural diversity, and being kind to those around you. sure, there’s hicks, cowboys, and good ol’ boys, but that in itself is a unique culture (that you can abstain from lol).

if you’re an outdoors type of person, welcome to heaven.

gets more and more expensive every time i go >< pretty fun though

fire in the hole and the fun house place is fun!

cheese-tastic…

but don’t miss silver dollar city. fun!

i’ve been here more than once. a couple of times for some concerts and most recently for a psych convention. i’ve never really had a great time here, and we even bar crawled a bit the last time we were there.

it always seems a bit shady. yet, i will say, i’ve never explored it extensively.

this hasn’t been the most awesome place i’ve been, but it’s still someplace different from where i was last week…

after being here for a week, i’ve started to find some stuff to do. broad street offers a couple of interesting boutiques (particularly the vintage clothes store, even though it’s way over priced). quite a few antique stores that made for a fun afternoon of poking around.

the riverwalk is fun to walk down. we checked out the phinizy swamp too, which was very well kept and pretty cool.

i haven’t seen anything yet that is extraordinarily special, but if you’re not from the deep south (i’m from oklahoma which is contrary to popular belief, not southern), it is interesting to watch the slightly different culture off the locals.

i’ve found the people to be half and half on the friendly/non friendly scale, although when you meet someone friendly, they’re really friendly and will sit and chat with you for some time.
i guess this is fairly normal for everywhere. oklahoma is kind of an exception to that, where pretty much everyone waves, says hi, or given a chance will talk your ear off about anything.

anyhow, off topic.

as far as the base goes (Ft. Gordon, i’m here with my husband for a while who’s in training there), it’s one of the nicer bases i’ve been to, with plenty of foliage, a lake, and is spread out. they also have horse stables, which i plan on hitting up next week.

since i’m a big eater/purveyor of restaurants, i plan on coming back to this entry to recommend some places. i can recommend right now:

shangri la chinese restaurant – delicious, non-buffet, very nice atmosphere, yet still casual, friendly wait staff

the pizza joint – pretty good food, but we were there for the beer selection, very good! we brought a backgammon board and sat outside for 2 hrs. at least just drinking beers and playing before ordering a pizza.

killer architecture…only here for a very brief visit. plan on coming back.

wonderful place. we were only here for an afternoon and night, but really liked it. i highly recommend the dali museum and the ceviche and tapas restaurant (get the spinach/fig dish and try the oxtail, besides the obvious ceviche order).

magnifique

best amusement park i’ve ever been to…awesome coasters, cool animal exhibits, and free beer….what more could you want?