Tulsa Beauty

March 12, 2013

I spent a Sunday afternoon enjoying two types of beauty in Tulsa: hiking five miles on Turkey Mountain and then  admiring the blooms at the Tulsa Rose Garden.

Tulsa Rose Garden (click image for slideshow)

 

Lendonwood Gardens

April 28, 2013

Spring has been blooming not only at Gilcrease, but also at Lendonwood Gardens in Grove. I showed off the 100 cabins of antique artifacts at Har-Ber Village to a friend, but she enjoyed Lendonwood Gardens more. Dinner was at The Parrot Steakhouse & Grill.

Lendonwood Gardens (click image for slideshow)

 

Spring Blooms at Gilcrease

April 27, 2013

Spring has bloomed at Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum.

Spring Blooms at the Gilcrease Museum

 

Roaring River

April 24, 2013

Roaring River (click image for slideshow)

Last Saturday I returned to good old Roaring River for a couple of brief hikes along the Deer Leap and Devil’s Kitchen trails. I lost a filling in a front incisor while eating a PayDay peanut bar in Fairland; it would be four days until I could get into the dentist and make that incident his PayDay. But thankfully the tooth gave me no trouble, only spurring me to bite more carefully and eat more slowly.

I enjoyed a tasty lunch at the Emory Melton Inn at the park and then walked the hatchery area, finding that spring rains had swollen the spring’s outflow and had all of the basin falls going strong. The stream beside the lower ascending portion of the Devil’s Kitchen Trail was flowing, with water coming out of the cave at the far end of the ascent. I clambered atop the tumbled slabs at Devil’s Kitchen and got a self-portrait of myself in the kitchen along with distant and near shots of me beside a nearby spring.

The evening meal was at the Steak Inn at Shell Knob and was particularly tasty. I’ve only been making short hikes thus far this year, but at least I was back out on the trails!

Click here for a slideshow from this day hike

 

San Antone

I spent most of the second week of April 2013 in San Antonio, Texas for the national conference of the National Science Teachers Association.

I’ll spare you photos from the physics workshops I attended, since the Riverwalk is so much more picturesque:

The Riverwalk (click image for slideshow)

Dinosaur Valley

I drove over 1,200 miles on this trip, but in fellow science teacher Betty Henderson’s car with her and our colleague Theresa Miller. A total of ten science teachers from Bartlesville attended the conference, with most of us meeting up for dinner on the Riverwalk each night. During the conference former Bartlesville High School science teachers Chris Bradley and Sandra Cloud, who were at the conference, joined us for dinner. It was nice to catch up with them.

We had great weather during our stay in San Antonio, and Theresa, Betty, and I had fun stopping by Dinosaur Valley State Park on our way back home.

I didn’t get any hikes in on this trip, but I traipsed so much about the convention center and Riverwalk that I did not lack exercise!

Enjoy the photos.