Staycation

My British friends always referred to vacations as "holidays".  As in, "We were on holiday in Paris."  I think it's charming, but when we recently decided to stick around OKC during the hubby's time off from work, it was difficult to consider it a vacation, much less a holiday, so I'll use the recession "it" word - staycation.

With the impending purchases of nursery furniture, jog stroller, car seats, etc., etc., etc., we thought it prudent to send our regrets to a Baku friend, who is getting married in South Africa.  Since last November, we swore to be at the wedding, but it's not in the stars for us.  A staycation in OKC is just as cool as Johannesburg, right?  I've never been to South Africa, so I cannot give an absolute answer.  Here's a few highlights from our staycation:

On a typically windy and hot summer morning, we loaded up the road bikes and drove to the new OKC river trails, just on the outskirts of Bricktown.  The trails are continuous (read, no road traffic) for 13 miles.  Flat and fast.  Except, as previously stated, I'm not that fast.  It was flat and sort of fast.  I'd recommend the trails for moms with strollers (take a buddy, it's desolate!) and road cyclists needing an easy ride.  It was a little stinky near the Stockyards, where unfortunately, the river is extremely shallow and the boggy mud mixed with cow aroma is enough to make you want to breathe with your mouth closed. Little shade is provided, it is Oklahoma after all, but there is plenty of parking and a few porta-potties along the route.

On another extremely hot summer day, we ventured out to Acardia, only a few miles outside of Edmond.  Lunch was at Pops, a classic 1950's diner.  Hamburgers were good and milk shakes were even better.  That's all there's to say about that.

And no staycation is complete without a trek to the Great State Fair of Oklahoma.  We're old, so we went early in the day, ate sugar-overloaded cinnamon rolls, gigantic corn dogs and some type of deep-fried cookie dough.  Ummm, no, I did not ride any bolt-missing roller coasters.  Again, we're old, so we simply walked through the buildings overflowing with all sorts of vendors.  We slopped our way through the barns of sheep, goats, cows, horses, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other farms animals.  We left before the carnies got really out of hand.

And off to home we went.  Where the perfect part of a staycation is an afternoon nap.