Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and Meers

We woke up bright and early this morning and drove with some friends from our ward out the the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Lawton (about an hour and a half southwest of Norman).  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of any bison or longhorn cattle that were on the refuge because we saw them from the car while driving through and the combination of driving with a low quality zoom feature means pictures of wildlife from a distance are few and far between.

 

 We started at Lost Lake (above) and hiked for a little while.  (I'm glad that we left Norman around 6:30am so we were able to do our hike before the heat and humidity were too bad.)

 

 Our crew (starting closest to the camera): Bryan & Sarah, Erica & Ben, Ammon & Lindsey (her head is somewhat visible between Erica's head and Ben's head) 

 

 First up close and personal wildlife encounter:  Erica spotted a lizard, which Ammon thought would really enjoy being held.  Ammon's thinking was quickly dispelled when the lizard tried to bite him.  Undeterred, Ammon successfully held the little guy long enough for a short photo shoot.  Other wildlife highlights along the trail included watching a wild rabbit run in front of us, Ben picking up a frog, and Bryan being mocked for his lack of affinity towards holding woodland creatures.

Our hike followed this little creek, which is called the West Cache Creek if I identified the correct creek on Google Maps.

  

  

 We then came to our resting point, where the ladies found a shady spot to visit and the men found rocks to throw into the creek.  Since I was in more of an adventurous hiking mood than a rock-throwing mood, I decided to hike down a little closer to the creek.  Since it was cooler down there, I decided to stay down there while the ladies joined in on the rock throwing action.  (Luckily, I was not harmed by any thrown rocks.)

  

 

  

 

 To prove that I hiked down there, I took this selfie.

  

 Sarah said the picture on the left looks better.  Personally, I prefer the one on the right.

(I've included both for you to decide.)

 

 And here we all are, finishing up our hike back at Lost Lake.

(If you're wondering what happened to Ammon, we now have a better idea how the lake got its name.)

From there we headed to Meers, a restaurant many people have told us we needed to try.  (Typically the conversations went a little like this:  

"What fun things are there to do in Oklahoma?"

"You should eat at Meers?"

"Where's that?"

"Out near Lawton, but it's totally worth the drive.")

People had told me it kind of looked like a dive, but I didn't really know what to expect.  Then, there it was, along the highway, at a T in the road.

 

I know that it looks like multiple buildings from the outside, and that's because of the additions that have been made over time.  Parts of the building date back to the 1920's when Meers was a mining town and the building was a grocery store, a print shop and later a post office.  It became a restaurant in the 1970s, serving hamburgers made with longhorn beef.  (If anyone cares to know more about it, you can check out their website.)

The decor inside was a hodgepodge of wild game, license plates from most states, old soda bottles and anything else you could think of to decorate an old store/restaurant.  Unfortunately, my attempt to get a picture of the decor along with the ladies ended up only capturing the ladies.

 

We only had to wait about an hour before we were seated.  Sarah and I shared a Seismic Meersburger (served in a pie tin) along with some fried peaches, fried onions and jalapenos followed by peach cobbler topped in homemade ice cream for dessert.  It was really good, but I'm not sure how often it will be worth the trip all the way out there.

 

 If we thought the hour wait was bad, it must have been much worse after we left since the line was going out the building and probably twice as long as when we got there.

(I tried to capture both the long line coming out the door and the interesting location of Meers in the picture below.)

 

 With our stomachs now full, we decided to go to the top of the highest mountain in the Wichitas - Mount Scott.  Luckily for us, you can drive to the top.  Here are some of the views from the top.

  

  

 There isn't much of a peak on the top of Mount Scott (probably mostly due to the fact that there is a parking lot up there).  However, I was able to find the highest point (hence the metal marker at my feet), so now I can say that I've been to the very top of Mount Scott (elevation 2,424 feet, or in other words, not nearly as high as most of you sitting at your computers).

 

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OKC Memorial and Botanical Gardens

Once our plans for hiking in the Wichita Mountains got postponed on Friday due to church related obligations, Sarah and I decided to try a Saturday adventure closer to home - a visit to the Oklahoma City Memorial and the Botanical Gardens.  Sarah texted our friends Zach and Genavee with a last minute invite, and they were able to come with us.  Sarah was our experienced tour guide since the rest of us had never been to the Memorial.  

We began walking around the outside of the Memorial where a message written by one of the first responders remains on the wall of a journalism building that has now become a museum, across the street to the north of where the federal building was located.

 

There was a Catholic church one block to the west of where the federal building stood.  In its place a monument entitled "Jesus wept" now stands, with pillars representing each of the children who were killed in the bombing.

  

 Along the western edge of the Memorial is a remnant of the chain link fence that was put up around the site shortly after the bombing.  People turned that fence into a memorial by placing all sorts of things on the fence, so part of that first memorial was included when the formal Memorial was constructed.  (People continued to add to it today, and every few months they remove some of the artifacts to preserve the history.) 

  

 The Memorial includes two large gates with 9:01 and 9:03 engraved on them (the minute before and the minute after the bombing) and is called "Between the Gates of Time."  Inscribed on both gates is the following quote:

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence.  May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

 

 

The old journalism building that is now the Memorial Museum

 The Memorial also has empty chairs for each of the victims of the bombings - smaller chairs for the 19 children who were killed - all in rows according to which floor of the building they were on.

  

 

There was one tree in the area that survived the blast - the Survivor Tree - which is part of the Memorial.

 

  It was nice to be able to visit the Memorial and learn more about an event that has had such an impact on the people in this area.  The park ranger mentioned how everyone has their own story in relation to the bombing, particularly those who are from Oklahoma, and as people visit the Memorial, we each gain our own personal story.

We then went a few blocks south to the Botanical Gardens, a serene garden in the middle of the city.  One of the first things we saw was a goose that thought it was a flamingo, standing on one leg:

 

 I particularly liked the water features and since I'm the photographer, that is what you get to see:

 

(You may see this one incorporated into a future Christmas card picture)

  

 

Since I told Zach and Genavee that this picture was going on our blog when I took it, I'm staying true to my word.

 

Once we had dropped Zach and Genavee off, I turned to Sarah and said, "Now, when I'm watching the Thunder play on TNT and they do an aerial view of Oklahoma City and you can see the Botanical Gardens all lit up, I can say that I've been there."

Blank stare.

"Aren't you at least glad I waited to say that until after we dropped them off?"

Smile, breaking into laughter: "Yes."

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Doctor Sarah's Trip to Utah

Sarah recently traveled to Utah to defend her dissertation ("Aqueous Henry's Law Constants, Infinite Dilution Activity Coefficients, and Water Solubility: Critically Evaluated Database, Experimental Analysis, and Prediction Methods").  Maybe now that I have all those words included in a post, my blog will show up on a Google search by some chemical engineering grad student trying to find research papers to help with insomnia.  For those of you who don't understand half those words, talk to Sarah and you will either understand what they mean or lose all desire to know their meaning.  This is the last known photograph of Sarah before she became a doctor (of philosophy).

 

There may have been other pictures taken of her after she arrived in Utah and before she defended, but none were taken with our camera, which I was afraid might return home with no new pictures on it.

So, when Sarah texted me on the Fourth of July to say that she and her parents were leaving Vegas (where she had been for a few days after defending) to go back up to Utah, I decided to respond with "I hope you're taking lots of pictures" as a friendly reminder.  Her reply didn't surprise me at all: "Not a single one yet!"  All that was missing was the smiley face to end the text.

Fortunately, with the reminder text (and phone call later that day) on her mind, Sarah remembered to take the camera with her when she and Gwen went to watch the fireworks with cousins at the country club.  Unfortunately (for those involved), the camera appears to have passed through many hands, and since all the pictures made it back to me, I thought I'd share them here.  (Disclaimer: Since I know my aunts may be some of the only people who frequent this blog outside of my parents, if any of you are concerned regarding the pictures I have put on the internet of your children, let me know and I'll take them off.)  With the disclaimer out of the way, let's check out how this new doctor likes to party it up on the Fourth of July:

   

  

  

  

  

 

 

After becoming a doctor, what's a girl to do?  Keep going to school, right?  (That's what a large majority of Sarah's trip turned into, as she was redoing the formatting until it was accepted by all the different secretaries at all the different levels - a process that took days.)  Besides school, Sarah spent time with family

  

  

 Unfortunately they weren't able to get Amy looking and Sarah's eyes open in the same picture.

(Lisa, Abby, Amy, Sarah, Bekah, Alysse, Jennie, Delcie for those wondering)

Sarah also hiked up to Timp Cave with Jennie, Delcie and her mom, where they were able to see Ranger Quinn for a little bit.

  

  

 

 She somehow escaped visiting my parents' house without getting a picture with them - here's to hoping my mom was able to get one, as the only pieces of evidence we have of Sarah visiting them are the stylish hairdo she got from Gwen, as well as the wooden chairs and video game on the screen in the background.

  

  

 (I don't think that popular Mormon hair-styling blog has to worry about any competition here.)

Overall, I think Sarah had a great trip.

(How could a trip not be great when you get to make your husband call you "doctor" once you get back?)

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