Horses, Hippies, & some Really Good Waffles: Discovering Epicness in Oklahoma City!

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope that you all are enjoying a day of rest, relaxation, and prayer! I'm sifting through some pictures and memories of our past few weeks, and am so abundantly grateful to God for all of the blessings and adventures!


Typically we spend our Saturdays running errands, catching up on life, and getting work done on our car as needed. But last Saturday, I really wanted to throw some extra adventure into the mix. So, we drove about 20 minutes to visit the Express Clydesdale barn! Farmlands, stables, and cows greeted our eyes as our car pulled into the gravel parking lot. We soon found ourselves talking with the Clydesdales. I highly recommend this spot as a small outing for anyone who wants to relax, step away from technology, and spend some time with animals. We spent about 45 minutes there, just petting the horses & barn dogs and enjoying the peacefulness. My husband also caught a frog, which was pretty cool. 

If you've been around a while, you know that I love hippie skirts. I find them super comfortable, cute, and unique. But in many crowds, I often find myself being one of the few people wearing these types of clothes. Well, at the end of July, my husband and I met up with some of his work friends to attend H&8th: one of the largest food truck festivals in the nation. 

"Secret tunnel, secret tunnel, through the
mountains..."

Admittedly, I almost started crying, because I was so happy-I was at home. There were people everywhere wearing hippie clothes, and even some barefoot people! One man (who was probably in his early sixties) was barefoot, sitting on a doorstep, wearing a floppy straw hat, and playing his guitar. 
As he sat there for hours, stomping his foot to the music, I couldn't help but think about Chong & his hippie friends from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was awesome. H&8th was a fantastic way to spend a Friday evening, and I also highly recommend it. The food trucks have delicious, really unique food (we had a smoked salmon crepe, some Japanese noodles with chicken, and some "thunder fries" from a Greek truck). And, if you don't feel like spending money, you can walk around and people-watch for free! There were also different street entertainers, which was cool. 

Earlier this week, I dropped my husband off at work so that I could have the car for the day. I spent some time working at the library, where I ended up having a great conversation with a man who, I discovered, has written a number of books. Then, I traveled to the Paseo District, because there were a couple of shops I was dying to visit. First stop was Craig's Curious Emporium. I was greeted by some super nice tattooed women and an abundance of various decorations.  I found a random section of decorative Catholic statues, which all looked super cool, but were hundreds of dollars out of my budget. There was a fabulous hand-crocheted, gigantic rosary, which was also a hundred dollars over my budget. So, after walking through aisles past rocks, incense, scarves, and scented candles, I settled on some amazing goat milk lavender soap. This stuff smells and feels amazing! I've loved using it. I then jogged across the street to an art gallery that is currently featuring the exhibit, "Art Gone Wild." Some of the zoo animals were given chemical-free paint, and they decorated canvases which were on display and for sale in this gallery. The pieces of artwork were pretty cool to look at, and very creative (particularly those done by snakes), but I didn't have it in me to spend $50 on one of them. So, I drove around the corner to a store which I have been wanting to visit for months. 

The sign on the door : ) 

This store is insane. 

 Random clothes, hippie clothes, vintage clothes, wigs, books, shoes, incense...it was crazy, and I loved it. I also did something quite unusual (for me, at least): I tried on a garment primarily because of the tag. Weird, right? I never do this kind of thing. But, when the tag caught my eye, I felt as if it was made for me. 

And it fit. So I bought it. 

Obligatory pose with a tree. 

I love this dress! It is quite possibly one of the weirdest clothing items I own, but I really like it a lot! I feel that this dress is a "Little House on the Prairie meets Regency fashion in the 1970s." The 100% rayon fabric makes it more difficult to wash (hand wash or dry clean only), but super comfy to wear, and I love the way it drapes. Also, sidenote: I usually am not a fan of button-down skirts or dresses, because the buttons are always in the front-and then there's this awkward gap at the bottom without buttons, which I think is a pretty unattractive feature for the very front of the dress. 




But, this dress has buttons down the back, so that opening becomes a very handy slit which makes the dress much more mobility-friendly! Plus, the original tag price was $89, but the store's price was $29...um, yes please?! And the super nice store owner, Lisa, informed me that clothes were BOGO, so I also got this super cute blue tunic top/dress for free! It reminds me of a cross between an ao dai and a kurti, but it makes my husband think of The Legend of Zelda. Regardless, I'm wearing it right now, and it is very comfy! 

Now that we've talked about clothes for far too long...waffles. I love waffles. When we were students in Austria, my husband and I fell in love with liege waffles. And, yesterday, we went to Waffle Champion, a local restaurant, where hipsters served us this deliciousness! Totally recommend this restaurant, but it fills up fast! A few minutes after we got there (we went after morning Mass), the line was out the door! 

My waffle-with brown sugar, rum,
banana topping!

The only lame part was that they
were a bit frugal on the Nutella.

In other news, there is this insanely awesome spider who lives by our car:

 I'm not a spider person, but I just feel the need to
acknowledge how cool this creature
looks.

But I don't want to end with a picture of a spider, because some people don't like spiders. So how about a cool Chesterton quote? I think this is appropriate with all of today's discussions of non-conforming hippies : ) 

At the H&8th festival!