I don’t know if you know how we roll with Three BrOKe Teachers, but here is how our trip planning usually starts. One of us wakes up and decides they want to go somewhere and we just get up and go. Today was no different and at 11 o’clock our adventure began. Only 1/3 of the teachers are venturing out today on a Mother/Daughter trip.
My college girl is home from cowboy country (Go Pokes). Interesting side note, we are teachers divided. Obviously, I am all about OSU, but the other two teachers are all about Boomer Sooner. In my opinion, they are not fans by choice, but have been brainwashed my Mama Donna (poor twins had no choice and now pushing it on to their offspring). Sad face!
I, on the other hand, have chosen to become a cowboy fan and when my youngest decided to become a cowboy/girl, that fandom just bumped up to a whole new crazy level.
Back to child #3, aka, my baby, we headed out and as usual we discussed where we would eat. After a 1½-hour drive we decided to wander around aimlessly in Automobile Alley until we zeroed in on our lunch spot. We chose Kitchen 324, which offers a unique brunch menu. We sat down and immersed ourselves in the menu and to our surprise we ran into my mom and aunt. What are the chances that we would choose to eat at the exact same place at the same time at a restaurant 1½ hours away in all of Oklahoma City? Did I mention my mom lives a mile from me? This stuff just doesn’t happen, freaky! I had the best salad I have honestly ever had. I didn’t really look at the ingredient list on the menu; I just saw steak and salad and was sold. When my food arrived it was a rather odd concoction with blue cheese and corn and bacon and guacamole? I definitely did not read anything about guacamole, but it was amazing! I swear they can put anything together at this place and it is beyond good. One time (at Band Camp, not really) I had a grilled cheese with peach marmalade and it was the best grilled cheese I have ever had. Since I am talking about items I have ate in the past, do try the roasted peppers with goat cheese fondue, you won’t be disappointed. Now that I have talked about all of the wonderful things I ate and have eaten, let me tell you what my 20-year-old daughter ordered. She ordered a side of potatoes and a side of bacon, she is so adventurous! Actually, she has a strict gluten free diet and she is super picky, but you can never go wrong with BACON!!! Have I ever mentioned that my daughter has a pet pig named Louise? That is another story within itself for another time. I do think it is ironic that she loves bacon and loves Louise just as much!
After eating our bacon and steak (yes I love beef and we raise cattle and we name them too) we headed to our main destination, the Oklahoma Designer Show House. This took us to Oklahoma's historic Arcadia, just outside of Edmond. First off, you drive down this long, winding drive to a magnificent home in a breathtaking setting.
You are greeted by friendly people who are glad you made the trek out to see them. Once you are parked, Nascar swift golf cart drivers are there to whisk you away to the front door, no wasting time walking. When you enter the home, you know you are in the presence of some spectacular talent. A hot pink and black entryway and coordinated formal dining room take your breath away and lure you in. I particularly liked the graffiti framed art and who wouldn’t love a diamond shaped dining table?
The tiny powder room has larger than life gold zebras encompassing the walls and a particularly large gold chandelier, which works flawlessly in the space. There is also a small craft area with the perfect amount of light infusing the room to show off the black polka-dot ceiling. The shelves are filled with things I love like cactus and turquoise, but my absolute favorite item was the sign that said “babe cave”, classic! The game room had the most creative way to entertain guests with a larger-than-life monopoly board on the wall.
Being a teacher, my brain was thinking of all of the ways I could incorporate an interactive game board on the wall of my classroom. I wonder if Gia would just give it to me? After all, I am a brOKeLAHOMA educator. Moving right along to the upstairs, I could totally use every item in the kids room for my classroom, hint hint ODSH. My daughter loved the upstairs office and begged me to buy her the neon Girl Boss sign (sorry, maybe Christmas). The entire room was actually perfectly suited for her with the pink wallpaper and chairs and white fur accents. This house has an elevator and said elevator lead to the most amazing room ever created in the history of everness, (insert trumpet sound) the Theater Room. I mean, who doesn’t like large gold animal heads with giant bulbs sticking out of their mouths that have been re-purposed as light fixtures?
Dinosaurs, gorillas, and elephants, oh my! This room had wall-to-wall couch/bed whatever you want to call them to slumber in, in a deep turquoise hue. The wallpaper was vibrant and beautiful and the room was just plain magical! I would totally just live in the basement since it had it’s own bathroom and wet bar and gynormous TV, no make that 3 TV’s. Another intriguing tidbit about the house is the bedroom/bathroom that is individually stamped with teeny-tiny ants. The designer painstakingly applied every single little specimen and has a contest for you to guess how many ants there are on the walls. I stopped counting at 18,420, just kidding, but really there are a lot of those little guys. I really could go on and on about this house and tell you a thousand details about every room, but I feel I need to tell you a little bit about something important outdoors. When you leave there are two areas to shop. If you are in need of a giant golden throne to sit upon at your home, they totally can hook you up at their store. Another building houses clothing items from Vintage Gypsy Boutique.
I have been following them since last year’s designer house, which is totally worth the follow. They had the most amazing Native American headdress that I personally think would compliment my previous drum major hat purchase from Live Boho, just saying! Ok, now to the “important” item.
Free To Live Animal Sanctuary had dogs to adopt and someone has paid the adoption fees for the animals already. They are totally free to loving homes. There was a dog named Austin who really tugged at my heartstrings. He strolled right up to my daughter and I and pretty much suggested that we pet him, so we did. He then proceeded to lie down on my daughter’s feet, as if to say “take me, you are mine”. The nice gentleman told me about Austin’s background which started with his arrival to them with two bullets in his body. He has been with them since January. My broke teacher heart wanted to take him home so badly and I still can’t stop thinking about him. I pray that some loving family that is looking for a super sweet doggy will come his way and give him all of the love he deserves. What a wonderful organization, check them out! After we finished examining the area surrounding the show house, we headed back and made a brief stop at the famous Arcadia Round Barn. Its craftsmanship is just beyond conception. Right down the road is Pops; yes we took a pic in front of the humongous pop bottle out front. The outer walls of the building are glass and are lined with an eclectic rainbow of colors of bottled pop. Today it was particularly busy, but we managed to look around and choose our 6 favorite sodas. If you are not familiar with Pops, they have soda, lots of soda. I am pretty sure I saw one that said prickly pear, however I didn’t choose it. We sampled our sodas and determined we liked the Shirley Temple the best, it tasted like an Italian cream soda.
As we headed home we stopped off at Pinkitzel in Bricktown because the cane sugar from the soda just wasn’t quite enough sweet for us. It is pretty much a tradition for us to stop and get a cupcake or two or twelve. My personal favorite is salted caramel and they were out of them, wah! I seriously thought I felt the earth stop for a second when they told me this. We still managed to find plenty of other choices and the world began spinning again.
We headed home and planned our next adventure, not really, we never plan anything!!!
