Tuesday DO Day: Pawhuska!

Okay, m’peeps.

We’re nearing the end o’ summer...

(Holy goodness, I loathe typing those words, don’t even get me started on back-to-school talk!).

...and I feel like we’ve done a bang-up job of our Tuesday DO-Day adventures, for the most part. So if this was our last (or perhaps, next-to-the-last), we kept the good times a-rollin’.

After a low-key pajama day yesterday, we set off this morning for a hefty dose of Food Network star aura, small town Americana, and wide-open, Oklahoma prairie lands, with a visit to...

Pawhuska, Oklahoma :)

Now, people in and around Tulsa might not think a drive (about 90 minutes) to Pawhuska is so grand, but it’s the home of The Pioneer Woman (now a Food Network Star), and for a mostly city girl like me for the past couple of decades, it was lovely to venture out into some wide open spaces.

Once offficially in Pawhuska, we had yummy pizza at P-Town, hyped the kiddos up with some ice cream at Charlie’s Sweet Shop, and then hit The Pioneer Woman’s original business venture, The Mercantile, for a double dose of more desserts. :)







In case you can’t tell by these pics below, my babies were in rare, hyped-up form over lunch. Particularly, my Chicklet, who was in a unicorn of a mood, smiley as all get-out, and just adorably glorious. :)





















I mean...slay me with that smile!







Naturally, since they were already hyped up, I pumped them full of more sugar.





























And then we went across the street to The Mercantile for more more sugar. ;)





















And now, for the second half of our DO-Day adventure, and the true reason the kiddos were pumped about driving out to Pawhuska...

We were on a search for bison!

Yup, bison.

After all of our Pioneer Woman/Food Network stops, we drove another half-hour toward The Tallgrass Praire Preserve, where there are hundreds of thousands of acres of land, and hundreds of bison who roam that land.

Like, seriously...real bison (Chica kept verifying over and over that they wouldn’t just be costumed bison, ha.)





Alas...despite quite a long drive down gravel roads, we never caught a single glimpse of one, darn bison. :(

Once we made it all the way to the visitor center, we chatted with the docent, who verified that the bison were in hiding that day. Group after group had driven up to catch a peep, and nobody had seen a thing. Boooo.

Which was a particular bummer since he said they tend to congregate in groups of 20 to 50, and there should be five or six groups that size, over the entire property. But we just (bad)lucked out with a day when all those groups were probably seeking shelter from the heat.

Obviously, the kiddos were bummed—and a bit tired at that point. So we tried to cheer them up with a tiny treat at the gift shop before beginning the long trek home.

Despite the lack of bison...it really was beautiful land to drive through, and for that, I’m grateful.





And here are my own little “bison” babies. ;)



Who were so total manic after such a long day that we walked them to Nanna’s neighborhood pond after dinner, just to keep them from going nuts. And then they bathed and zonked out hard. 





You know, it’s funny. I was thinking a lot today about Oklahoma and my connection towards it.

For most of my life, I’ve never really felt like it was my state—probably because I moved around a bit as a young child, and didn’t settled here until the age of nine.

I’ve never really thought of myself as an Oklahoman. Strangely, I’ve never even felt a super strong affinity for my college here within the state (perhaps because I started at one and transferred to and graduated from another). 

Even after 15 years in Texas, I don’t even really think of myself as a Texan, either. If anything, Dallas was the one place that had more of my allegiance because we chose it, and it felt a bit more mine.

But...a day like today was such a lovely reminder that, no matter what allegiance I claim, Oklahoma has some claim on me. I have roots and memories and associations here that might lay dormant most days, but they wake and stretch during visits like these when things seem so close to the surface.

So, yay, for a little Oklahoma today.

And for a lot and lot of desserts. :)

Over and out.