Laura was pretty busy today with personal commitments so I took Joakim to the best place in Oklahoma to see Sooner things; I took him to Norman, OK. There, we visited the National Weather Center where NOAA, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is, and Norman just happens to be the home of the great University of Oklahoma! He loved it all. First, when we went to the National Weather Center, with it being a Sunday, we didn't know if it would even be open to him to be able to see what it looks like inside. The thing is, he's with me. When you're with me, sometimes you just walk through open doors. I used to crawl through windows, but I don't do that anymore. Doors need to at least be cracked open a bit now, and it was. We went inside. I told him we'd stay until we were asked to leave. He agreed. We stayed about five minutes! The guard was really nice.
He took photos of the inside of it, and I took photos of him being inside of it so he could brag about it when he gets back home and all of his weather buddies will see that he really did go to Norman, OK and he really did go inside the National Weather Center and see NOAA! We have to brag sometimes about something, so why not that? It was actually my first time going inside the building as well. It has a few really cool-looking gizmos, let me tell you!
After NOAA we hit up the campus of the University of Oklahoma. You can't visit Norman, OK, and not go to the stadium! C'mon now. We're civilized folk, you know. We have six (6) Heisman trophy winners from our university, and they are all captured in bronze outside the Memorial Stadium that houses about 80,000 of your closest friends on any given Saturday in Autumn. We walked around a bit, but with 102-degree weather, it was too hot to really do more than just a brief glance around the place. Next, we headed up to Denny's restaurant so we could have a great lunch. He had the steak, I had pancakes!! You can do breakfast all day at Denny's and the portions are wonderful.
After lunch, I informed Joakim that he would be face-to-face with the best-looking man ever to walk the face of the Earth, and I hoped he was OK with it. He laughed, but then later admitted that my son was in fact an amazingly handsome man. No one has said otherwise! He enjoyed meeting Reuben and his wife Josie. He was able to see how Josie decorated the house in true Americana style. He loved it. We headed off to the mall, but not before we visited a western store called Atwood's. I tell people Atwood's is half livestock and half human. You can get your feed, tack, and medicines there for animals, but you can buy boots, hats, guns, and ammo as well. He hadn't really handled a gun before today, not really, and he was able to do that. He didn't get to shoot it though. We may have to go to the gun range someday. It may be a few visits down the road.
After Atwoods we walked the mall in Norman to not only show him the smaller pleasures of middle-class living but also to get my steps in! I can't really walk at night right now due to the heat, so we put in about 5000 steps or so there. That was really great. He had never seen rolling animal carts that people here rent to trolly around the mall when their kids are really tired or just want to have fun. The little slow-moving trolly-type carts are dressed up as bears, lions, elephants, and such, and they are just really fun for kids to ride and wave at people. We always try to make it as fun as we can for the kids when we see them.
Home it was!! Eventually, all things come to an end, but we did stop by Sonic for a cold one before taking him back to the hotel. You're not going to do yourself a favor if you visit Oklahoma and don't visit Sonic at least a couple of times. I bought him a slushie and we headed back! He can't say he didn't have a very fun day. I may not be the most entertaining tour guide, but I did make him laugh, told him lots of stories, and let him know about Jesus. You can't come to Oklahoma and visit me without hearing about Jesus, it's a thang - - my thang! Gonna happen.
Overall, I think it's fun having guests for a few days. It would be exhausting if I had to do it for a living, but I bet I'd be really good at it if I did get paid to do it. I could maybe even manage a costume or two. LOL...just kidding. It is FAR too hot to even think about it - - nope, just going with the shorts and t-shirts. I think the most important takeaway from today's visit(s) is that he has photos of himself at OU's Memorial Stadium and with the bronze statues of our 6 Heisman trophy winners. He's been to the NOAA, the Lloyd Noble Center, and he met the most handsome man to ever walk the face of the Earth! Not everyone can say that - - he can.
Good day!! Good company!!
Photo Credit: Me
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