Earlier this month, Wes & I took a quick weekender to Tulsa to watch their ballet perform Dracula. 🧛The original plan was to go to the ballet, then drive to Price Tower in Bartlesville. We'd stay the night in a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired room, take the tour in the morning and then drive home. Just as I was about to book our room & tour, I saw on the news that the Price Tower is closed. 😒 There aren't any other tourist attractions in Bartlesville so I pivoted to Sapulpa.
We got in to Tulsa around lunchtime and ate at Fixins Soul Kitchen. It is a local Black-owned restaurant in the Greenwood District that partners with Black-owned breweries and distilleries. I don't remember the name of the businesses, and I wish I did because our drinks were amazing (and mine was very pretty 🌺). Everything was good, but the roasted okra was the best part of my meal. I paid for the maximum time for parking (2 hours) since I wasn't sure how long lunch would take. [A quick note on parking - I had to download the ParkMobile app, which was dumb because I hate apps, but it ended up being great because it had a very efficient countdown timer and parking was only $2!!] We still had about 45 minutes left on the meter, so we browsed Magic City Books and Made boutique. Both were cute but way overpriced.
After lunch, we headed to the Vintage Sewing Machine Center & Museum. I've been wanting to visit but they weren't open the last time we were in town. The museum is free but donations are appreciated. The owner teaches classes and holds afterschool programs for children. He showed us some samples of his students' projects and they all looked so professional, way better than what I can do!
There was another visitor when we arrived; they were busy unboxing a brail sewing machine sent over from the Netherlands, so the owner told us to walk around as we please and not to forget to go downstairs. The "museum" is a house that's been gutted and jam-packed full of sewing machines. Like thousands of them! Some of the rooms are themed & organized but its mostly a mess. LOL I spotted my newly acquired treadle machine! I was going to tell the owner that I have one, too, but I forgot to mention it when we got to talking. Along with sewing machines, there is also a nice collection of old patterns, books, notions and some fabric. I told the owner (I wish I got his name; he was super nice and very informative) that I make my own clothes and he said I could take some fabric & patterns but I didn't want to disrupt his collection.
The owner found us downstairs and started giving us a history lesson on sewing machines in the military. He has a handful of giant industrial machines that he uses for his classes. He gave me a quick lesson and I felt so silly because I couldn't sew on them. 😳 I didn't really understand the mechanics, but there are no feed dogs and the entire machine is driven by the needle. The machines use a walking foot (I have one but have never used it) and a walking needle (which I have never heard of but it seems to be better than the feed dogs). He said there was one of these machines on each of the aircraft carriers and they were used for upholstery and parachutes. He kept telling us about how the feet and needle work differently when sewing thick leather. Wes seemed to understand but I was lost. All I know is that I want a swiveling foot that can sew in all directions; instead of having to move the piece of fabric around.
After our downstairs tour, he took us back up and showed me what he says is the best sewing machine ever made. It is a black Singer 201 with the light in the front. I didn't take a picture of it because I was really into his history tour and forgot - I don't think I took a picture of any of the machines he mentioned. Anyway, the assembly of the 201 machine is impossible to mess up because each piece is shaped differently. The light in the front is what sold me on it. He talked about some other machines but I don't remember any more fun facts. Before we left, he let me make a souvenir tile (and showed me all the neat ones his students have made, center right in picture above).
Our hotel had a late check-in so we were going to go to the mall to find my Unicorno figurine and then stop into Glacier Chocolate & Coffee for a snack, but the sewing machine museum tour took longer than expected. I conceded to skipping my Uniorno, but I wasn't passing up on a sweet treat. I got a free truffle since it was my first time in Glacier. 🍬 I picked the peach raspberry one. Wes got a lemon cheesecake and an oatmeal raisin truffle (he said both were meh) and a cold brew (which he said was weak). My triple berry sorbet was good, but what I came in for was a caramel apple cup that Lacey showed me on Instagram. Sadly, it wasn't on the menu 😑
🩰Ballet time!! 💃 There was no photography allowed so this section will be quite boring. LOL The Tulsa Performing Arts Center is really nice and we had great seats in the mezzanine. There were several people in Dracula cosplay. We saw a guy dressed exactly like Gary Oldman in the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola movie (remember the grey suit & top hat? 🎩). This ballet version of Dracula was very different from the Bram Stoker novel. I don't even think Dracula was the main character; it was mostly about a towns girl and her fiancé. Act II was the longest and biggest part of the story. It look place in the village where the towns girl (another name I should have remembered) lives and it was all about her eighteenth birthday dance and her engagement. The dancers were immensely talented but I thought it was too long and repetitive. Renfield in Acts I & III was the best dancer, in my opinion. I think I prefer the OKC Ballet's performance of Dracula that we saw a few Halloweens ago much better.
We were going to eat at Mr. Kim's (a trendy late-night Asian fusion restaurant) after the ballet, but we were both tired so we just got Taco Bell and went back to the hotel--welcome to your 40s 😭. I was so ready to fall asleep but there was an annoying tapping/hammering going on in either the room next to or above ours. I called the front desk and Guest Services told me there were hooligans in the stairwell. 😒 A ton of other rooms have called to complain and their security is trying to find the culprits but they keep moving from floor to floor. I think they finally found them on our floor, thank goodness!
The next morning we had breakfast at New York Bagel. Initially, we wondered why it was in a giant two-story building... we soon found out how busy it gets on a Saturday morning. 😮 Luckily, we got there before the rush. My salmon lox bagel was good except for the red onions weren't pickled. We had just run out of Everything Seasoning at home so it was nice to find a bottle for sale at the restaurant.
I've been wanting to go to The Gathering Place park for a while now but the weather never cooperated each time we've been in Tulsa. ⛅ We almost went after Chinh's wedding last year but I didn't bring a jacket, and it was actually cold in December. There was rain in the forecast this time, too, but it was mostly just overcast so we took a chance and went. We only got sprinkled on a bit --and luckily, we were near the boathouse so we went in to look at the Cabinet of Wonder.
The Cabinet of Wonder is a very clean and organized antique shop. [Two adjectives never used to describe an antique shop. LOL 😆] It had some cool stuff, like a drawer full of old scissors (top right picture) and some rocks & fossils. Like a majority of the park, it was mostly for children. I think I was more impressed at how everything was categorized & displayed than what was actually on display. A family came in as we were going out and the kids were astonished by the fossils, wide-eyed and declaring it a dinosaur (it was horse), so I guess it hit its target audience.
We also came across a pressed penny machine. One of my pen pals collects them so I had to get her one. Lorie, I put it in the mail last week! I hope you get it soon! 😃
The map of the park made it look MUCH larger than it actually is. We walked through all of it, except for the children's play area and some gardens on the outer perimeter, and it took us less than two hours. We walked all along Peggy's Pond and went up Mist Mountain (my favorite part of our walk). 🌄 The mountain has lots of manmade waterfalls and gutters that would direct water all around the stones, but the fountains were turned off. 😒 Either that or Oklahoma hasn't been getting enough rain. There weren't any birds but we kept hearing loud birdcalls so we suspect there were speakers hidden in the trees for ambiance. The landscaping is beautiful. It was nice seeing all the leaves in their autumnal colors. We'll have to come back in spring or summer to see everything in bloom.
The Gathering Place was really beautiful and deserving of all its awards. 🌲 We didn't see a single piece of litter, or any homeless people. The homelessness in Tulsa was rampant (waaaaaay worse than in OKC) so I was surprised at how clean and pure the park still is. After our peaceful morning walk, we headed to Sapulpa for part two of our trip.
We had lunch at Wimpy's. Wes is always quoting his tagline (I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today), so when it popped up on the list of unique restaurants along Route 66, I knew we had to go. The food was very mid (I got the Frito chili pie and Wes got a hamburger & fries, and I could have made both of those items better at home), but the prices were cheap so I guess it was worth going to. I think people go for the friendly staff and novelty of it being a Popeye's themed restaurant.
Next on the agenda was the World's Tallest Gas Pump. We also went inside the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum. 🚗 Car museums are a permanent fixture on our "travel to-do" list, along with art museums and fashion exhibits. I'm counting the Vintage Sewing Machine Center & Museum in the latter category so we got both on this trip! 😁 Anyway, there was a map and guest book at the lobby with people signing in from all over the world (we saw a party listing Cape Town, South Africa as their location!), but we were the only ones to sign in for November 2, 2024.
There was lots of classic cars for us to admire. Several of them had current license plates so they must travel to car shows. I think one had a few ribbons hanging from its dash. The neatest vehicle there, in my opinion, was the 1967 Amphicar. It had propellers for driving in water. It only drove a few times and never caught on. Wes liked Maserati. I admit that is a cool car but no propellers or silly gimmick so my pick wins. LOL 😆
The owner of the sewing machine museum told us about how the Singer 201 was used to sew the interior dash of Rolls Royces, and he also mentioned how the industrial machines sewed on leather with a perfectly even stitch length. I never noticed before, but I found myself inspecting the stitches on the cars' seats and other details.
Our original plan was to go to Little Taiyaki to get a quick snack (they serve Japanese-style ice cream desserts) on our way out of town. I didn't realize how close to Christmas it is (its not, by the way 😑) and downtown Sapulpa was already setting up for their famous Christmas Chute. The roads were closed so we had to park outside of downtown and walk. That was kind of annoying but we got a free viewing of the chute. Wes didn't feel like ice cream and I wasn't super hungry so we passed on our snack. I actually looked at the menu when we got into the restaurant and was going to try to get something to go if it looked amazing but I wasn't completely sold.
Instead we went to Crossroads Coffee Lab. Wes got a cold brew and said it was really good. The dine-in restaurant part looked really nice, and they had a little soda fountain with gelato, so we'll have to go back to sit down for a meal & dessert if we're ever back in Sapulpa. I am usually terrible when it comes to timing (I try to cram too much into a vacation), but we were actually early leaving town this time around. We would get back into OKC before 6pm so we could pick up the dogs early from camp. 🐕💓 I was all excited to see Athena & Zephyr but Wes reminded me (when he tried calling the camp), that they close at 3pm on weekends. Oh well. We took Route 66 for the scenic route home. We drove through Drumright and Cushing, and I was ready to stop if I saw an interesting tourist attraction but there was none.
