Tuesday, June 12, 2007

VACATION MEMORIES

Annie, of My Life As Annie, is hosting Time Travel Tuesday. I've never participated before but the topic, Vacation Memories, reminded me of a very special and different one for our family so I'd like to share it with you. Go here and sign in Mr. Linky if you'd like to participate.

Vacationing At Home!!


I don't remember the exact year, but it was in the early 70's. We had all 4 children at home, and it was a rather tight time (financially) for us. Vacation time was rolling around and we did not have the funds to take a vacation as we normally did. I've always been one that sees the glass half full & not half empty. I also believe in making Lemonade out of Lemons. SO...........


We decided that we were going to vacation at home, in Tulsa!!! We would get up every morning and go out to breakfast and then begin the sightseeing and activities we had chosen for the day, we ate lunch out and we ate dinner out, and then we would go home at the end of the day, and fall into our own beds, to sleep. The next day we would do the same and so on.


Even though we had lived in Tulsa a number of years there were a lot of places and things to see that we had never taken the time, or had the time, to visit. This was our time to do just that.


These are the places we visited:


Philbrook Museum - This was the home of oilman, millionaire Waite Phillips and has been turned into a very fire Art Museum. It is one of only 5 museums in the country that is a combination historic home, art collection and gardens.


Tulsa Rose Garden & Woodward Park - Near Philbrook this is an outstanding and beautiful area.


Gilcrease Museum - This houses the works of world famous Western Artist Fredric Remington and one of the world's largest western art collection. It sits on the NW edge of Tulsa and has beautiful panoramic views of the area.

Wollaroc - This was the ranch retreat of oilman Frank Phillips in 1925. It is 25 miles north of Tulsa and consists of Petting zoo, wildlife preserve and a museum of both Native American heritage and Oklahoma oil history.

The World Museum - This was a beautiful building, right along I44 in Tulsa, and houses the collection of art and artifacts of T.L. & Daisy Osborne. The Osborne's traveled the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing thousands brought into the Kingdom. T.L. gave the facility to Billy Joe and Sharon Daugherty, after the death of Daisy, and it is now the home of Victory Christian Bible Insitute. We feel privileged to have seen it when it had all it's treasures on display.

Oral Roberts University - Even thouugh I had worked for Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association from 1966-69 it was fun taking a day to tour. We went to the top of The Prayer Tower, viewed the displays depicting the life and journey of Oral Roberts the man, viewed film clips of his early tent revivals and toured the beautiful, world class buildings that make up this great University.

By having this vacation in our own city we saw many things we had not seen, We saved money by not having to buy gas to travel to some far off place, and we saved the weeks motel bills by staying at home.

Our older children still remember this "vacation" as one of the very special ones. Even in line with Disneyland and other amusements parks, etc. I would highly recommend your considering taking a "vacation" in your town or city.

Thanks Annie for letting me share a very special, and totally different, vacation.

18 comments:

Annie said...

What a great idea! I have actually been to most of those places.
We used to go to Wollaroc almost every summer & Matt's sister got married at Gilcreast.

Renee said...

Thank you so much for sharing and for stopping by my blog.

Anonymous said...

What a fabulous idea! There are so many things in our area that we have never done. We will have to try this!

Linds said...

Brilliant! We have also done this. I never did understand the need to "go away" for a holiday. Holidays are even more special when there are a couple of years break in between, and you are right....there is so much to do close to home.

Susie said...

Great ideas for a bargain and fun family vacation.
With our time constraints we take day trips and do much the same thing.
:)

Momma Roar said...

What a fun idea! There is so much history in our area that I look forward to that when the kids are older - right now, we do well with vacations involving sand!

Susie said...

What a wonderful thing to do! You could easily visit nearby cities too in a day. I love this idea.

Karen Hossink said...

We actually have an annual "Be a Tourist in Your Own City" event where I live. It's a great idea!
Your post just goes to show you don't have to spend a lot of money to make good memories!

sandy said...

Hi Susan, we do this just about every week, go and see something locally. Just walking through old neighborhoods and looking at the wonderful old houses is a treat, with lunch or dinner afterwards. Nice post, I enjoyed it.

KC said...

What a fun time for you all. We do the one tank trip sort of vacation on the weekends alot. We live with in 20 miles of the Lake Erie so we do alot of lake vacationing on the weekends. It is really fun. Except my house always seem to end up a big mess when we do those sort of vacations because we get up pack up the van and go and stay gone all day come home late throw things in the house and wake up and go again.. no time to pick up after a few days of that I wonder how on earth did the place get so messy when we weren't home LOL.
Thanks for sharing this vacation with us.

Jenileigh said...

WoW! What an awesome idea! I'm going to plan out a vacation in our area and present it to the family and see what they think! I enjoyed reading around your blog and would like to thank-you for stopping by my page and taking the time to leave a comment. I'm a real newbie and I love seeing new faces!

Carole Burant said...

It's always said that we don't realize what's in our own backyard:-) That was an excellent idea for a trip!! xox

Pen of Jen said...

I knew that we were alot alike! I have done this, and it is wonderful. I love knowing that you have too.
:o)

Anonymous said...

What a great idea and what great memories!
My brother teaches at ORU, so maybe someday we'll get out that way :)

Jill said...

This is a great idea. We have so many things here in ATL that we haven't seen....

Joyful Days said...

We've tried to remember to do this too. Especially with gas prices!! I'd much rather have a fun dinner out than drive all day.

Lovely, lovely memories. So glad you shared them.

Irene said...

Very interesting places. I would like to visit them some day, especially the western art collection and the rose garden. (Meanwhile I may look them up in Google!)
Thank you for visiting me and commenting. Have a beautiful week ahead.

Lyndy said...

Such a great idea and one I should try myself. Living so close to Atlanta I know there is much I have not seen.

I bet this was one of your most memorable vacations.