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Food Friday: Nhinja Sushi & Wok

NhinjaHere is another restaurant my husband introduced me to- Nhinja.  He actually learned about it from the owner, Kang Nhin.  He always likes trying new places, so one night he took Mae with him for dinner.  If she liked it then he knew I would like it.  About a month later we went and even though I really like my Chinese food from a buffet, it wasn’t bad.

They do have a pretty big selection on their menu but I’ve recently been on a sushi trip and they have some of the best in town.  First of all, they list the ingredients on the menu.  I’m real picky about what I have in my sushi- no caviar or fish eggs of any sort, no salmon, light on the veggies.  So it’s easy to order your sushi and it’s made right then, hasn’t been sitting around.  The rolls are huge, so one roll is more than enough for one person.  My two favorites are the Thunder and Geisha, but the others I have had are good as well.  My husband has tried almost everything on the menu but his favorite is the Cashew Chicken.  Once again, huge portions with lots of veggies and rice.  Mae is more predictable, she sticks with her Honey Chicken and then won’t eat the rice.  We do almost always start with the Cream Cheese Puffs.  Crab meat, cream cheese, and scallions wrapped up and deep-fried.

The service is always good, no matter if you are eating there or getting it for take out.  The atmosphere is fun, lots of colors, and bottles of Japanese sodas on the wall.  I give it five strips of bacon.  There are five locations around Oklahoma City, so it should be easy to find one.

Address: Rockwell- 12021 North Rockwell Ave., Oklahoma City;  May- 13905 North May Ave., Oklahoma City;  Broadway- 5 West 15th St., Edmond;  Mustang Rd.-  335 South Mustang Rd.

Category:

Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma food

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Food Friday: Venezia Italian Ristorante

VeneziaI love Italian food but it really can be hard to find a good Italian restaurant in Oklahoma City.  A few years ago we found one right near our house.  Located in the strip mall on the northwest corner of Northwest Highway and Council is Venezia Italian Ristorante.  We had been hearing good things about it from friends and finally had a chance to stop in one night when we didn’t have a child with us.

It was a busy Saturday night but we were seated quickly.  We started with the fried calamari, delivered on a huge plate, this was some of the best calamari I’ve had in a long time.  It’s really hard to get calamari fried just right but they had pulled it off, so now I had high hopes for the rest of dinner.  I wasn’t disappointed.  After a small dinner salad, my fettuccine carbonara was brought out.  Once again the serving was huge.  The Alfredo sauce was perfect- creamy and buttery with ham and peas mixed in.  My husband had the lasagna, also a huge serving, he enjoyed it as did I when I had a small bite.  For dessert we had cannoli, a treat that was almost unheard of years ago when my grandmother introduced it to me.  For a long time the only way to get it was to order it from back east, but now it’s getting to be more common in Oklahoma.

Everything was really good, like I said it’s hard to find good Italian food in Oklahoma so I’m happy to have Venezia close by.  We’ve been back several times and everything is always good- food and service.  I know there is a second location in Del City but I haven’t been there yet, so this review is only for the NW Expressway location.  I give it 5 strips of bacon.

Address: 8109 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City; 201 S. Sooner Rd., Del City.

 

 

 

Category:

Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma food

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Geary, Home of the Gillespie Building and a Water Trough

Gillespie Building

1903 Gillespie Building in Geary, OK, placed on NRHP in 1989.  2016

Since the month of February was abnormally warm, we picked a nice Saturday afternoon and just went out for a drive.  We ended up in the town of Geary, a small town of about 1,200 people forty miles west of Oklahoma City.  Not really much there and nothing really to do, but they did have a really nice old downtown with some interesting buildings.

Downtown Geary

Downtown Geary, OK. 2016

So lets start with a brief history of Geary first- founded in April of 1892 when the first non-Indian settlers were allowed in during the Cheyenne-Arapaho Opening, the town was actually over a mile north of its present location.  It was moved south shortly after to meet the Choctaw, Oklahoma, and Gulf railroad being built from El Reno.  The post office was officially established on October 12, 1892 with the town being named after Edward Guerrier, a U.S. Army scout and interpreter who settled north of the town site.   The town grew rapidly with the population getting all the way up to around 2,500.  A big boost for the small town came in 1912 when the Postal Highway came through, this later became the original path for Route 66.  Unfortunately, Geary’s portion of Route 66 was bypassed in 1934.

Now the town is quiet, not much to do.  So why was I there, I wanted to see two places that are on the National Register of Historic Places.  The first was hard to miss- The Gillespie Building.  Siting on the southeast corner of Main and Highway 281, can’t miss the big red brick building.  It was built in 1903 by Ed Gillespie.  Originally a bank, it served many other businesses until it became a museum.  Unfortunately it looks as though the museum has been closed for a while.

Just a block east on Main Street is the second NRHP location and has to be the most unique, the Public Water Trough.  I know it sounds weird right, but this was really a big deal to farmers who came to town.  The trough was placed near the railroad depot and grain elevators in 1901.  This was at a time when the farmers would bring their product into town by horse-drawn wagons and it was helpful to have somewhere for those horses to get a drink.  You really have to think of it as an early gas station.  The original trough was wooden with the water pumped from a well close by, but sometime in the 1920’s it was redone with concrete and connected to city water.  It was used frequently up until the 1940’s.  The city of Geary had four of these troughs around the city and for some reason this was the only one to survive.

Public Horse Trough

Public Water Trough, Geary, OK, placed on NHRP in 1989. 2016

So that was my exciting visit to Geary, I did walk around the small downtown but there were no restaurants and all the businesses were closed.  If you ever find yourself in that direction, just take a few minutes to walk around and enjoy the history.

1910 building in Geary

1910 Brake Building in downtown Geary, OK. 2016

old service station in Geary

Another old building in downtown Geary, OK.  Possibly had been a service station or automotive dealership.  2016

 

Category:

National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma

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The Santa in the Window

Santa in the WindowChristmas is all about tradition.  Every year you get out the decorations that you’ve had forever and you get together with family.  The Farley family is all about tradition- we’ve done the same thing for Christmas since before I was here.  The whole family would gather at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Tipton on Christmas Eve, they would eat fried oysters and chocolate cake, then open the presents piled around the tree.

This is the environment I was born into, as long as I can remember my dad would load up the car with luggage and presents for the two hour drive from Oklahoma City to Tipton.  As much as my dad loved Christmas, he never started shopping until December 24th.  He thought that’s when you got the best deals, so that whole day he would be gone, not coming back home until almost 6p.  My mother hated that, all the last minute rushing around, hoping that we had everything.  Truthfully, it really was kind of annoying but that’s just how the old man was- cheap.  After he was home we would drive down H.E. Bailey to Lawton.  It was in Lawton that the K-Mart would still be open- he would stop and run around the store chasing the blue light specials, no matter what it was that was just put on sale.  Somehow my mom would drag him out and we would continue the journey on Highway 62.  It was always the darkest here, just south of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  This is when I would lay with my head against the window, looking out for the flashing red nose of Rudolph, hoping that Santa would remember that we would be back home the next night for him to visit us.

Once we got to Tipton, we would slowly drive through town until we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house where we would park in the circle drive.  As we got out of the car I would always see the little plastic light up Santa Claus that Grandpa put in the front window.  Don’t know when or where Grandpa got it but as far back as I can remember seeing that Santa meant Christmas was here and that after we were filled up on Grandma’s fried oysters, the fun was going to begin.  Once we were inside, everyone was running around putting the final presents around the tree.  For some reason, my uncle Joe was always last to wrap his gifts, so he would be in a bedroom, shouting for my aunts to come help him.  Present opening would begin around 11p.  My Grandpa and dad had a running joke about dust busters, everyone would laugh at uncle Joe because he bought Hanukkah paper again (he liked it because it was blue, he ignored the Menorah’s on it) and there would always be a wrapping paper ball fight.

This is how every Christmas was for the first 16 years of my life, then the tradition changed.  Grandpa was sick, so they moved to Oklahoma City into apartments.  Some things stayed the same but there was no long drive to Tipton, no looking out for Rudolph and no Santa sitting in the window.  After Grandpa was gone, Christmas changed again- no more fried oysters, now we enjoyed barbeque that my dad picked up from some restaurant.  We were also now in Norman at my aunts’ house and the family was changing- adding more members, first spouses, then kids.  So we had some new traditions, but still kept some of the old.  We were still waiting for uncle Joe to wrap presents, there was still chocolate cake but there was also something missing.  Not just being in Tipton and Grandpa but my mother stopped coming after divorcing my dad, then last year after losing both Grandma and my dad, I knew that Christmas would never be the same.  You just can’t lose two members of the family and act like nothing happened.  Now not only were the traditions mostly gone but so were three members of my family.  I almost didn’t even want to go be with the rest of the Farley’s.  It’s really just not the same at all but I still have my memories of how it used to be.

So what happened to the little plastic light up Santa Claus- after Grandpa died, Grandma sold the house in Tipton and my dad went down to help clean it out.  He stopped at my house with a pickup truck full of stuff that he had taken, wanted to know if there was anything I wanted.  Thrown into the back to the truck was that Santa Claus, I grabbed it with the declaration, “This is mine”.  I cleaned Santa up, now every Christmas I carry on my Grandpa’s tradition and that little plastic light up Santa Claus sits in my front window to remind me that no matter what has changed, it’s Christmas.

 

 

Category:

Christmas in Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Tipton

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Kingfisher in Lights- Back Again

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UPDATE-  Great news for those of us who loved the lights in Kingfisher, they are back on!  A group of Kingfisher residents have gotten together to restore this tradition, now under the name Kingfisher Winter Nights.  I haven’t been yet to see how many of the old displays are still there but hope to make it soon.  Hopefully they have enough visitors to keep the lights on for years to come.

From the time I was a little girl, one of our family Christmas traditions was driving around neighborhoods looking at the Christmas decorations people had put on display.  We did this every year, I remember going around Brookhaven in Norman, when almost every house was lit up.  We were some of the first to drive around Ski Island, before the crowds got too big that the residents shut it down.  Now that I’m older I love the light parks that different cities in the metro have for everyone to drive through.  I’ve been going to Midwest City since the first year the lights were turned on, we’ve gone to Yukon so many times they should at least name a light bulb after me, Chickasha is a long drive but a special treat but one that I really liked the best was the one that was the least popular, Kingfisher in Lights.

Not many knew about the Christmas display that the city put on every year in the park since 1996.  Everything was east of downtown right off of Highway 33 at the Kingfisher Park.  You could park your car, walk to the train station and for a dollar get a ticket to ride the small train through the displays.  It was almost always too cold and the lines really long but it was worth the 20 minute ride.  Most of the time you would get a seat in the enclosed cars but once we got to sit in the coal tender.  Yeah, it was cold but fun.  After the train ride, we would then get in the car and idle through the display, seeing everything from a different angle.  From the car you could talk to the fire-breathing dragon or watch the angels climb into the air.  You could get a better view of the baseball game being played in lights or just count the candy canes along the trails.  There was a cute display of a frog eating a fly and another with firemen putting out a fire.  Sometimes Santa would be out there, handing out candy to all the kids.  After you drove through you could then go back on another road to the the west side of the park and walk across the one hundred year old suspension foot bridge.  The bridge was lit with over 1000 white Christmas lights and you could see the creek very clearly from the deck.  One year while walking across, I saw something swimming in the water twenty feet below, it was a very large beaver that was making his home in the branches piled up along the small concrete dam.  I had seen lots of beavers dead along the side of the road but never out in the water, doing beaver stuff.

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The fire-breathing dragon, 2010.  (Sorry, didn’t have a good camera at the time.)

Sadly this has all come to an end- in 2014 the lights were canceled because of road construction on Highway 33.  You just couldn’t get to the park.  I could understand that, I was disappointed but was hoping it would be up again this year.  Unfortunately, the display now been closed down for good.  Many of the residents of Kingfisher just didn’t have the time to volunteer and put the lights up.  So now it’s just a memory just as the one year Guthrie had a display (east of Cottonwood Creek, best I can remember is late 1990’s or very early 2000’s) and Duncan’s display (also in the late 1990’s or early 2000’s).  Maybe someday the town will realize they miss it and bring it back.

Christmas lights on bridge in Kingfisher 2001

Uncle John’s Creek bridge in lights, 2001.

Category:

Christmas light displays in Oklahoma, Kingfisher Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Washita Battlefield National Historic Site

Washita Battlefield 20

Many don’t realize that we have three National Parks in the state of Oklahoma.  All three are beautiful places to visit and each unique.  Unfortunately two are places where great tragedy and loss have occurred.  The Washita Battlefield National Historic Site in one of the oldest and most tragic.  So on a nice fall day a few weeks ago we made a trip to the far western part of the state to visit this historic location.

Near the current town of Cheyenne, Chief Black Kettle and his tribe of Southern Cheyenne had made winter camp on the Washita River in early November 1868.  There had been an uneasy peace with the Cheyenne after the Medicine Lodge Treaty signed in October 1867.  In the summer afterward, that peace was broken when groups of Cheyenne, along with other tribes, started attacking white settlers in Colorado, Texas, and Kansas.  This marked the tribes as “hostile” according to the United States Army.

Washita Battlefield 11

Along the banks of the Washita River, 2015.

With winter coming, many of the tribes settled along the banks of the Washita River (or Lodgepole River, as named by the tribes because of the numerous trees) Black Kettle’s village of around 250 was the western most settlement.  The Army had been stationed near Fort Cobb in western Indian Territory.  General Philip Sheridan decided on a “winter campaign” against the tribes to try and get them to surrender.  So in late November 1868, the general ordered Colonel George Custer and the 7th U.S. Cavalry to attack Black Kettle’s village.  Early on the morning of November 27, 1868 Custer’s forces converged on the village and in no time had taken control.  Black Kettle and his wife were amongst the first killed.  The exact death toll isn’t known but it is believed that around 50 Cheyenne were killed along with 21 soldiers.  To keep any of the Cheyenne from escaping, Custer also ordered over 700 horses to be slaughtered and dumped in a ravine.  He then took the surviving women and children as prisoners and burned he camp.

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Site of Black Kettle’s Southern Cheyenne 1868 winter camp, 2015.

So with this kind of history it’s obviously a sad place to visit.  The location was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 and in 2007 the state built a new visitor center and museum.  After you walk through the museum, you can go out to the site and walk the 1.5 mile marked trail.  It wasn’t a long walk but it can give you the creeps especially near the reported location of the horse grave.  You can see where the army scouted out the village and get an idea of what the land would have looked like around the time of the massacre.  This is a place to take older kids to help them learn about Oklahoma history and since it is part of the park service they do offer a Junior Ranger badge for completing a booklet geared toward different ages.  I would recommend going but make sure you have some walking shoes on.

Hours: Visitor Center open 7 days a week 8am-5pm except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and January 1st.  Overlook and trail open from dawn to dusk daily.

sunflower

Sunflower on the trail to Black Kettle’s village on the Washita River, 2015.

Category:

National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Museum of the Western Prairie

Museum of the Western Prairie in Altus

Windmill at the Museum of the Western Prairie, Altus, OK, 2015.

A few months ago I went on a road trip to the southwestern part of the state.  It was August and 104 degrees out but I didn’t care, there were places I wanted to go and see.  I went looking for the Cross S Ranch Headquarters south of Olustee and couldn’t find it.  Eventually later that day I ended up in Altus and had time to visit the Museum of the Western Prairie.

It’s back off the road in a park, a low building with dirt up around it to make it look like an old dugout home from the late 1800’s.  I had been there before many years ago and saw a picture of downtown Eldorado, Oklahoma, that showed the Farley blacksmith shop.  This was the shop that my great-great grandfather Jeff Farley ran in the 1890’s.  So on this visit I wanted to find that picture again and show it to Mae, just to emphasize our family history here in Oklahoma.

The building had been remodeled a few years ago, so things had changed and the picture was no longer on display, but there were still plenty of other exhibits to show her just how our family lived in that time period.  They had the usual covered wagon and other household items from the time of settlement in Jackson County.  But one of the more interesting items on display was a console from the Atlas missile silos that surrounded Altus and it’s air force base from 1962-1965.

Control board for Atlas rocket in Altus

There is more outside in the courtyard that showcases the history of southwestern Oklahoma.  Windmill, farm equipment, a buggy, and the Criswell half-dugout.  Davis and Sarah Criswell built the half-dugout in old Greer County (now part of Jackson County) around 1900.  This dugout is a great example of what a family home looked like out on the western prairie.  But also in this courtyard is where I finally found the Cross S Ranch Headquarters building.  It’s still in the process of being restored (for more info read my previous post about the history of this building).

The museum was started in 1966 when the Western Trail Historical Society started raising money to build a museum in Altus.  The building was completed in 1970 and officially became a Oklahoma Historical Society field museum in 1973.  The Criswell half-dugout was placed there in 1976 and the Cross S Ranch Headquarters was rebuilt there in 2009.

So if you’re a history nerd like me or just want to get an idea of what life was like on the western prairie around the turn of the century, stop and check this museum out.  Takes about an hour to see everything.  Older kids might like it but younger kids would probably be bored, not a lot of kid type stuff to do.  I do hope the next time I visit they have that Eldorado picture back out.

Address: 1100 Memorial Drive, Altus, OK.  From Main Street (or State Highway 6), turn east on Falcon Road, then go less than a quarter of a mile to Memorial Drive.  The museum sits at the end of the road.

Hours: Tuesday- Saturday 10am-5pm.

Museum of the Western Prairie in Altus 3

Category:

Altus Oklahoma, National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Food Friday: Aloha Shave Ice and Coffee Shoppe

Aloha sign

For a few years now I had driven past the cute little blue and yellow building on the southwest corner of NW 39th Expressway and Council Road.  If you went by there during the summer, you couldn’t help but notice all the cars in the parking lot and families eating shaved ice.  It took me a while to finally work up the nerve to stop, I picked a nice hot day this past summer and we got to enjoy some of the best shaved ice I’ve ever eaten.

They have over 50 single flavors and at least that many custom mixes.  But the real treat is to have the shaved ice made “Hawaiian Style”, this is where they add cream to the shaved ice.  All is served in a flower shaped cup, with the ice in a huge mound on top.  We were totally addicted to them after the first visit and now go back as often as possible, trying different flavors every time.

purple snowcone

My Bethany Broncos shaved ice.

In late August, they were closed for a few weeks to move into a new permanent building at the same location.  And with that move they have introduced not only coffee but real breakfast and lunch options.  It is a nice building with a cozy interior and much better parking.  They don’t have a big menu for the food but they do serve breakfast all day, which is a big plus for me.  A few weeks ago I tried the breakfast sandwich; egg, with your choice of cheese and meats on a warm croissant.   Truthfully, it was the best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had from a restaurant.  Mae had her favorite, mac and cheese, served extra cheesy so she gave it her approval.

As good as the food is the main reason to go is the shaved ice, and spend the extra money to get it “Hawaiian Style”.  I give Aloha five strips of bacon.

Address: 8000 NW 39th Expressway, Bethany, OK.

Hours: Monday- Friday 7am- 9pm; Saturday 8am- 9pm; Sunday 1pm- 9pm.

Aloha

Outside of Aloha, Bethany, OK 2015.

inside Aloha

Inside of Aloha, Bethany, OK, 2015.

Category:

Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food

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Haunted Fort Washita

Bre's Late October 2015 159

The west and south barracks at Fort Washita, OK, 2015.

Hey, it’s the week of Halloween so let’s have some fun and talk about one of the most haunted places in Oklahoma- Fort Washita.  I had heard the stories for years, ghosts wandering the property, strange experiences, weird feelings.  So back in 2002, we decided to visit (this was before children) and yeah, the place definitely had a creepy vibe.  We never actually saw a ghost or had anything unexplained happen to us, but we both felt like someone was watching us the whole time we were there.  After that visit we have talked about the place just giving us the creeps and that we never wanted to go back.  So like morons, we went back a couple of weeks ago, taking Mae with us this time just to see if a pre-teen girl could get the spirits worked up.

The fort was placed on top of a hill not far from where the Washita River joins the Red River in 1842.  It was built by the military to protect the Chickasaws and Choctaws from other Indian tribes.  The original fort was spread out over an area of seven square miles and contained almost 100 buildings constructed from locally quarried limestone.  By 1861, the fort was abandoned and taken over by confederate troops as a supply post.  Although no battles were ever fought here, near the end of the war the confederates burned the buildings and abandoned the post.  The United States military turned over the property in 1870 to the Chickasaws who then allotted the land to the Colbert family.  The state of Oklahoma took over ownership of the land in 1962, this is when the historical society added the front entrance and started work on the reconstruction of the south barracks.  In 1965 the fort was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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The south and west barracks in background with remains of the commissary in front, Fort Washita, OK, 2015.

As I said earlier, my first trip was in 2002, you can walk or drive around the ruins.  The south barracks weren’t open to tour but you could go in the rebuilt chaplains’ quarters and the D.H. Cooper cabin.  On this recent visit we discovered that the rebuilt south barracks had burned down in 2010 but everything else was the same as before.  I didn’t get that same strange feeling I had the first time and neither did my husband, even though he told me later at one point near the old post road he heard “thundering hooves”.  I didn’t hear or see anything and neither did Mae even though she kept her guard up.  I was hoping that at least one ghost would come and scare her.  It’s an interesting place to visit and if you see a ghost or hear something unusual don’t be surprised.  The fort is in far southern Oklahoma near Durant and Tishomingo off state highway 199.

south barracks Fort Washita 2002 2

South barracks at Fort Washita before they burned in 2010, Fort Washita, OK, 2002.

Fort Washita

Map of Fort Washita, 2015.

Category:

National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Olustee Public Library and Park

Olustee library

If you ever find your self having to go down Oklahoma Highway 6 in the far southwestern part of the state, you will go through the tiny town of Olustee.  As you enter the town you will go right past the library and park and except for a small sign you might not know it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

The park itself is interesting enough- a full block with old style playground equipment, you know, the stuff most people my age played on before the safety nazis took over.  You have the big old metal slide, teeter-totter, and swings.  There is an old Frisco caboose sitting in the northwest corner of the park and a sidewalk trail that leads around the whole park.  The park came into existence in 1920 when the New State Womens Club developed the property to help improve the quality of life in Olustee.  The Womens Club had been formed in 1907 to help establish a library and park in the small town.

Throughout the 1920’s members of the club took care of the park by planting trees and in 1925 the club turned over ownership of the property to the town of Olustee. Plans were made in 1921 for a small building to be placed in the middle of the park to be used as a library.  But the depression slowed the development of that plan.  In 1936, two members of the Womens Club met with representatives from the Works Progress Administration to see if they could get help with the library project.  It was approved quickly and work started on the building in April 1936 with the stone quarried from a local farm.  Since 1907 there had been temporary locations for a library in Olustee and by August 1936 a permanent building was done and filled with books donated not only by the Womens club but other residents of the community.  The New State Womens Club maintained not only the library but the park from the opening until the 1990’s.  At that point the library closed, with all the books and town records still inside.  The library and park were placed on the National Register in March of 2008.

I would love to go in the building, just to see the records and journals left behind.  The park is just a normal park.  I tried to get Mae to go down the slide, but it was 106 degrees out and she had a dress on, so it wasn’t happening.  It’s an interesting stop if you happen to be in that area.

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Olustee Public Library, Olustee, Oklahoma, 2015.

Olustee park

Olustee Park, Olustee, Oklahoma, 2015.

Category:

Oklahoma, Oklahoma history, Olustee

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