June Fridays (mostly)

 As summer approached, I started making a list of places I wanted to visit on my day off, and preferably with my kids. And then I started picking and choosing, based on who was home and who had wanted to do what. 

The first week of our summer, we started with the Paseo Arts Festival at the end of May. Both kids and a friend came along. It included a visit to Holey Rollers and a lot of wandering around. I'm always surprised when I get home at how few pictures I have taken, so here's what I have: 

art by Chris Vance

The next weekend Grace and I headed to the OKC National Memorial and Museum. She had just finished Oklahoma History that semester, and that had included a week or so discussion about the bombing. I realized at that point that she had been to the Memorial but not the museum yet. I had taken Isaac but hadn't been back. 

The next Friday was with Isaac and a friend. We headed to downtown Norman for 2nd Friday Art Walk. All I have pictures of is a Mainsite gallery exhibit I really liked by Liz Roth. We also visited the Depot to see the "Gift of Art" exhibit and vendors/artists all the way down Main street and back.

Rushing Water by Liz Roth

We shifted to a Saturday for the third week of June. Grace always likes to go horse riding when we go on vacation, but over spring break, that was not an option. I suggested that she look for a local one. She found Honey Lee Ranch in Jones. It looked like the trails were shaded by trees, as well as along water, and I knew that if I waited any later in summer it would be even hotter. So I picked a day and drank a lot of water in advance. It was hot, but not unbearable (they close trail rides when it it too hot for the horses), and it was a beautiful area. We may go back in the fall.

For the last June adventure, I headed out alone to the Fred Jones Art Museum at OU. a new exhibit called Synesthesia opened that weekend, it was indoors, and I hadn't visited in awhile. I also viewed the Joseph DeLappe exhibit called Resistance, Memory, and Play, which focused on the interplay between gaming and warfare. That is overly simplified of course.

And since I was by myself, I stopped off for lunch at Shell Belle's Cafe and Bakery for a sandwich, with cookies to take back home. I didn't really think through carrying cookies on my walk back to the house in the heat, but they seemed to survive ok.