Friday, May 28, 2010

On the recommendation of Angelia, my good friend since 5th grade, my high school friends met for dinner at this Mexican restaurant that originates in Oklahoma City. Luckily on Barbie's advice, Jackie and I got there early so we could have a chance at a table for our party of 10 that turned out to be 14.

We were promptly seated in a long booth that was in the center of the restaurant. The decor reminded me of other chain restaurants we've eaten at over the years. Betty was our attentive waitress that did a great job as our party of ten kept growing. Barbie and Bill arrived first and it's always fabulous to see Barbie. She and I were really close friends during our four years in high school and have since let the distance keep us from staying close. But I hope this changes as we had a wonderful conversation catching up about our children and what our parents are up to. Barbie and I ordered up a happy hour beer for $1, which is a really good deal, since it was five minutes until happy hour was up. We were delighted that Stephanie Brice joined us, she is as beautiful as she was 20 years ago in high school. Laurie Anderson also joined us and had us enthralled in a recent burglary in her home in Belle Isle, where they stole computers, her children's piggy banks and her grandmother's 3 carat diamond ring. Tragic, to say in the least.

Lori Leiser Manning also came, her fabulous husband was with his football team at a game. Lance is the head coach of the Norman North High School Timberwolves that have been ranked in the top 10 Class 6A in the state of Oklahoma the last several years. Leslie Johnson Williams and Bart also joined us. It's always great to see Leslie who can tell any of us what our classmates are up to. She's like a human registrar for my senior yearbook that I haven't seen in 15 years. They got to talking about a guy Angelia dated in junior high from another country and had everyone laughing and carrying on. Fun times. Last but definitely not least, Stephanie Bates Jones and Dagne Day Newcomb joined us stag but Dagne brought her very well-mannered sons with her. One a junior at McGuinness and the other going into the eighth grade. I was seated near this crew and loved every minute of it, taking in her boys. Of course, this left Jackie, Bill and Bart to have to go to the bar which worked out fabulously since they didn't want to be at our table any longer.

Betty kept the ritas served and adding on more orders as the girls arrived. I had the fish tacos and loved them. They were blackened tilapia, shredded lettuce, chipolte ailoi and black bean salsa. It was served with rice and beans and later I realized I could have had with Papas Tejanos which are potatoes and green onions, very good Barbie reported. Jackie had a combo plate of chicken enchiladas, a taco, refried beans and rice. He commented all day today about how much he loved them. He did remark that he was surprised we picked such a family place for our crew. I plead the fifth on that because the girls and I had a great time catching up. Leslie invited us all over for a drink afterwards and it was fun seeing Jack and Whitney, her precious children and I got to see Annie, her older sister for the first time in many years. We hung around for a bit and the crowd grew with classmates Michael Patton, Tim Sanders and Jason James.

Above all, I love getting together with the girls I spent so many years with during high school. They kept remarking that they only get together when I come to town which is once a year. That seems crazy because being with them last night was like picking up where we left off in 1989. I still get made fun of even now, you can see that in the picture Jackie took of us. Poblano's was a great restaurant for us, good food and service and wonderful conversation with fabulous old friends.

Poblano Grill, 13593 N. May, Oklahoma City, 405-755-8111 www.poblanogrill.com

Churchill Downs, Louisville, KY

Sunday, May 16, 2010

It has taken me a while to blog about our weekend in Louisville for my first cousin's wedding. May is an incredibly busy month for me, my mom's birthday, Mother's Day, Chloe's birthday, this wedding and a family reunion Memorial Day weekend in Oklahoma City. But here is the first of several in the fabulous town of Louisville.

What a rainy day! We checked out of the wonderful Brown Hotel and ventured around downtown before arriving at Churchill Downs just after noon. The track is located just a few miles from downtown and sits right next door to the University of Louisville's new Papa John's Stadium. Amazing that such a historical track is in a neighborhood and college campus in the middle of the city. We parked for just $10 and were offered club passes for $10 each, children 12 and under are free, so Chloe grabed her umbrella and her monkey, Mo Mo, and we were off. Yes, on this trip, she had that stuffed animal with her. I'm not sure what was up with that, she doesn't sleep with animals, just Biscuit. Maybe she missed him on our trip, she did politic for Biscuit to travel with us, but we quickly stopped that from the start.

So across the parking lot, a double seated gas golf cart with sides pulled up and offered us a dry ride over through the parking lot to the door and Chloe loved it! Jackie kept remarking about how the track had changed since he had been there during his undergraduate years. Later in the day, he took us for a tour in the older, original parts of the track. It was nice, nice. We are used to Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, that is original with lots of smoking areas, old bathrooms watched over by ladies, toiletries galore and a tip cup. Oaklawn also has lots of space along the trackside to watch the race at the finish line, here at Churchill, the space was filled with bleacher seats and other outside "boxes". We kinda made our way through the seats and tiny crowd to see a race finish outside in the rain and it was neat. I could image what it was like on Kentucky Derby Saturday when a crowd of over 150,000 fills this legendary place. Just two weeks earlier, on my birthday May 1, Super Saver won the derby and finished eighth in yesterday's Preakness, dashing another Triple Crown hopeful. Jackie said there was no way he'd take me here in that crowd and after I've seen the track, I think he was right.

Our box was located in section 315, near the Trackside Cafe, which boasted ice cream, deli sandwiches and quick grab food lined up like salads, chips, gatoraide etc. Chloe, of course, wanted nachos first so she could hit up that ice cream stand. She shared the nachos with us and we loved them because the chips weren't those thick yellow round ones but more like Tostitos. She topped that off with a waffle cone and sprinkles. Jackie and I split a corned beef sandwich. I was actually in search of the Hot Brown sandwich made famous in Louisville but the ladies said the stand for the Hot Brown wasn't open on Sundays, dang it.

We toured around to see the older parts of the track and the Kentucky Derby Museum. We went in but weren't sure about the $22 per adult price and $12 for children. So we toured the gift shop and when we headed back to our box we came across Jockey Parking. I thought it was interesting, a few trucks, SUV's, Honda and one brand new Jaguar. We figured it belonged to Calvin Borrel, who won the derby the last couple of years, and had ridden in the Preakness the day before.

Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time at the track. Chloe wouldn't stay out of the wonderful gift shop. She had her dad buying her keychains, a hat and I came away with another coffee cup I don't need and two Derby Glasses from this year's race. It was a great but rainy day to be at the track. We enjoyed seeing Churchill without a huge crowd.

www.churchilldowns.com Check out this great website!

Nancy's Bagel Box, Louisville

Saturday, May 15, 2010

It was a gorgeous Saturday morning in Louisville. On the recommendation of our hotel, we walked the block to this sidewalk shop. There was a long line at Nancy's for homemade bagels, coffee and the like. I was thrilled with a selection of homemade granola and a choice of raisins, dried cranberries and any nut I wanted on top. And I was asked how much milk I wanted in it, the server saying that some like it swimming and some don't. What a nice touch.

Chloe and Jackie got a bagel with cream cheese and orange juice and coffee. We enjoyed sitting on the sidewalk tables and enjoyed the morning breeze. After this great find, we packed up the extra bagel and headed downtown. Jackie wanted to head straight down 4th to the Ohio River. It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed the 2 mile walk to the river and back. Downtown was clean and the people were very nice. We enjoyed our quick breakfast at the bagel shop and our tour of downtown Louisville.

Nancy's Bagel Box, 651 N. 4th St., Louisville, KY 502-589-4004 www.nancysbagels.com

The Brown Hotel, Louisville

Friday, May 14, 2010

We headed to Louisville on Chloe's ninth birthday at noon. She talked us into letting her go to school that day for her class picnic and it was her birthday after all, even though we planned on leaving at the crack of dawn. We arrived in Louisville at 7 pm eastern time. Jackie booked us a queen room, which almost put me over the edge when I realized that it was one queen not two. But after taking a deep breath and looking around the beautiful lobby, I just thought I'd have to let him sleep on the floor. I did ask the guy checking us in if they had a roll away, and they did but it was $20 a night. So I voted against that and just pictured him on the floor.

Our room was on a club floor of the hotel, the eleventh floor to be exact, and had to use our key to get us up there. We had a beautiful, spacious room that Chloe immediately pronounced as "fancy". We set our bags down and ventured across the street, on the concierge's advice, to a restaurant. We loved it as we ate outside near a courtyard facing the hotel and watched the locals.

The next day we had a little time to walk around Louisville before heading to my cousin's wedding. Jackie took us down 4th street for a stroll to the Ohio River. We walked by stores, restaurants and part of a block was blocked off near some sports bars where a 5K walk was going on to benefit a charity. Louisville has a very charming and clean downtown. Chloe enjoyed seeing all the horse statues around the city.

Open in 1923, the Brown Hotel was a prominent hotel for guests and social events downtown. It closed in 1971 and then served as the Board of Education. In the early 80s, it was remodeled and reopened with 16 stories and meeting rooms and is used frequently by the University of Louisville and business professionals. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and according to Jackie, it is a preferred hotel during derby season and one of the reasons he picked the hotel. The English Grill restaurant is located on the lobby floor and we considered eating there but they don't allow cell phones, sandals or shorts, so we enjoyed walking right by it.

I did have to ask housekeeping to bring us a working hair dryer one morning and it arrived in about a minute. And it wasn't that little one on the wall, it was a full size powerful dryer. Our room also boasted a feather bed, English duvet and the bathroom had marble and granite counter tops. I personally liked the single cup coffee maker and was thrilled that housekeeping let me get extra coffees each day.

We didn't valet our car but parked in the covered lot attached to our hotel for $20 per day. There is very limited parking downtown and there really is no other choice for parking. When we checked out on Sunday I noticed a parking sign for bikes. Louisville is a very forward thinking town that has a ton of bike trails, recycling and the sort. On our walk to the river we noticed a rack of bikes attached to a box. Later I checked with my good friend from Oklahoma City that lives there, and they were Humana Bikes for their employees to use for local errands. Hmmm, if only all businesses would take this approach...

The hotel is also listed as a Preferred Hotel and Resort similar to one of my favorite Memphis hotels, the Madison. We really loved the Brown, its location, accommodations and feel of the "fancy" hotel.

The Brown Hotel, 335 West Broadway, Louisville 888-387-0498 www.brownhotel.com Check out this fancy website!

Pearl's Oyster House, Memphis

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Pearl's was the perfect restaurant to get my friends together to celebrate 35 again. They don't take reservations but they did situate our 17 top off to the side which was perfect because we had a couch and a television for the boys over in our nook. Byrum was our waiter and handled our crew well, even when we had our party divided up, the boys over by the TV and the girls away from the TV, we still got our checks split. Jackie and I've been to Pearl's half a dozen times and have always loved it. Tonight we enjoyed visiting with our crew of good friends, we had lots of classic topics the ladies covered at my end of the table like our children, food, friends, etc.

Luckily, for this non-appetizer orderer, Jimmy and his lovely companion Beth, arrived early and had an order of fried pickles with a tangy Ranch sauce. They shared and we loved, loved them. Alexis got our crew an order and we passed them around until they disappeared. They were thin, delicate and crunchy.
For dinner I got the fish tacos as did Becca, and we joked when it was served with french fries and ketchup. I actually loved the fries and the three tacos on corn tortillas had a great chipolte sauce with lots of tomatoes. Joy loved her shrimp and grits and shared them with me. Kara got gumbo (that arrived late) along with peel and eat shrimp. Jackie loved his Char-grilled Oysters, I think this is his favorite place for oysters in Memphis. Who knows what all the boys ordered, they were too busy watching the TV and texting people. I so enjoyed catching up with dear friend Dara Bigger, fellow blogger Tara Burton and Dr. Beth who is doing a triathlon this weekend, wow!

Because just about everyone had a sitter on the clock, no dessert but check please! I'm glad Pearl's stood the test of serving our large party. I think everyone had a good time, I was excited about everyone rolling out for it. A shout out to Alexis who has gotten all of us to celebrate our own birthdays. Kara's planning a Derby watch party for all of us Saturday on my actual birthday. We're looking forward to it at her fabulous home. I'll have to check her garden, we both got our raised beds in and seeded. It will be a fun summer enjoying each others produce.

It's great to be 35 again. Our ride home with Joy and Martin and Kara was a classic. Lots of subjects were covered with lots of laughs. Thanks Joy for taking the wheel! Happy Birthday!

Pearl's Oyster House, 299 S. Main, Memphis, TN 901-522-9070 http://www.pearlsoysterhouse.com/

Basin Park Hotel, Eureka Springs

Friday, April 16, 2010

I thought I'd plug the historic hotel we stayed in during my cousin Jennifer's wedding weekend. Her reception was on the second floor of the hotel so mother booked us a room there. We were on the 5th floor and had a gigantic room. The hotel was built in 1905 and is situated on curvy Spring Street surrounded by shops galore. I've always been a fan of Eureka Springs, it's beautiful and the people are nice, a good southern nice. Tourism is a huge business for this town and the hotel had several wedding receptions through out the weekend.

The hotel has a spa located on the second floor, the Balcony Bar with a patio over looking Spring Street, and behind the lobby you'll find the War Eagle Mill Outpost. It served a breakfast buffet of eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage and biscuits and gravy. They had a good selection of coffees with all the fixins. The store also sold the House of Webster jellys, whole grain natural foods and even bagels. They had a few tables set up in what looked like a cave with natural stone, see the top picture.

The hotel has Ghost Tours nightly at 8 pm for $15 and $7 for children 12 and under. We didn't take a tour but the website talks about the illegal gambling parlor of the 40s and 50s, a lion ghost, the young woman that tries to evict the tenants from "her" room, and on and on. I didn't even bring up the word haunted to Chloe because I knew it would turn into days of sleepless nights worried about what the word haunted meant and all.

Jennifer's reception was nice and the hotel staff were great at helping get things situated. My mother was in charge of table decorations and did a great job. It was simple with rose petals and votive candles. The reception room was roomy and set up perfectly for the crowd. Once the DJ started, Chloe was ready for bed. We heard the DJ through the night because we could hear music from her or someone else's reception in our room until the wee-hours of the morning.

We liked our room on the 5th floor. I can't tell from the website the last time the hotel was updated but I'd say it was the early 80s. They did give us a complementary inflatable bed for Audrey and Chloe to share. The girls enjoyed camping out in the living room part of our room. A king room runs $150 a night. We took the stairs the whole weekend because the little, old elevators were so slow. We definitely got our exercise that weekend. My brother Craig and his crew had a huge room on the second floor complete with a patio over looking Spring Street, Jacuzzi, huge couch and flat screen TV and two bathrooms. That room was probably a honeymoon suite but was perfect for Craig's five. A Jacuzzi runs around $200 a night.

We did have a snack right before the wedding in the restaurant bar and had a good club sandwich and french fries. Upon checking out of the hotel, I recommend requesting your car about an hour before you need it. We were ready to hit the road on our 5 hour trip home that Sunday morning and had to wait for an hour for our car. They had one guy getting the cars and there were several people in front of us. I never, never like to use valet parking but we did on this trip because the parking lot was located nearly a mile away where you wait on the hotel shuttle to take you and your bags up to the hotel.

The Basin Park Hotel is a neat hotel with lots of history to it. There aren't many of these type hotels in the country and it's worth a visit. Check out their website for more information.

Basin Park Hotel, 12 Spring St., Eureka Springs 877-643-4972 www.basinpark.com

Bulldog, Bald Knob, Ark.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

We hit it right coming back from Eureka Springs from my cousin's wedding. We pulled into the Bulldog at a quarter till noon, just before the after church crowd. The Bulldog is about 45 minutes West of Birdeye. We've hit this spot many times with Chloe, who loves the chocolate milkshake and cheese sticks. Jackie got the hamburger and I got the barbeque chicken sandwich with coleslaw and we all split some tator tots. I always add a few packets of the hot sauce which takes it up a notch. On this leg of our trip, Chloe was ready to see Biscuit, so we got it to go and were home in no time.

Ahh, the Bulldog. Always good and right on the way.

My original review from last summer is below!

Aug. 6, 2009

On our trip to Oklahoma City for my 20 year class reunion, we stopped at an old time favorite, the Bulldog, in Bald Knob, on Chloe's request. She had expanders installed at her orthodontist earlier that morning, so where ever she wanted to go was certainly fine with us. The Bulldog has been a favorite for Jackie and I on the way to Fayetteville football games for nearly 14 years now. It is a "cook to order" style, no frills restaurant, that is famous for its barbecue and desserts. Chloe hopped out of the car right quick and headed on in to get her favorite Bulldog kids meal, the chicken strip with fries, a small homemade chocolate shake and a toy, which is a delight in the car even at this age. Jackie always gets the pork barbecue sandwich with coleslaw on it, onion rings and a large chocolate shake. He's been ordering this for 14 years now. I ordered the chicken barbecue with coleslaw and a diet coke, yes, no tea today with the 7 hour trip ahead and maybe just one onion ring. The sandwich is always fresh, has just the right amount of sauce on it, and is delicious. I was thrilled to have such a savory meal before getting to Edmond because my mother was in San Antonio for a skeet shooting championship and meals would be out of the fridge in Edmond. Jackie pronounced his sandwich as really good and Chloe tenderly ate her chicken after I skinned the breading off it. She ate quite good even though her mouth was sore.
The Bulldog is such a must when you are heading in this direction. We're usually running into Wynne people or Heber Springs people at this landmark restaurant but on a Thursday night, we sat around blue hair locals, they were certainly fun to watch. I think they were all regulars, they checked the specials board which boasted chicken fried steak and of course, strawberry shortcake (in season, it said) with ice cream. No dessert for me, the homemade chocolate shakes took care of the rest of my party.
The Bulldog, 3524 Hwy 367 N, Bald Knob, Ark. 501-724-5195