Our Spontaneous Strawberry Trip

I really wasn't looking forward to last Friday at all. Each year I attend an ethics seminar in Tulsa to support my former internship site, and the thought of driving two hours to Tulsa, attending the workshop, and then driving two hours back, all on my day off, just sounded like pure torture to me. But in Sommer's words, "It is what it is," and I knew it needed to be done. Then, on Wednesday morning BJ said out of the blue, "We should go to the strawberry festival in Stilwell this year!" Well, lo and behold, the little town of Stilwell, Oklahoma is about two hours east of Tulsa, which is two hours northeast of Oklahoma City anyway. My brain quickly registered this as a way out of a day of complete misery by myself, and I said, "Well, how about we all go to Tulsa together, and after my workshop we can head out east and attend the festival together the next day!" BJ agreed and his parents wanted to join us too, so as it turned out I left for Tulsa at 5:45AM on Friday, and everyone else left around lunchtime and met me right after the workshop was done. Just to make sure I wouldn't be oh-so-lonely on the ass-early drive to Tulsa, BJ and the boys gave me Adele's "19" album as an early Mother's Day gift. And we all know how much I love Adele.

All in all, the trip was great fun but the strawberry festival really sucked. The strawberry season had already ended, come to find out, and so no local delicious strawberries were available. Instead, we each ate a bowlful of Driscoll's strawberries (which were still delicious) and checked out the other festival happenings until venturing back home in the afternoon. Silas adores BJ's parents, and now he is bent on going on a trip with them again. The other day when I woke him from his nap, his eyes flew open and the first words out of his mouth were, "Go on a trip?"

He definitely had some exhilarating moments on the trip...

although other moments clearly must have sucked.

Silas enjoyed the hotel room in Muskogee the night before the festival. He especially enjoyed the rare treat of sleeping between BJ and me in the hotel bed. I woke up at 4AM with his head wedged in my back, as he had turned his little body horizontally.

Susan tasting the delicious California strawberries

George and I had a good time too, although eating at restaurants where I couldn't easily control for dairy in my food caused me anxiety.

Silas and his Pop are such good buds. Together they rode the train, which Silas affectionately dubbed "Thomas" given its blue color.

Thanks to Grammy and Pop for a memorable adventure!