Category Archives: travel

Black Star Square

Yesterday dawned sunny and pretty. After breakfast, I suggested we do the tourist thing since it was Sunday and there shouldn’t be a lot of traffic. Black Star Square, also known as Independence Square, is outside so we didn’t need to worry about whether was open or not.

Photo 26-03-18, 7 28 01 AMAs always, when we got there, the biggest question was, “where do we park?”. There wasn’t an actual parking lot so we parked on the side of the roundabout where there was room.

To our right, was the Independence Arch with the sea behind it. The square itself has stands with seating for 30,000. Independence Day celebrations, which take place on May 6, are held here as well as other large public gatherings and festivals.

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On this side of the street, you can also see a monument of a soldier that depicts fallen soldiers who lost their lives fighting for Ghanaian independence. I wasn’t able to get a good photo of that monument as access to the parade grounds was closed.

In the middle of the roundabout, you find the Black Star Gate.

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I didn’t know that you could actually climb a bunch of stairs and go to the top of it. There are some guys there, non-uniformed, probably non-sanctioned guys, who will show you the way up for a little something. My guess is you could go up by yourself but those guys will probably always be there. Just a guess!

The ceiling inside the gate is beautiful!

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As is the detail on the fencing around the monument.

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Anyway, when you get to the top, you can walk around and get an awesome 360 degree view of Accra. Worth the climb!

There are pretty flowers planted and I saw the most amazing blue bird there that I’ve indentified as a Greater Blue Eared Starling. It is possibly the prettiest bird I’ve ever seen. It shimmers a turquoise color in the sun! I tried to get some video. It’s not perfect but I think you can see the shimmer!

All in all, Black Star Square was well worth the trip. View a little of Ghana’s history, see some beautiful nature, and get a great view of the city!

Coffee Holic

When I drove by Coffee Holic yesterday, I knew I was going to have to come back and visit. I’m in from out of town, working, and wasn’t familiar.
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This morning I had the perfect opportunity. As I entered I saw that they have wifi which is always a plus. The first thing you see is a nice goodie case and I honed in on the Chocolate Almond Croissant. Almond Croissants are my favorite and after verifying they didn’t have plain ones, I ordered the chocolate version which she heated up for me. It was delicious!

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I ordered brewed coffee and it was okay. Nothing spectacular, but drinkable. The total cost was under $5 which was pleasantly surprising.

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Their menu is small but diverse with many options including smoothies, waffles, and sandwiches. Several choices of energy type bars are available for a portable option.

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I’m glad I stopped in and if I return to Lewisville I’ll drop in again!

The People in Your Neighborhood

We’ve been driving around Belize City and David has been having trouble with the one way streets. To be fair, some of the markings aren’t so good. As he was getting ready to turn into another wrong way, a man stopped us and motioned that it was the wrong way.

He motioned for us to roll our window down, which I did. He started to tell me who he was. “I’m Prince Charles Perez. Google me!”

When we got back to the wifi, I did and lo and behold, there he was! 
 

He’s an amateur historian and it appears that a lot of people run into him and he will share his knowledge about Belize. I asked a local friend about him and he said, “oh yes, one of the smartest guys out there”. 

Such a colorful, friendly guy. I’m glad we ran into him. 🙂

Miss Belize Universe Pageant

We found out we were going to Belize and they told us that the day after we arrived was a national holiday. I took to Google to find out what the holiday was and found that after almost ten years, they were once again holding a Miss Belize Universe Pageant!

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Of course, I wanted to go. David talked to the people there and they secured tickets for us. I think this was a good idea because at the pageant they mentioned they had sold out quickly.

It was fun to attend a pageant in another country. The entertainment was awesome. There were no artists I’d ever seen but everyone else in the building seemed to be very familiar with them and their works. 

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It was the standard Miss Universe preliminary pageant including an opening number, 

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Swimsuit competition.

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Evening gown competition. 

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And onstage questions.

In addition, each girl had to create a national costume based on the theme Made in Belize. This was my favorite part of the pageant as the costumes were amazing! I thought it was cool that, not only did the contestant win the prize, the prize was also awarded to the costume designer. 

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It was really, really hot in the PAC  (they are going to be getting an air conditioner upgrade soon, I understand) but other than that, I really enjoyed seeing Rebecca Rath of Dandriga crowned Miss Belize Universe 2016.

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I picked her as the winner  from the opening number. She just lit up the stage. I look forward to watching her at Miss Universe!

 

We Were Enchanted

I can’t believe we’ve been married for thirty seven years. Yes, 37 years! It seems like so long and, well, wow. 

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I wanted to do something really different. I love mountains and David suggested we go to a guest ranch in either Montana or Wyoming. After a short search and trying to figure out how in the heck you get to one of those states (the usual airlines we fly don’t fly there), I said, why not a guest ranch in New Mexico? 

Because I love New Mexico like no other state. It has the most different kind of beauty. David said that would be fine with him and I started searching for a guest ranch to visit. I discovered Concho Hills Guest Ranch, made the reservations and grew excited for our trip.

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When we arrived, we were given the Bar B room, or Barbie! I was pretty excited about this. Marilyn and Tim (the owners) knew that I am the reigning Mrs. Southwest International and they thought I would like that. I did!

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The first day we got familiar with the horses and went on a ride. 

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I rode John Wayne.

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David rode Captain Jack.

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He looks so awesome on a horse. 🙂

We climbed the rocks to see if we could find arrowheads or pottery.

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We ate lots of great food and enjoyed magical scenery.

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We enjoyed the company of our hosts, Marilyn and Tim Norris.

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All in all, it was a great trip and a fun way to spend our anniversary!

 

Texas International Pageants

It was so fun to attend another of the International state pageants. Lyndzee and I drove to Texas on Sunday.

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We met up with our friend, Denise, and her four year old, Caitlin. Caitlin has been obsessed with pageants for at least two years now. She knows exactly how she will wear her hair and what her dress and earrings will look like when she’s finally able to compete. 

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I don’t think I know another four year old that could do so well sitting in a pageant audience but I was confident in Caitlin. She was enthralled. 

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She wanted to meet and take photos with all the queens she saw. 

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She chose her dress that she wore and the outfit her mom wore. 

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The pageant was great. It was nice to see two of the three International title holders and watch the new queens be crowned. Although I didn’t get a chance to stick around (we had to get back to Oklahoma!) to meet the new Mrs. Texas International, I look forward to meeting her at Nationals in July. 

Congratulations to the new Texas International queens! 😀

Save Your Brain

I was honored to be included on a trip to Washington DC last week with the Patrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation for Brain Injury Awareness Day. 

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I chose to work with this group because Patrick’s story is so similar to my son’s story and I felt drawn to them. It was wonderful to meet Karen Zegel and her husband, Doug. They are passionate about the issue of stopping CTE and concussion safety for youth athletes. 

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We all got together at the hotel the night before and I heard the stories of the collected women. Some had lost sons to CTE and some had lost husbands. It was all very sad and it made me even more sure that I was on the right path in my quest to inform anyone and everyone I come into contact with that it’s not “just” a concussion and that helmets do not protect the brain against concussion. 

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Debbie Ploetz’s story was one that made me realize that even if everything seems okay for now, somewhere along the line, the result of all the concussive and/or subconcussive hits, may take its toll. Greg Ploetz died from CTE. Here’s the video:

 


  

The next morning, we all met at the Cannon House Office Building for breakfast and to get to know each other. 

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Then it was on to the Brain Injury Awareness Fair. I walked around the room to see what people were there to showcase. I shared with each person my own personal quest and got some very good ideas of ways in which I can proceed and reach more people.

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I was so happy to meet and speak with Mike Haynes. Mike is a pro football Hall of Fame corner back. The exciting thing is that he never played football until he was a sophomore in high school. Not only is he is in the Hall of Fame, his brain is okay!

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I had a meeting with my Congressman’s legislative aide. In the end, we weren’t able to meet with the person we were supposed to meet with but we were able to share our concerns with another of his staffers. I’ll be following up with the Congressman, though, because this is too important to just leave to chance that he will hear about if from someone who isn’t me. 

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Some members of our group had really great and positive sounding meetings with their representatives. It became apparent that it will take us some time and that we must bring even more interested people with us as we continue to strive for a legalized standard of care for concussion in youth sports. While it may take some time, I know that we will achieve our goal blow by blow, one step at a time.

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If you know of any parent groups that are interested in safety in youth sports, particularly with regard to concussion and brain safety, please have them join with us on the Save Your Brain facebook page

 

 

Trip Through the Southwest

David and I drove home to Tulsa from San Jose for Christmas. After I spent two weeks in Las Vegas helping my sponsor, Story Clothing Co., David picked me up and we traveled historic Route 66 to get back to Tulsa. 

We accidentally stumbled upon Winslow, AZ. It was really early in the morning and I was ready for breakfast. I told David to pull off at Winslow which was 8 miles away according to the road sign. It was early, I’d had no coffee and the realization came to me piece by piece. Winslow, Arizona. That’s in a song. Which one? I finally pinpointed Take It Easy by the Eagles and I told David that when we got there, I was going to stand on a random street corner and sing the lyrics to the song. 

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We were looking for a diner and ended up on downtown Winslow. The diner was closed but there we found the Standin’ on the Corner Park. How cool! 

Of course I had to sing and then we ate breakfast. 

Next up was New Mexico. I absolutely love New Mexico. It’s so pretty there. Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. 

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We stopped at the Route 66 Memorial in Tucumcari. There was snow there!

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Then it was on to Texas where we  stopped at my favorite, The Cadillac Ranch. A couple of years ago we lived in an RV for several months a little bit to the west of the Ranch. I saw it all the time and fell in love with it. 

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It’s always so fun to see what people paint on the cars and I swear, the next time I go there I will NOT forget my spray paint! I’m pretty sure one of those cars needs to sport a pink crown. 😀

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We had lunch at the Big Texan Steak Ranch and I was able to have my photo taken with Big Rex.

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We all know everything is bigger in Texas and when I saw this ginormous rocking chair, I had to sit in it. 

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We had a great time driving through the southwest. The southwestern part of the United States is gorgeous in a whole different way than other parts of the country. Since we first visited New Mexico early in our marriage, I’ve always wanted to live there. I think I could get used to seeing this every day.

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Y is for Yelp

I love Yelp I’ve been yelping since September of 2011. My first review was for Sara, the gal in Bartlesville who did my facials and pedicures. After that, was John the Locksmith who saved my life by getting me in when I got locked out and getting me out when I got locked in. LOL!

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And I was off and running. If you know me, you’ll know I’m pretty positive and I love, love, love to give five star reviews. I think a lot of people will only comment when they are upset about something so I like to point out the good. 

Not that I won’t give a bad review. I will. I noticed as I was going through my reviews before writing this blog that two of the really awful hotels we’ve stayed at are now closed.

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Also, the 18 Wheeler Diner is closed. ::sobs::

But over the years, I’ve come to find Yelp to be an invaluable tool. Traveling as much as we do, I use it to find restaurants and attractions. I even used it in Warsaw, Poland recently and left reviews. 🙂 Since we recently moved, I use it all the time to find just about anything I want or need.

Do you know you can type “Baba Ghanouj” or “pageant earrings” into Yelp and it will bring you to the nearest place to find them? Awesome. 

Every once in a while I hear back from a business owner and I love that. I’ve noticed that more businesses have Yelp signs in their windows so clearly they are seeing that Yelp is something that a lot of people are using. 

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If you’re not using Yelp, yet, give it a shot. It’s really helpful! 😀

Wheels on His Feet

Another new year and in a month or two, we’ll be in another new location. “But didn’t you just move to Tulsa?” My friends ask. “Yes, but David has wheels on his feet,” I reply. 

And it’s true. We move more than anyone I know. Mostly I’m okay with it. Each new spot is someplace to explore. New restaurants, new things to do. Sometimes I’m lucky enough and there’s a Kroger to shop in. 

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This time we’re moving to San Jose, CA. California is a state I’ve visited but never in a million years thought I’d live in. 

We went to San Francisco for our 20th wedding anniversary to watch Metallica in concert with the San Francisco Symphony. We took the boys out of school and it was an awesome trip. I’ve always wanted to go back to San Francisco with David alone and stay at the Fairmont Hotel and do adult things. Like shop and eat at good restaurants. 

Shortly after that trip, I took Geoff out to Malibu to attend a baseball camp at Pepperdine University. We stayed in a surfer motel and I really loved it there. I noticed that the Pacific Ocean looks very different from the Atlantic Ocean and we ate breakfast every morning outside on a deck over the water. I could have been happy living there.

As it turns out, David’s new project is in the San Jose area and I’m pretty sure I will like it there, too. When he told me we were going to be going there, I started looking at the different areas to see where I thought I’d feel more comfortable living. I told him I’d move if he let me live in a high rise and got me a bike. He was okay with that.

So after looking  around on Google, I decided that the downtown area of San Jose is where I want to be. They have, what looks like, a thriving downtown organization. There are places to eat, shop and be entertained. On Google Earth I have walked to the library from each of the places we’re considering living. The library is super important to me and it looks like they have a nice one.

My friends who are aware of my raw veganism have suggested that it will probably be easier to live as a raw vegan in California than in Oklahoma. I think I’d agree with that even though I have no direct knowledge yet. I’m really looking forward to checking out my new home and seeing what all it has to offer. The fact that it’s neither as cold or hot as Oklahoma is appealing, too. 

When David took this job, he was to be based out of our home here in Tulsa. And I haven’t seen him since. He’s always gone so the main attraction of the move is to finally be able to live, like really live, with my husband. I miss him terribly.

The hard part will be having to give up my frequent visits with the Glambaby. I’ve been hanging out with her for twice a week for a while now. I know it helps Nikki out but my time with her is the high point of my weeks. She’s so much fun, so inquisitive, so smart. I love having a running conversation with her. And run it does. She doesn’t slow down too much. I love hearing her pick up new vocabulary and ideas. I love sharing songs and toys with her that I loved when I was a kid. Facetime just isn’t going to come close to what we have now. But, at least we’ll have facetime. I keep thinking how awesome it would have been for my mom to have facetime, or even email, when the boys were small and we were living all over the world. 

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Since we don’t plan to sell our house straight away, I figured i’ll be back frequently to have my hair done and get my glambaby fix. I also hope they’ll come visit us so we can show her California. 

I think living in the Pacific time zone is going to be difficult. I’ve never done that before and I watch David when he’s there and it seems like he puts in more hours at work just so he can be awake when the East and Central time zone people are awake. We are early to bed kind of folks. I wonder if we’ll want to go to sleep at 7 p.m. every night since it will be 9 p.m. central time?

Thanks to twitter and facebook I have friends that live in the Bay Area so I will already know people when I get there. Also, my aunt Nani lives north of Sacramento. I’m looking forward to hanging out with her at least once a month. We haven’t seen her since we went to the Metallica concert. Her daughter, my cousin, Maile, lives in NV but not too far away so I’m looking forward to seeing her again, too.

It will be different and I’m not looking forward to all aspects of the move but over the years, because he has wheels on his feet, I’ve definitely learned to bloom where I’m planted. I think my blog will become more exciting as I explore and learn about my new location, too, so you have that to look forward to. 🙂