Road Tripping to Kansas!

Amanda has been one of my dearest friends since I arrived here in Dallas. We met in a Bible study and our friendship grew out of a shared love for football, queso, and authentic conversation. In the same breath we can go from ridiculing the other's football team to dreaming about being stay-at-home moms together. She's one of those people you know without a shadow of doubt will be a life friend.

Last summer, Amanda was working briefly in Kansas, and on the way home from my summer in Iowa, we met in Kansas City for the weekend. You wouldn't believe the amount of fun we had unless you experienced it with us. While there, we ate at this place called Stroud's, which we fell in love with. There's three locations: two in Kansas City and one in Wichita. We joked that when she was back in Dallas we would take a road trip to Wichita just to eat at Strouds.

We took that road trip this weekend. Reminisce with me....

Saturday morning we left in Amanda's car with coffee to go and nothing stopping us. Conversation was nonstop as we headed up I-35 to Oklahoma City to make our first stop. Neither of us had seen the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial for the Murrah Building:



Someone had recommended that we visit the riverwalk area in downtown Oklahoma City, so we hopped a trolley and took it to Bricktown.



Bricktown is where the city made a canal through an old business district. It's now a hot spot with a plethora of restaurants (including Toby Keith's), shopping, and entertainment. Outside the baseball field, there's a statue of one of my grandpa's favorite baseball players - Mickey Mantle.



Of course, you can't go to a riverwalk without taking water taxi cruise....



After we finished at Bricktown, we went to a BBQ restaurant called County Line. It's one of Amanda's favorite places from growing up in Lubbock, but there's not a location in DFW. It was fantastic! We both had the #1 food NOT to have on a date - barbeque ribs!

Early in the evening we drove to Wichita, which was about two hours from OKC. We had noticed plenty of lightning while we were driving, but didn't think much of it. We checked into the hotel and then went to a mall. We noticed a few stores were closed, but others were open. Turns out we were in a tornado warning at the time, which we found ironic! The worst of the storm was in a different section of the county, so we weren't in danger, but we joked about getting red slippers. :) We also witnessed a theft - a guy running off with belts from a kiosk. Craziness!

Sunday we ate at the long-awaited Strouds for lunch and were not disappointed! It was definitely worth the drive. In Kansas City I also introduced Amanda to the clothing store, Maurices. I've known it forever, but it's not around in Dallas. She loved it, so we made a stop at FOUR Maurices - three in Wichita, one in Oklahoma City. I know, crazy! We're planning to make this trip a couple times a year!



The weekend could not have went any better! We kept saying how much fun we had. Silly spontaneity - a benefit of singleness! :)