As we didn’t do any of the sights in Wichita the day before, we decided to get an early start and see a few things before leaving for Tulsa. We stopped at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum which is a really cool building (though it wasn’t open) before parking up at Exploration Space which is a kid’s science and discovery museum housed in a really cool building complex. As it was Saturday they also had an exhibition of “service” vehicles that the kids were going crazy over! The fire engine and police vehicles were firm favourites, though I really liked the DeLorean – even though Brian assured me that they were totally crap cars. Next up was The Keeper of the Plains which was very impressive, though hard to get a picture of at the right angle. It was getting increasingly hot and we didn’t hang around too long before hitting the road for Tulsa.
Tulsa has more churches than you can shake a stick at (Bible belt after all) and we stopped at the very imposing Boston Avenue United Methodist Church before checking into yet another hotel.
Then followed our usual walk of the town to check out the town and find something to eat and drink. Tulsa downtown isn’t huge though it has a few very interesting art deco buildings and of course, a lot of churches. We also found what is called The Center of the Universe and is described as “Mysterious spot where visitors stand on a circle & noises they make are echoed back much louder.” It really was quite strange and seems to be some sort of acoustic anomaly where you stand on a spot and your words echo – but only you can hear it. Very odd.
Tulsa also has the biggest collection of street art that we’ve ever encountered and it really makes the place look really interesting and a lot more engaging than it would otherwise be. We found our way to a proper dive bar, Orpha’s Lounge, where we had a couple of drinks – it was a very interesting experience with very interesting people – and Brian could smoke in a bar for the first time in ages!
We walked back via the Blue Dome District where they have a really cool shipping container shopping concept – The Boxyard Tulsa before some free garlic knots and a couple of slices of pizza for dinner at Andolini’s Sliced.
We were ready for another couple of drinks and the Brady Arts District seemed a good place to find some! Valkyrie is a super hip cocktail bar with an incredible array of spirits and bitters and I really enjoyed my cocktail there. Caz’s Pub just a few doors down from Valkyrie was another dive-ish bar and made me the worst margarita ever, but the place was cool and once again Brian could smoke inside, so we were happy to end the evening there.
Tulsa has no shortage of arts and entertainment (lots of bars!) and we really enjoyed our stopover there.
Biltong and Burger 