About six months ago, Amy, Angie, Kendall, and I planned a girls trip to KC for three days in mid July. We love to travel together, but it just hasn't worked out since our Chicago trip back in 2014, and we were all feeling long overdue for a trip together. We got the trip on the calendar and were all so excited for our three days in KC.
Then, I broke my ankle and had to tell the girls that I couldn't go to KC. We were planning to leave on Monday, July 19th, which was just two weeks after the accident, and I felt like there was no way I would be able to be in a car for 4 hours or tool around the city like we had planned. I was SO sad and felt super guilty. You see, we had planned to take a cruise together back in 2017 and had even paid the deposit when I found out I was pregnant with Bristol. I had to tell them all that I would be too far along to do the cruise, and even though I insisted they go without me, they all canceled their tickets as well. So to say I felt terrible to be ruining yet another trip is an understatement.
Once again, I told them all to please go without me and have the best time, and I was under the impression that they were going to do just that. However, one evening Kendall called me and asked if I would want to go to Tahlequah instead of KC. It was only a one hour drive, and we could spend our time playing games, eating good food, and just hanging out with each other instead of running around. Of course I said yes! And it was a good thing I did . . . Amy had already changed our AirB&B reservations to a house in Tahlequah :-).
Kendall drove her minivan down from Kansas to Tulsa and picked up Angie then Amy on Monday, July 19th. Then, they all came to pick me up, and we stopped at Chili's in town for lunch before heading to the Quah.
So happy to be together!
That afternoon, we got settled in our house and relaxed a bit before going to Sam and Ella's for dinner. This was a favorite from our college days, and we were all SO excited! Sadly, we could only do carry-out, but it worked out as we just went to a nearby park to eat.
My girl, Amy
Love these ladies!
After dinner, we drove around Tahlequah a bit before heading back to our house for the evening. It was so interesting to see how much has changed, yet feel like it was exactly the same. We stayed up visiting and laughing until about midnight, then turned in for the night. The house had two bedrooms, so I slept in one bedroom (that had a private bath), Kendall and Amy slept in the other bedroom, and Angie crashed on the couch. It worked out perfectly!
The next morning, we took our time getting up and getting ready before heading into town to eat at another college favorite, Vidalia's Cafe.
It was just as good as we remembered, and pretty much looked exactly the same inside! After stopping at a few shops downtown, we decided to head to campus and walk around there for a bit.
Reminiscing at Seminary Hall!
Seminary Hall was under construction, so I wasn't able to go inside with my knee scooter. Angie took pics for me so I could see how it looks, though!
Of course, a stop by the education building was a must! We all spent a lot of our time here!
Angie and Chelley
Kendall and Amy were both RAs in college, so they wanted to walk through the dorms. I wasn't up for walking that far across campus, so I opted to visit my friend, Lena, instead. She was a second Mom to me in college, and I try to visit her every few years. Last December, her husband Jesse died from Covid complications, so I was especially eager to hug her neck! We visited for about an hour, and she shared with me all about Jesse's illness and death. We cried a lot, but we also comforted each other and laughed a lot!
After leaving campus, our next stop in our nostalgia tour was the Wheeler House. This was the house where Kendall and Amy lived, and where Angie and I spent many nights with them in college. SO MANY memories happened here, and it somehow looks exactly the same!
For dinner, we hit up another old favorite . . El Zarape! So good!
Amy always has silly and crazy ideas, so after dinner she got it in her head that she wanted some photos with us in front of this Tahlequah sign. The problem with photos in front of this sign is that you have to stand in the middle of the road - which forks - so traffic comes from several directions. First, she took a photo of me crossing the road on my knee scooter. I was almost hit by a van that stared us down (no doubt wondering WHAT in the world we were doing), so Angie got back in Kendall's van and refused to take photos leaving us with this one random photo of my on my scooter 😂. It was a hilarious moment, for sure!
We stayed up waaaay too late playing games and visiting, but it was just what we all needed. The next morning, we got all our stuff packed up and checked out of the little Tahlequah house.
At the house, there were these fun Del Rancho mugs that we drank coffee from. This inspired a trip to Del Rancho for lunch before leaving the Quah!
Del Rancho was never my jam in college, but the other three ate there frequently. After our lunch, we all kind of wondered why, lol.
Angie and Amy ordering lunch on the phone at the table
Kendall and Chelley
Excited for Del Rancho!
Where else can you go and place your order on an old-school phone?!?
Once we finished lunch, we headed back toward my house so Kendall could drop me off first, then Amy, then Angie. It was a wonderful and much-needed three days together! Even though we weren't sure about a trip to Tahlequah - and I was initially disappointed in our change of plans - it turned out to be just perfect. Reliving those old college days memories and visiting our old stomping grounds was so much fun - more fun than we expected! As it turned out, this was the trip we should have been planning all along!
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