March 19th

Evan and Julie both had to work. Roy and I went to Mom's about 8ish for a breakfast of tasty cinnamon French toast with yogurt and bananas. Then the four of us piled in the Prius and drove up to the Tulsa Botanic Garden to see the Nature Connects exhibit of fauna and gardening implements sculptures all made out of Lego bricks.

We spent a couple hours walking around looking at the plants, flowers, water features and Lego sculptures. There was a giant hummingbird feeding in a trumpet flower, a dragonfly, a fox, some bunnies, a birdbath with cardinals and a squirrel climbing in it, a snail on a mushroom, a giant monarch butterfly, some floating lily pads, a frog, a lotus blossom, a bonsai tree, an orchid, a sundial with a bluebird, and a bird feeder with goldfinches. We weren't as impressed with the tools - wheelbarrow, lawnmower, rototiller - and the gardener. They just weren't as pretty to look at.

In the area of the terraced gardens, there was an intriguing plant that we eventually identified as a Trifoliate orange. It had curving branches with thorns and a few little yellow blossoms. (It is not in the photo).

In the lake area, near where this photo was taken, but sufficiently far away, we came across a goose nesting in a raised bed of tulips.

One of our last stops was a big concrete structure made to look like a monster face from an ancient Latin American culture. It had a fountain in its mouth and you could go inside it. It was cool inside and there was light filtering down through a skylight and casting rainbows around. Roy sat down for a minute and noticed a ladybug climbing on his hand. After a bit, it moved up to the bill of his cap to crawl around.

We left the gardens and had a late 2pm-ish lunch at a nearby-ish sushi and ramen restaurant where we were the only patrons. My spicy seafood ramen was quite tasty.

Back in Norman, we hung out visiting a bit more with Mom and Rick and were invited to stay for a supper of shrimp tacos before heading back to Evan's. When we got there, Evan and Julie were both out. Unfortunately, we set off their alarm trying to get in and riled up the critters. Izzy was particularly vocal about it the rest of the evening. On the upside, she's definitely a great guard dog!