I was happy to take a much-needed break from New York and spend the past weekend in Oklahoma visiting family. October is a great month for Oklahoma, bringing below-90s temperatures and adorable hay bales everywhere.
The glorious view from my parents’ backyard in Owasso
When we weren’t staring at hay bales, my family and I did a lot of eating last weekend. Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a more cosmopolitan restaurant scene than you might expect. A new addition is Sushi Train, a cute variation on the conveyor belt “kaiten” sushi restaurants in Japan.
Instead of scooting around on a strip of rubber, the sushi at Sushi Train rolls around the bar on a toy train. Mysteriously, the train’s speed seemed to switch back and forth between moderate and superfast every couple of minutes, which added to the adventure of grabbing your sushi as it chugged by.
Speaking of meals on wheels, I also experienced my first-ever drive-thru liquor store in Stillwater, OK. What a thrill.
You roll up, trying not to block traffic if the line extends into the two-lane street…
… check out the inventory from your car window…
… and score your booze without leaving the vehicle! Who needs Burger King when you can have Bud Light, right?
Oh! We love the Sushi Train here – it’s so much fun! Glad to see it’s more spread out than just up here in our part of the world… BTW, we love the patterns! The kids want about 100 of the Woodins but they’ll just have to make do with what comes off the needles. Congrats on being published in Knitty and good luck with the show!
Ha ha! I always forget that not every state allows beer drive-thrus!
sushi in Oklahoma… why do I find this a little scary?
=:0
the field looks so pretty … what a big sky! Beautiful.
I know NJ has ‘brew-thrus’.. I always thought it was funny, combining drinking and driving in a NEW way :(
Ohio has some of these “drive through” liquor stores. Indiana doesn’t have these though because our liquor laws are pretty strick: No receiving liquor in the mail and No buying alcohol on Sundays…those are the two that I can remember right now…
Aww, I wish they’d had that sushi restaurant when I lived in Oklahoma.
The drive-through liquor store in my old hometown had a big sign advertising “COLD BEER” in the window, and you KNOW lots of people were cracking ’em open before they got home. If I were a police officer, I would stalk drivers leaving those stores. It would be like shooting drunk fish in a barrel.
and now for my favorite stupid farm joke:
say, did you hear they’re going to outlaw those round hay bales?
why would they do that?
because the horses don’t get a square meal…
wakka wakka!
(probably funnier *after* you’ve had your drive-thru liquor) ;)
Oh my gosh, Joan— that joke should be illegal!
heh heh heh… i dare you not to think of it every time you see a hay bale from now on… muah hahaha!
holy cow- I was in stillwater at the same time, from San Francisco. I recognized the Barn (erected when I was in school there) in your post, I’ve just discovered the toilet paper friend and had to go looking for more cute patterns.
thanks for that!
J