We're in Pawhuska, OK at the Pioneer Woman Mercantile and Restaurant!

My (Cathy) parents were in town for the weekend, so we decided to head over to Pawhuska, OK to check out the new Pioneer Woman Mercantile and restaurant! Mom and I are big Pioneer Woman fans, and we both have husbands who humor our crazy whims to drive to the middle 'o nowhere to visit one place.

We set out with the idea of having lunch there, then coming back before it got too dark.  We boarded Bessie the Happy Hound in case our trip took longer than expected, and we ended up being glad that we'd done that!

Pawhuska is in the middle of nowhere.  Think two lane highways, tiny (tinytinytiny) towns, and the occasional small casino.  That's where you are going.  Fill up on gas before you really need it!  (The Mercantile has some directions if you want to plan your own visit.)

We pulled into the tiny town and found some two hour parking on the street.  We figured two hours would be plenty...until we saw the line.

Oh HAI, giant line and blistering sun!

Mom and I had to use the ladies room, so we popped into a nearby hot dog buffet to buy a drink in exchange for the use of their bathroom. (All the nearby businesses had NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS signs on their doors.  I don't really blame them.)  If you decide not to wait in line for Pioneer Woman's food, try the Prairie Dog Hot Dog joint across the street.  Their toppings bar looked awesome, but we stuck with lemonade.

Huckleberry lemonade is pretty good.

While Mom and I were on our lemonade adventure, Kirk texted me the ETA.  There were two lines. The line to the store was about half an hour long.  If we wanted to eat at the restaurant, we were looking at a 3 hour wait.  Three. HOURS.  Hours. Wait. THREE.  Did we want to do the rock star ticket line circa 1995 wait for some down home good eatin', or should we just go to the store and call it a day?

My parents had come from Colorado, and we drove two hours to get there, so dang it, we were eating at that restaurant.  They had workers come talk to us throughout the wait, bring us bottled water, play trivia, and sometimes bring out sample snacks. Mom and I went to the store line and scooped out the store while Dad and Kirk held our places in the food line. (Totally allowed, btw, until you get to the special velvet rope area.  By then, your party needs to be together according to a worker wearing a wooden sheriff badge.)

Mom and I both really liked the sign.

Upstairs there was a bakery (with a long line) and a lot of comfy couches and big windows.  It was a really pretty area.  When (if) the crowds calm down, this would be a nice place for locals.  This would be just the kind of place I'd take my laptop to so I could get some grading done while getting out of the house.

We headed upstairs first because one of the workers had told us that Ree might be upstairs.  We did not see her, but her husband Ladd was in the store and bumped into my mother.  ("Excuse me, ma'am," said Ladd to my mother, his new best friend.  He looks like he does on her blog and TV- truth in advertising!  Very polite dude.)

This was taken from the stair landing.

The store had something for everyone for sure, in all kinds of price ranges.  If you like the plates that they use in the restaurant, you can buy them at the Merc. If you want to dress just like Ree, you can pick up some of her favorite pieces at the Merc. Did your husband humor you by driving you to the middle of nowhere Oklahoma without complaint?  Buy him a 'lil present at the Merc. Want to be reminded of the splendor and bloodshed of the French Revolution?  The Merc's  got you covered.

It was hot, it was windy, and it was sunny.  We were all so glad that we did this in February (albeit it a hot February- the high was 86 degrees, and we felt it.).  I cannot imagine what they are going to do in July!  The Food Network was there filming that day.  My family is a bit camera shy, so you may see us carefully studying the brickwork with our backs to the camera in a future episode of Pioneer Woman! They did trivia questions and handed out prizes to the first people to answer. We did not win any of the cute prizes- whisks, adorable ramekins, and cute kitchen towels.

We FINALLY got to the front, and the host dramatically opened the door to reveal the INSIDE line that we were going to stand in for the next half hour! At least this line was air conditioned.

Was it worth a three hour wait?  Before I say, I have to make a confession.  I don't really like the majority of Pioneer Woman's recipes.  

It's true.  She's a fun personality and has a great blog, but I find most of her food "eh" at best. (Except this lasagna.  This lasagna rocks my world!)  Take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Here's what we ate between the four of us:

• Appetizer 1: French Onion Soup (forgot to take a picture!) 
• Verdict: Pretty yummy, if a bit salty.  Would order again.  Kirk and I told them that we were splitting it, and they brought it in two separate bowls. That was pretty great. :)

Not very wedge-y, but still delicious.

• Appetizer 2:  Wedge Salad.  
• Verdict: Both my parents had this, and both reported that it was good. The bleu cheese dressing was great, and the waitress told us that they made all their dressing fresh in house. 

This picture does not really accurately convey how huge this meal was.

• Main Event (Cathy, Mom, and Dad): Chicken Fried Steak w/ Mashed Potatoes 
• Verdict: We were mixed here.  Dad liked it, but said it did not compare to the Holy Grail of Chicken Fried Steaks at a place that he used to eat at in college. He has been searching for the CFS Grail since the place closed 40 years ago.  Mom liked it a lot.  I thought the steak was "eh."  It was not bad, but it was nothing to write home about.  It was also HUGE (and at $17, I expected nothing less) so you might consider sharing unless you are realllllllyyyyy hungry.  We all agreed the mashed potatoes were delicious.  They were real mashed potatoes- none of that powered potato just add water nonsense in Ree's restaurant! The parents would order this again, but I would try something else next time.

This sandwich was also HUGE.

• Main Event: Marlboro Man Sandwich with Potato Chips
• Verdict: Kirk really loved this.  It was also HUGE.  It was too big for him to eat with his hands, so he ate all the filling with a fork and knife, and then ate the bread.  We all tried it- if you like Worcestershire sauce, you will like this sandwich. We all really liked the homemade potato chips.

Cake so good that we only have an empty plate to show you.

Dessert: Tres Leches Cake
Verdict: Delicious!  We shared one slice, and after the huge meal we'd just eaten, one slice was enough.  We would order this again.  I think it was my favorite part of the meal. It came with two churro pieces and a pool of caramel.

The coffee is also delicious, so be sure to order a cup with dessert!


So was it worth the three hour wait?  Yes, but mostly for the experience.  It was a fun day.  We had a good time, but we all agreed that it was a one and done experience.  While we had a lot of fun and enjoyed it, we don't anticipate doing it again.

Since we did not think we'd be in Pawhuska again, we took a quick walk to check out some of the local businesses.  The Buckin' Flamingo was just down the street and around the corner, so we checked it out.

You can't miss the place.

This sculpture is over six feet tall.

Buffalo burgers, anyone? 

If you're in the market for some yard sculpture or a BBQ shaped like a buffalo, look no further!

Line at 5pm

The line was still there when we left. When we were at this point in the line, we had about an hour left of waiting.

One and done- but what a day!

Tips:

• Plan for the weather.  We were thankful that we had sunblock. In the summer, you might want bug spray as well.  They were kindly handing out water, but you might want to bring your own as well, especially on a really hot day. There is no shade or protection from the wind or rain, so be prepared. (Cathy wished she'd brought her sun hat.)
• Be prepared to WAIT.  We waited over 3 hours to eat in the restaurant.  The store wait was about 1/2 an hour.  Mom and I went to the store while the guys held our place in the restaurant line.  If you eat at the restaurant, you can go into the store right after without having to wait in the store line.
• They do have a port-o-potty trailer, so don't worry about the long wait if you have a small bladder or kiddos with you. They've got you covered.
• The street parking was 2 hours, but the line helper told us that they do not enforce it. 
• We were told that there are long lines EVERY day, but Friday and Saturday have the longest lines.  A middle of the week trip might yield you the best results.

Day 6: The Winchester Mystery House

Cathy has wanted to go to the Winchester Mystery House ever since she saw something on TV about it years ago.  It is in San Jose, so we planned a trip for today. Yay!

We've traveled in many different cities and countries, and we've never been as confused about a subway system as we were about the BART.  BART was both confusing and expensive.  We spent a futile fifteen minutes attempting to buy tickets at the vending machine.  Kirk's card kept getting rejected for some reason, which we took as a sign that we should not spend two hours on an expensive subway train.  Kirk had some promotional credit on his account, so we hit up Lyft.  It was more expensive than BART- but not by an insane amount. (Thank you, Lyft calculator!) The car was clean and the driver was very pleasant.

We got to the house, bought our tickets, and waited for our turn.  There were about 20 people on each hour long tour, and tours were booked back to back.  It was a busy place!

The house was HUGE.  There are 160 rooms.  The house was worked on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year while Mrs. Winchester was alive.  She was crazy rich.  When her husband died, she inherited 20 million dollars AND stock in her husband's company that earned her about $1000 a DAY.  Plus she earned extra money by growing and drying fruit from the orchards she planted on her property.  

The house was weird- stairs going nowhere, giant cabinets that had half an inch of "storage" space, a seance room that had one entrance but three exits, doors that opened to 8 feet drops, windows everywhere (including the floors) and references to spider webs and the number 13 in lots of things.  Many of the doors were very low- Mrs. Winchester was only 4 feet 11 inches tall.  She also had arthritis, and had "easy riser" stairs installed.  Those would be useful today! There were also three elevators.  New servants had to use a map to get through the house.  She seemed like a difficult person to work for- she liked to spy on her servants to make sure they were not talking about her, and set up parts of the house so she could do so undetected. However, she paid her servants 3 dollars a day, which was twice the going rate, and their servant quarters were very comfortable. She also added thoughtful touches to make their work easier.  For example, the laundry room had hot and cold running water AND built in scrubbing boards in the sinks.   There was also removable flooring it the conservatory.  Under the wood, there was zinc, which is rust resistant, and a drains. There was also running water in the conservatories so the servants could water the plants with minimal work. 

She was an extremely private person, and did not really have guests.  Her niece lived with her as her companion.  The niece inherited most of the money when Mrs. Winchester died.  She also got her furniture.  She took what she wanted, and auctioned off the rest.  While all of the furniture is period specific, none of it was original.  Only 1/3 of the house had furniture in it, but it took the moving men six weeks of eight hour days to remove the contents. 

It was a fascinating tour.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but we got a few shots outside.

Modeling the house

Cathy was taken by these lemons.

The house

We stopped for coffee, then grabbed a Lyft back.  We called the guy who drove us in, but he was too far away to pick us up, so we used the app.  The woman who showed up happened to be his wife!  She called him and we all laughed together.  It was a good ride- Carol was really nice, and her car was super clean.

After a quick break at the hotel, we popped by Lombard Street.  It lived up to its crooked name.  It was also extremely steep. We walked down it.  The houses were beautiful, but if we were going to spend 5 million dollars on a house, we would not want a billion tourists walking by our windows every day.

Cathy is basically standing in someone's yard here.

It was our last dinner, so we had seafood on the wharf.  Kirk had swordfish, and Cathy had seafood risotto.

We can't believe that it was our last day here!  This week has FLOWN by.  We are hoping for an easy trip back, but we're preparing to be stranded in Dallas, as the weather is going to be awful in a lot of places.  We will let you know how it turns out!

Day 4: A Low Key Christmas

We had such a quiet, restful Christmas.  We were not sure what was going to be open, so we had not made any real plans, which turned out to be really nice.

The Starbucks by our hotel was open, so we had our breakfast there.  Pro Tip: Mobile ordering is where it's at, if your bux has it! :)

We ate there next to a man who appeared to be editing a screenplay. He asked if we minded watching his stuff for a few minutes so he could step away.  He said we should finish it if he did not come back. When he returned, Kirk told him that the writing was good, but that he should lose the first chapter.  The guy laughed and said that losing the first chapter is always a good note!

The man's things.

The trolley cars were running today, so we hopped on one to Chinatown.  There are actually several Chinatowns in San Francisco, so we went to the oldest one.

The trolley we rode as it pulled up.

After poking through the shops and checking out the scene, we had a Japanese lunch. Yeah. That's how we roll.


We decided to stop by the room to take a quick rest before we did our next thing, and Cathy ended up sleeping for two hours.  Apparently a relaxing vacation is exhausting.

By the time we got up and about, it was pretty much time for dinner.  We checked Open Table to see what might be open on Christmas, and we choose seafood at the Blue Mermaid.

We were *really* glad we made reservations.  Fisherman's Wharf was a *madhouse* tonight.  

Everybody and their dog (literally- the people beside us had a dog in a soft sided carrier) was there. They had run out of many things, and Kirk got the last trout. Cathy had the cioppino, which she recommends, even though it did involve the indignity of a bib.  Delish!

We rode the cable car back, the stopped in at the hotel where the Huskers are staying.  As it would happen, they are staying only a few blocks away from where we are staying. We stopped at the bar to see if we could catch a glimpse of any of the players, which we (think) we did.  We did see a lot of other Nebraska fans, so Kirk will have plenty of company at the game.

We never actually got a waiter to pay attention to us long enough to get a drink, so we left and stopped by our hotel's bar.  Cathy got a glass of Brut and Kirk got an espresso.  A man stopped to say that he wish he had a camera, as the contrast of champagne and espresso would be a great shot for an art gallery.

Apparently art. 

We headed back to the room for some bad TV and an early bedtime.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 1: Alcatraz!

Hello from our random, last minute Christmas trip to California!  We will be spending the next week checking out the sights of San Francisco.

Our Priceline hotel has exceeded expectations on all counts. We are in the financial district, and our hotel is both hilarious and awesome.  Our room is comfortable, and has a nice view.  Our only real compliant is that there is no in-room coffee maker, but thanks to the wonders of online reviews, we knew that was going to be the case and came prepared.

No, YOU brought an electric kettle with you because you consider tea a necessity.

We have been very fortunate in our Priceline "Name Your Own Price" gambles, but this hotel has been our most impressive win.  The "hilarious" comes with how they describe everything. Apparently expensive things have to have fancy names.  For example, we don't have a lobby, we have a "hub."  The hub, per their website: "A modern reinterpretation of the traditional hotel lobby, the Le Meridian Hub offers an array of opportunities for guests to gather, connect, and be inspired."  We just checked in yesterday, so we will have to get back to you on how the lobby inspired us.

According to my room key, you can enjoy a "24 hour soundtrack curated by Nouvelle Vague" by going here.

Also, there's a scale in the bathroom in case you want to see how much vacation weight you're gaining in real time.  

We decided to have breakfast an Eye-Opener at the hotel this morning just to scout it out.  Fancy people call morning meals eye openers.  We were invited to "embark on a culinary journey with handcrafted creations"  

My journey included eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast.

Kirk decided to explore a handcrafted ham and cheese omelette with potatoes and an English muffin. Speak your truth, Kirk!

Our "culinary journey" cost about half of what I spent on the room itself, so we think we will be skipping the hotel breakfast for the rest of our stay.  That said, it was pretty tasty!  The breakfast room was really comfortable, and the coffee was great!

We decided to visit Alcatraz for our first San Francisco activity.  I bought tickets online the same day we booked this trip, and I was glad I did.  When we got to the ferry, there was a sign saying that they were out of tickets until January 4!

We walked from the hotel to the ferry in about 20 minutes, but got there early so we went to visit the Pier 39 sea lions.

They were pretty loud!

The Fisherman's Wharf had lots of cute shops, but we did not have much time there.  We'll have to go back!  

Christmas tree

A specialty store for left handed people (The Leftorium?)

Alcatraz was really interesting.  There is a lot more history to it than either of us realized.  It started as a military garrison.  Confederate prisoners were sometimes sent there during the civil war.  It became a federal prison in the 1930's.

Kirk models.

Cathy showing what's left of a PX/Officers Club that burned down.  They had a bowling alley for the staff and families on the island.

To get to the island, you have to take a short boat ride.  It took about 15 minutes to get across.

The first light house on the West coast.

View.  It's a pretty small island.

We're fresh off the boat here.

Guard tower

There was a short orientation video that went over the history of "The Rock."  It was really interesting to hear about all of the things that it was before it was a prison, and to hear about the people who lived there.  The soldiers, and later the correctional officers, had their families with them on island.  Children grew up on the island!  They took a boat to San Francisco every morning to go to school.  The wives of the officers could take a shuttle boat to do their shopping across the bay, or they could rely on the general store on the island. 

There was also a Native American occupation on the island after the prison closed.  There are still signs of the occupation around today.

It's hard to read, but the graffiti reads "Home of Free Indian Land"

 Once we got to the prison block, there was an audio tour. (It was included in the price.)  The cells are really, REALLY small.  REALLY. SMALL.  Each man had his own cell, but even so- very  small.

Cathy's arms are longer than the cells.

This is an example of the fake head that the infamous escaped prisoners used to fool the guards.

Rows and rows of cells

Eventually, the prison became to expensive to maintain and it closed in the '60's.  It pretty much fell apart once nobody was taking care of it anymore.  There were many areas that we could not go into because it was too dangerous.

This was once the Warden's house.

There was a great view of San Francisco!  The city is only a little over a mile away.  Once of the stories on the audio tour said that on New Year's, if the wind was just right, they could hear the music and laughter from a local yacht club's annual party.

Pretty!

Golden Gate Bridge- Kirk's grandpa spent many years painting it in the 40's.

After we got back, we had a late lunch/early dinner.  We warmed up with clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. It was pretty good!

We also had shrimp cocktail and an order of chili cheese fries, because why not?

We were hungry- we walked a lot! 

We walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow we're doing more museums and having our Christmas dinner before Christmas. 

It was a good day.

The Last Full Day

We decided to have a very relaxed last full day in Spokane.  For us, that included a visit to the Northwest Museum of Society and Culture and a decadent dinner. 

We got to the museum just in time to take the last tour of the day of the Campbell House!  It was really interesting and fun.  

These young men were not able to stay for the whole tour.  They had ridden on bikes from Baltimore, MD and were on their way to Seattle with 4 K for Cancer. They dedicate each leg of their ride to someone who had died of cancer.  Our tour guide had lost her husband Tom to cancer, so they are going to dedicate the next leg of their ride to him. 

The basement had a room for Mr. Campbell and his friends to play cards and drink brandy- the only room in the house where alcohol was allowed, as Mrs. Campbell was a temperance woman. 

They also had electric lights.  They were charged for electricity per lightbulb in those early days of electric in houses.  They also had indoor plumbing, which was nice for the family and the servants alike!

We did not take many pictures today.

Coolest kids in the Carriage House

The front door.

The museum had everything set up as storytelling, which really pleased Cathy.  Stop by if you're in the area- totally worth the visit!

After the museum, we went back to our apartment to get ready for dinner.  We decided to have our last dinner in Spokane at Clickerdaggers, which is housed in an old flour factory. We loved everything we ate!

The flour mill.

Oysters Rockefeller

Cathy had lobster bisque. 

x

Kirk had French Onion Soup

Kirk had salmon.

Cathy had prawns and crab.

After our huge (and really, REALLY good!) dinner, we walked through Riverside Park and stopped by the Davenport Hotel to see the historical pictures on the second floor. Another place worth a stop if you have a moment! 

On our way back to our awesome rental car, the mini banana mobile, we stopped at Inspiration Point, which is dedicated to Christian pioneers.

Kirk at Inspiration Point at Riverside Park.

Cathy liked this sculpture. 

One last river selfie. 

We've had a great time and really recommend Spokane!