Roman Nose

Last weekend the two brothers, husband and I surprised Dad by appearing in Oklahoma for a late 60th birthday celebration, as many of you know. I was kind of surprised that HE was surprised, seeing as last Tuesday's birthday passed with conspicuously modest celebration, and seeing as it was the not-insignificant 60th one. There were apparently a couple of near bean-spillages to boot, but he seemed genuinely surprised to find us on his doorstep Thursday night. Mom had booked two nights for the six of us at the Roman Nose state park lodge, about and hour-and-a-half's drive northwest from Norman, close to the bustling metropolis of Watonga, OK.

The landscape around Roman Nose looks like prairie grassland, the dry kind, from a distance. Closer up, the area is full of creeks and mini canyons, creating an interesting topography.

Here, some grassy flora along the "high mesa" trail. Early in the morning too! The mornings and evenings were surprising fresh and cool, so that's when we did our walks.





Mom, Dad, and I also canoed on Saturday. As you can see, my camera came with us in the canoe, agaist Dad's counsel to leave it in the car, the wisdom of which was demonstrated when we narrowly escaped impaling our canoe on a just-below-the-surface tree trunk.



The brothers and Jean did a round of golf on the park course, which excitingly looped across and through the canyons. This was Jean's first golf experience, by the way.

Here he is, tackling hole 13's canyon.



I'm in the process of getting set up to provide slideshow links, via Flickr, so hopefully there will be more Roman Nose visuals soon.