Conor was given Friday through Monday off for Labor day weekend, we were hopeful for the chance I’d get the whole weekend off as well. We were hoping to take the time to go somewhere for the weekend, perhaps Dallas, or even home to Vermont for a quick trip. But, as I’ve come to learn, in the life of a nurse, I rarely get full weekends off-especially holiday weekends. Unfortunately I had to work on Sunday. We had to cross off the idea of going away for the weekend, so we tried to have a couple of local adventures on the days we had together.

Friday afternoon we headed to Oklahoma City for a baseball game. OKC has a minor league team with a great stadium, and they tend to draw in a good-sized crowd, especially on a holiday weekend. The game was at 7pm, but we decided to leave for the city earlier in the day so we could grab some beers and our favorite Artichoke Dip at one of our favorite places there, Tap Werks.

The game was a blast, Conor loved watching the game, and I loved the people watching. We ended up leaving the game a little early, around 9:30, we had to drive back to Enid that night and were exhausted.

       

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On Saturday we woke up and the sun was shining bright and early. It was going to be a beautiful day, so we felt like it would be a great day to go on an adventure. One of my coworkers had mentioned that on a day off we go to the Oklahoma Salt Plaines together in Jet, Oklahoma (about an hour away). The Great Salt Plaines are made up of salt left over from an ocean that covered Oklahoma in prehistoric times. At the actual Salt Plaines state park anyone who visits can do all activities from biking, swimming, hiking, running, fishing, and even camping. The most popular activity however is the crystal digging. The crystals are formed from the brine from the salt, minerals in the soil, and the water just below the surface. They’re unique crystals that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.

When we first drove up, it was kind of surreal. We went from driving through big green pastures of Oklahoma to all of a sudden a dirt road that lead to what looked like a snow covered ground. We both felt like we were back home in Vermont! It was one of the oddest things, we couldn’t get over it. We quickly realized, that we were nowhere near Vermont when we stepped outside of the jeep and were slapped in the face with the 100+ degree heat radiating off the salt.

We unloaded the car, bringing our shovels, bucket, and lots of sun screen. We wanted to walk a bit further out so we weren’t surrounded by so many holes that had previously been dug. About an hour into our time there we realized how completely addicting this whole process was. We tried to stop because it was just so hot out, but we kept finding more crystals and just couldn’t get ourselves to pack up and walk away. Finally after an hour and a half there, we both stopped and laughed at ourselves for how addicted we had become, and then left to head back to Enid. It was a great time, and a really fun way to spend our Saturday. I’d love to go back to the state park and do some of the activities there in the future as well.

These are what the actually crystals look like. They’re not the prettiest things in the world, but the fact that they’re so unique is nice. A good crystal has clear edges, with the brown center that looks almost like an hourglass.

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Sunday was a work day for me, and Conor decided It’d be a productive day for him as well. He thought he’d get all of his weekend studying done so we could spend the day doing something fun on Monday. When I got home, this is what I saw. 

Looks like studying right??…

Nope, It’s NFL fantasy football draft.

This is my… I have to work Sunday on Holiday Weekend face. 

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Monday was a lazy day. We went out for breakfast at a little breakfast dive in town called Wee Too. It was great!

We decided we’d spend the rest of the day at the pool at our apartment. With it being over 100 degrees that day, there wasn’t much else we felt like doing.

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Overall, we had a great weekend. I’m so happy that we were able to spend the time together as we often don’t get to spend many weekends together at all.