Search Results for: austin

Museum of the Weird in Austin, Texas

RobOHara1 Comment

Tucked away in the heart of Austin, Texas is the Museum of the Weird. Susan found this museum while searching for things to do in Austin and I’m so glad she did. While it’s a little rough around the edges, it is definitely worth stopping by if you like weird things. The Museum of the Weird is divided into three parts. The first part is a self-guided tour through a collection of oddities. The second portion of the tour is a sideshow performance. The final portion, if you pay extra for it (more on that later), is a viewing of… (read more)

Keep Austin Weird

RobOHara1 Comment

Instead of sitting around the house this Labor Day weekend (my plan), Susan said, “let’s go to Austin, Texas.” Austin is roughly 400 miles/6 hours S/SE of Oklahoma City. We’ve been through Austin twice (both times while driving to Galveston) but had never stopped. In a span of 36 hours we: Ate at Happy Days Diner, Fricano’s Deli, Freebirds World Burrito, Hat Creek Burger Company, and In-and-Out Burger. Saw one of five existing complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible and the first photograph ever taken at the Harry Ransom Center. Played dozens of arcade and pinball machines at Pinballz Arcade.… (read more)

Experiencing the Great American Eclipse of 2024 in Ozark, Arkansas

RobOHara3 Comments

Our trips involve equal parts planning and impulse. Case in point — last year when Susan first heard about the 2024 eclipse, she booked an AirBnB in Austin. Then, a month before the big event, our reservation was abruptly cancelled without notice. We received a refund along with a note that said “this reservation is no longer available” which, to me, sounds like they got a more lucrative offer. I’ve been told they’ll take a hit on their rating and that there may be other consequences for then, but none of that matters to us. With less than a month… (read more)

Easter 2021

RobOHara

On March 19, Susan and I returned to Enid, Oklahoma to receive our second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. We could have waited a week or two and received our second shots at work, but time was of the essence. According to the CDC’s website, people are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their second shot. That date for us was April 2, two days before Easter. The weather Sunday afternoon was just about perfect. It was warm, but not too warm. It was windy, but not too windy. For the first time in over a year,… (read more)

That Last Visit to Fry’s Never Happened

RobOHara4 Comments

In the fall of 2013, work sent me to Tempe, Arizona for a week of training. After arriving in town, one of my first stops was at the local Fry’s. Although we didn’t have a Fry’s here in Oklahoma, I had visited a few of their other locations. Fry’s was multiple stores in one — like Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA and Radio Shack all under the same roof. They had a huge selection of movies, music, and A/V equipment. The computer department contained everything from completely assembled computers to parts like hard drives, memory, motherboards and cases. They had… (read more)

Meow Wolf: Origin Story (Review)

RobOHara

My family and I discovered Meow Wolf’s interactive art installation “The House of Eternal Return” purely by accident. In the summer of 2016, the four of us decided to rent an RV and drive west on I-40, eventually stopping in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was there, while looking for things to do, that Susan ran across a review of Meow Wolf, describing it as “part art installation, part interactive fun house.” On a whim, we decided to go check it out. The four of us spent roughly four hours wandering through The House of Eternal Return, taking pictures and… (read more)

A Week of Moving

RobOHara2 Comments

What a whirlwind the past seven days have been. Last Sunday was moving day. We weren’t done packing everything when the movers arrived, but I’m not sure that anyone’s ever completely ready to move. By the time the moving company backed their trucks into our driveway, we had packed most of the big stuff and we packed most of the small stuff. We had packed most of the things we wanted to keep, and a lot of the things we had planned to part with. We packed and packed and packed. First we ran out of boxes. Then, we ran… (read more)

Kevin Durant’s Exit: My Two Cents

RobOHara5 Comments

The world needs another article about Kevin Durant’s decision to leave Oklahoma City for Golden State like the Warriors need another three-point shooter, but regardless, now that I’m back from vacation I feel compelled to write something. As an adult in my forties, I don’t believe anything any celebrity says, ever. When you’ve watched the President of the United States lie to the entire country on television under oath about not having a sexual relationship with his intern, why should we believe anything anyone else has to say? Musicians routinely cancel concerts due to exhaustion (read: drug overdoses) and “happily… (read more)

My Year in Review: A Look Back At 2014

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People have said that the O’Haras are not happy unless they are busy. If that’s the case, our family stayed pretty happy in 2014. We did lots of things, went lots of places, and saw lots of stuff. Mason and Morgan turned thirteen and nine, while Susan and I both turned 41. Last year we took four vacations: two long ones to California and Florida and two shorter ones to Austin, Texas and Denver, Colorado. I’m now down to about five states I haven’t visited. I ate so much good food this year. I ate shrimp and crayfish grits in… (read more)

The Heart of Rock and Roll is Still Beating

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Huey Lewis and the News released their third album Sports in September, 1983. The album’s first two singles, “Heart and Soul” and “I Want a New Drug,” both cracked the top ten. The third single, “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” was a tribute to rock and roll. The song consists of three verses. The first two are each dedicated to specific cities while the third verse mentions ten more (one of which is Oklahoma City). That’s one of the things that caught my attention as a kid. I thought it was really cool that I lived in a city… (read more)