Quick Travel: Tulsa, Oklahoma

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Photo by Don Sibley, copright 2008 Tulsa, Oklahoma at sunset.

Looking for a quick getaway where you can capture that away-from-home feeling without spending all day in the car or dropping a wad on airfare? Check out Tulsa, Oklahoma. The city is about 180 miles from Springfield, so you won’t even have to spend much more than three hours driving. This will leave you plenty of time in your day (or your weekend) to enjoy all the city has to offer.

Shop Up An Appetite

Start your morning off with a stroll down the Cherry Street antique district. This district was redeveloped in the early 1980s and is known for its architecture, antiques and fine dining. You’ll find many gift and antique shops here, so you can purchase a souvenir for yourself and a couple of gifts to take to your friends back home.

If you happen to go on a Saturday during growing season, you can enjoy some seasonal fruit for breakfast or pick up fresh vegetables for later at the farmers’ market. Be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes—the street boasts nearly two miles of antique shops and other specialty stores that are great for exploring.

All this walking and shopping is sure to work up an appetite, so check out the Palace Café (palacetulsa.com) for a late brunch or early lunch. Among many tasty-sounding options, the menu lists a variety of delicious ingredients for creating your own omelet. The Palace Café also serves up what it calls the best burger in Tulsa—the Palace Royale—a wood-grilled burger that’s fully loaded with sautéed white wine mushrooms, maple pepper bacon and Swiss cheese.

See the Sights

With your souvenir shopping finished and your belly full of delicious food, take the afternoon to relax with a visit to one of the city’s walking tours or museums. If your legs are up to it, check out Tulsa’s Art Deco Landmarks walking tour. This self-guided tour explores an area that was known as the Terra Cotta City in the late 1920s for its beautiful examples of art deco buildings. You can pick up an information sheet that teaches the fascinating history about both the buildings and the architects behind them at the Tulsa Convention and Visitors Bureau. Many of the buildings are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and three internationally recognized architects—Frank Lloyd Wright, Barry Byrne and Bruce Goff—designed many of the buildings.

Or, if you feel like venturing away from downtown, you should check out the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art (jewishmuseum.net). This museum contains a fine collection of Judaica—items that pertain to Jewish life and customs. Many of them are nearly 4,000 years old. The museum also offers an extraordinary Holocaust collection that emphasizes the experiences of Holocaust survivors who relocated to Oklahoma as well as Oklahomans who participated in the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.

If you’d rather spend the afternoon indoors, load up the car and head 20 minutes west to Jenks, Oklahoma, home of the Oklahoma Aquarium. Here you’ll find more than 200 exhibits that feature thousands of salt and fresh water species and also mammals. In addition to the animals, the aquarium is also home to the Karl and Beverly White Fishing Tackle Museum—a museum that contains more than 20,000 pieces valued at more than $4 million. This exhibit makes up the largest and most comprehensive antique fishing tackle collection in the world. Some artifacts in the museum include the first gasoline outboard engine and the very first Skeeter Bass Boat.