October 30, 2017

Girls Trip to Pawhuska

Last week, Cooper and I headed out for a quick getaway with the girls in my family.  My Aunt Carol and I both love the Pioneer Woman so we've been wanting to check out her Mercantile.  We were going to go for my Aunt Carol's birthday, but we decided to wait until a week when they were doing Lodge tours, and last Thursday and Friday worked out well.  I went with my mom and we met my two aunts and a cousin there.

We left early Thursday morning and arrived mid afternoon.  We met my Aunt Carol to have lunch at the Mercantile.  It was 2:45 when we got there and the line was out the door and down the sidewalk. 
We were very excited to be out of the car!  It was warm that afternoon, but luckily the line went pretty quickly--we were seated within about 30 minutes.

 I forgot to take a picture of the food until we were almost done, but we got a few things and shared them.  We tried the Marlboro Man Sandwich, the Turkey Bacon Club, Macaroni and Cheese, Loaded Baked Potato, Carrots and Tomato soup with grilled cheese dippers.  Everything was very good and it was fun eating off the fun plates.

We looked around a little bit and got some dessert from the bakery before heading to our hotel for the evening.  We met up with my other Aunt and my cousin who drove straight to the hotel.  We hung out that evening and headed to bed fairly early so we could get an early start on Friday morning.  It was Cooper's first night staying in a hotel and he did really well sleeping in the pack and play.  He went down easily and only woke up once in the night.  He was up pretty early and as soon as he realized we were awake he wanted to get out, but that worked out well because we had to head out around the time he usually wakes up so it gave him a chance to eat before we left to go back to the Merc.

When we were eating lunch on Thursday we'd asked our waitress how early we needed to get in line for breakfast.  They open at 7:00 and she said the earlier the better but didn't really give much other guidance.  We debated getting there before they opened and waiting in line so we could get in early, but ultimately decided that since the line for lunch had moved fairly quickly that we would be okay if we had to wait a little while.  So we ended up getting there around 7:45 and we weren't sure what we would encounter.

Much to our surprise we pulled up and there was no line.


 We were seated right away and ready for breakfast!
Cooper was not a big fan of the purees I had for him, but he wanted to be eating when we were, so he chomped down on lots of biter biscuits.  They kept him pretty entertained for most of the meal, luckily!  Again, I forgot to take good pictures, but my mom and I shared the Farmer's Breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, a biscuit) and a cinnamon roll. 

Then we spent some time shopping around the Merc. 
 It is such a fun store and there are so many neat things!  I ended up picking out a few things that my mom is giving me for my birthday in a month or so.  I also picked up a few gifts for people.

Then we got our tickets and directions to go out to the Lodge.  It's about a 20 minute drive from the Merc and we caravaned out there so we could all head home from there.
 To get to the lodge, you drive about 6 miles down a dirt road on their property before driving down a big hill and then you arrive!
Beautiful view from the kitchen.

 It was so fun seeing where Ree films her show!  It's such a cute house.  It has a huge kitchen and pantry, several guest rooms with bathrooms and then a prep kitchen with a huge storage space for all of the props
 Everything was so cute and well put together

 As fun as the Merc was, the trip to the Lodge definitely made the experience for us.  It was so neat to get to see the space where we usually see Ree on TV, on her blog and in her books.  It was fun to see all of the touches of Pioneer Woman throughout the lodge.
 My sweet boy did so well!  He loved being able to face out in the carrier and was happy as could be taking it all in.
It was a great quick trip with these lovely ladies--and my little man!

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