Trip to Oklahoma 2017 highlights

Hi everybody! I recently got back from my month long trip to Oklahoma. We did so much and saw so much during our trip that I couldn't possibly write it all down without making an entire memoir, so here are the highlights.

This intimate before sleep photo truly encompasses my happiness during the trip...even with the piece of food in my teeth Stephen didn't bother to point out the entire night. Gee, thanks.

When planning the trip, I had my mind made up to bring my silicone tail, which I did but it was a pain in the dorsal. She was too large to take on the plane, so I had to ship her to and from Stephen's house. Silky is so large and awkwardly shaped that we had to actually make a box to put her in, cutting down a huge bike box to better fit and lower cost of shipping as much as possible due to size. The good news is that with the box, I was able to transport more things for photoshoots without taking up space in my luggage. I had the box shipped on the 7th, and it arrived on Friday the 13th.

This photo was taken of the box as it was being packaged to ship, still a work in progress.

Since the box arrived on Friday, Saturday we rented a hotel for two nights, specifically one with an indoor pool for a silicone tail shoot. We got there the first day after dark, so it was too late for a shoot (extremely bad lighting), but we got in the pool just to swim around a bit. When we got there, nobody was there, the whole pool room smelled horrible, and the water was very cloudy. Stephen suggested since it was late at night it was probably undergoing a cleaning or something. When we got in the chemical levels were off the charts, which obviously bothered us both immensely, but it was so nice to spend time in the water together despite the awful smell. We didn't stay too long as shortly after we got there, a family with three little children came to swim in the small pool so we decided to retire for the night. This tidbit is important later...

I have a Squishmallow owl that my dad bought for me named Keto. The soft texture appeals greatly to me and he's wonderful to hug and relieve anxiety. Plus, owls are one of my favourite animals and he's just too cute. I brought him in the trip, shipped in the tail box because he's floofy. I brought him to the hotel, and when we were out shopping the first night, I saw a PURPLE version of him with eyelashes, she was SO cute! I had what I can only describe as a happy panic attack, to which Stephen sighed, shook his head, and simply said, "...Put it in the cart.". Here is Keto and Lady Keto together at our hotel room.

We got up early the next day for the free breakfast, which was SUPER good. The hostess was very nice, she even got us some chocolate chip muffins from the back, I just loved her. We then timed the photoshoot between check in and check out when the least amount of people were there. This time the water was even worse than before, even cloudier, even smellier. But, since we paid for the hotel specifically we went on with the shoot. I was in the water for about two hours. It was so bad that after a little awhile Stephen also started to feel faint and he wasn't even swimming. Being in that water was truly awful. When I went underwater the chemicals burned my eyes even through my eyelids, and the two times I attempted to open my eyes to see were mistakes.

This was also the first time Stephen used my new camera, and it was not a good first shoot to figure out new equipment. The pool room had skylights which made patchy, uneven lighting, and the camera kept wanting to focus on the water ripples instead of me, haha. Despite it all, we did get a handful of pictures that turned out well given the setting and circumstance.

The bad news is that I got very sick after this; I got what we assumed to be a viral infection that stayed for about two weeks and was a real rain cloud over our parade. It could have been anything, but we both strongly feel like the pool played a significant role. We had plans to speak with a hotel manager about it but that fell through the cracks with all our other projects going on. After the silicone tail shoot, I was just so exhausted and felt so gross that Stephen cleaned me up in the tub and we rested for the remainder of the day instead of doing the shoots we planned.

The next day we got up around 7am and took a quick shoot with a captured siren theme. We really needed more light; it was very noisy and we're both still figuring out the camera at the point, but it was acceptable to upload. After that we got our second free breakfast which was equally delicious as the day before and the hostess just as kind. Before we packed up to head out, we took another shoot in my purple lingerie. While we could also have used more light on a technical level, I am extremely thrilled about how this one turned out as a whole. This was my first lingerie/pin up shoot ever, and it's one of my favourites from the trip.

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We visited two high end Hibachi restaurants, once on the night I got there to celebrate our reunion, and again later during the trip to celebrate Stephen's graduation from college. He went to college for computer science, specifically game design, and I couldn't be more proud of him. He's the best, and I know how hard we worked for it, it's well earned. Since both times were a treat we pre-budgeted for, I got fillet mignon and lobster, which comes with the standard rice, veggies, and bowl of clear soup. The first time we got sushi rolls with avacado and squid, and the second time with BBQ squid as an appetizer. Both times were absolutely delicious, the show was fantastic, and I ate so much that I wouldn't move afterward despite Stephen's warnings. Although cursed with ARFID and thus a specific dietary pallet, the food that I do like, I just LOVE, so these two delicious nights deserved to be in the spotlight for a bit. This is a compilation picture from my Instagram of the first night.

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We spent a day to explore the local nature preserve and scope out shoot locations which we did indeed take advantage of during the trip for some epic results. We saw lots of wild buffalo and even longhorns that were were near the roadside, it was really cool. We also went up to the top of Mt Scott and to The Holy City, both of which we would later return for a photoshoots.

The setting was phenomenal and the photos turned out absolutely amazing. Here are some photos from when we returned to the mountain top for a shoot!

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Twice we visited the Medicine Park Aquarium, which is still in progress and very small. I am going to try to collaborate with them in the future, and things went very well. We got to feed the turtles, which was super fun! :) They had strips of carrots and yams, which we placed on clothespins at the end of a pole and lowered into their enclosure. Talk about fun!

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We also took a photoshoot with intentions to get a new photo for my mermaid business card. We called LETRA, getting special permission to take photos on the beach which was otherwise closed to the public. The shoot itself was a bit rushed because it was very cold and windy (also, sand + Silky don't mix) and not as many photos as I'd like turned out. It's worth a retake another day, but the good news is we did in fact get the business card shot! I'll work on getting this made into the updated business cards sometime next year when my current stash runs out.

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Following a plan set in motion as the trip was being planned, we drove 2 hours to Turner Falls for a siren shoot. The setting was breathtaking, we will definitely be re-visiting and even having an encore of these shoots another time. We needed a tripod for such long shots, which we'll bring next time, but we got some photos that were absoultely stunning, right out of a fairytale. The water was absolutely FREEZING, but it was worth it. Since it was the off season, there were very few people around, and nobody swimming to disturb the shots.

The bad news is that I totally forgot to take pictures without my shark teeth, so I can't post any of these on my child friendly Mermaid Gipsy pages. :P

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We also got up early on Friday the 27th with plans to go to the Oklahoma City Zoo (about an hour and a half away), but when we arrived soon after they opened for the day, the temperature had dropped right around freezing. Being late fall in a usually warmer climate, I had brought some stuff for autumn, but no winter gloves or anything like that. Neither of us predicted such a cold snap, but we adapted! We spent the day at the indoor science center next to the zoo, followed by a shopping trip at a large mall in the city, topping it off with a trip to WalMart to pick up some winter gear for a zoo trip the next day instead. Since it's a long drive, we just booked a cheap motel and stayed in the city for the night. Donning our layers and winter clothes, we did make it to the zoo on Saturday the 28th almost as soon as it opened.

We stayed there the whole day almost until closing, taking our time at all the exhibits and enjoying each other's company, often holding hands. It was so nice despite the cold. We got the kind of passes where we can have unlimited rides on the train, tram, and carousel. Stephen was very patient with me as I just LOVE carousels; this one was themed with endangered animals instead of horses and I had to ride 3 different times on three different animals, hahaha. Hey, we paid extra for unlimited rides, right? ;)

After we left, we had to drive home and waste no time packing for a cabin we booked for two nights, starting on Sunday the 29th at 3pm. It was up in Tulsa, which is about a four hour drive from Stephen's house.

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The cabin was probably my favourite part of the trip. It was SO beautiful up there. We had our own log cabin with our own dock on the lake which was literally right outside our door. The hosts were very nice, and even left us a little basket of goodies to make s'mores for two. My favourite thing about the cabin was the bathtub. It was a huge, two person whirlpool tub with jets. Oh. my. God. We were both so in love with it. We used it for leisure as well as a few photoshoots, one featuring a bath bomb I picked up from Lush at the mall in OKC. Unfortunately, this one can't be shown on my blog due to rules about dem titties.

The first morning after check in, Stephen tries to wake me up to go get breakfast at 7am, but I was just so exhausted there was no way. Around 10am or so we're starting to lose daylight so he gently wakes me up, informing me that he brought me a plate from the breakfast I missed, and asked if I want him to draw me a morning bath in the beautiful tub. My heart sang and whenever I think of this moment I feel happy. I'm so blessed with this man, he's the light of my life and always knows just how to make me happy, I love him so much.

Anyway, we did several photoshoots in the tub, inside the cabin, and outside the cabin on the docks. Almost all of these turned out wonderful, and some turned out phenomenal, just absolutely fantastic. It was so hard to say goodbye to the cabin, I really felt at home there on the water with just the two of us.

Here are the Ketos on the lovely bed, and the view from our cabin door.

Here are some of the photos we took there!

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Despite getting only about three hours of sleep (we were up late shooting), we hit the Tulsa Aquarium on the way home. This just happened to be Halloween/Samhain as well. I also spoke with a director there about possible mermaid opportunities, and while nothing is set in stone enough to reveal to my audience, I think there may be opportunities some collaboration there in the future.We spent quite a bit of time here looking at all the nice exhibits, I just love aquariums, and this was a very nice one at that. They had turtles to feed as well! We had a great time. :)

The Tulsa Aquarium also had a crystal section in the giftshop! And surprisingly low prices too, actually good bargains for what the crystals are, not tourist trap prices. All of the giftshop was wonderful which was a nice surprise. I'm not usually a fan of typical giftshop branded merchandise (t-shirts, cups, etc with where you got it written all over them), so it was a pleasant surprise when they had high quality things, cute plushies, and fancy jewelry. I got overwhelmed by it all a little!

There also this cute seahorse plushie that I really wanted, I just fell in love with it, but I looked at the price tag and they wanted something outrageous for a small to medium sized plushie. It was cute, but not cute enough to buy at that price, especially as our funds were running low a few days before departure (as expected after doing all the fun stuff we planned). As we were leaving, Stephen surprised me with a very cute bean bag stingray. It had almost the exact same glittery blue, pink, and purple material as the seahorse I wanted which was what attracted me to it in the first place, but it was from a different maker, smaller, and a lot more in our budget for souvenirs. He said "They did have a similar seahorse like this too, but it was missing an eye so I thought you'd like this one better". He is so thoughtful, I just love him so much (and the stingray!).

After the 4 hour drive home, I immediately crashed and slept for about 17 hours, sleeping right through trick or treating or any other Halloween fun. Whoops! His grandma actually came in to check on me at one point because I'd been in there so long.

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November 2nd we devoted a whole day to a shoot fashion modeling a clothing line by Glamaker, who sent me about about a dozen garments to model this batch. This is my second large collaboration with Glamaker, the first was while I was at home, taken by Mum in the studio. They specifically requested outdoor images, which we took in Stephen's back yard in every outfit. We also got a handful of other images featuring their clothing on other days in other locations, including the mountain, but I had to make sure we provided them usable fashion images for each garment that meet certain criteria.

And here is the last selfie we took together at the airport for my departure back to Maryland. I was in tears at the time, it was so hard to leave him. We take comfort in the fact that we'll be reunited soon, and we have our whole lives ahead of us to be together.