I'm going to tell you all about my vacation. If you only want to read about the Tulsa part, scroll down 8-)
The idea of going to Tulsa all came about back in January-February-ish. We were in Books A Million and my dad was looking at a globe. All of a sudden he goes "We could go to Tulsa for vacation. Its not that far." So me and my sister, needless to say, were psyched!
Well, about 2 weeks before vacation my mom starts saying that she doesnt want to go to Tulsa anymore after she was willing to go months before. Me and my sister were mad, but what could we do, neither of us had cars or enough money to get there and back even if we did. So, the new plan was to go to Mrytle Beach. This seemed like a cool idea. We were going to get a hotel on the beach and have a great time. Before we went to Mrytle Beach though, being that it was in South Carolina and Dawson's Creek (me and my sister's favorite show) is taped in North carolina we decided to do that. So, here we are on this highway (or what they call a highway) doing 35 mph! To top that off there were signs that would say Wilmington 30 miles then you drove about 10-15 miles and it would say Wilmington 28 miles!lol
So, we got to Wilmington (finally, after 10 hours of driving!) and it is a great little town. Its very quaint. So we go to the Wilmington visitor center and they gave us a hand-out with all the names and addresses of places where Dawson's Creek was filmed. We got to see places like the little store (Molly's) where Andy's mother went insane Pacey got her to leave, the store where Jen and Abby were making up until she found out about her dating the fisherman guy then Jen slapped Abby, etc. It was really cool. Then we went to the Gem studios and they had a cafe and we got to meet this girl who was trying out for a role on a new sitcom called "Shake Rattle and Roll". We also got to buy "exclusive" DC merchandise. Then we were on to Mrytle Beach
OK, the plan was that my sister and I would be so amused with Myrtle Beach we would forget all about going to Tulsa. WRONG! That's not how it worked out! e got there during Senior week. Even though i graduated this year, i was not thrilled to be there cuz we were the *only* family! Everyone else was there with their friends and having fun and here was me and my sister stuck hanging out with out parents! Being that my mom had only made reservations for 2 nights we didnt have to stay there our whole vacation. While my mom checked out saturday morning my dad and me waited in the car and decided we were going to Tulsa, OK!
It took us two and a half days to get there. Two days driving 10 hours and 1/2 day driving 4 hours. It was SO boring!!!!
When we got there the first order of business was to find Hanson's MOE house! I had been talking to my friend who's friend had been to Tulsa last month. She told me their new address, but said it wasnt worth it cuz its hard to find and when you do find it you cant see their house cuz its set 2 miles from the gates in front. We only had a day to spend in Tulsa so we didn't want to waste any of it trying to find their house that we wouldn't be able to see anyway.
So, we go to a gas station and let me tell you the people in Tulsa are extremely nice! The guy drew on the map for us with a highlighter telling us exactly how to get to their road and to the Blue Rose Cafe.
Before we got to Hanson's house we went to the Woodland Hills Mall. Anyways, we went hoping to find some Hanson merchandise. Well, let me tell you they didn't even have a poster in the whole mall. Their explanation in almost every store..."No one likes Hanson here" Urg! Some of the people told us stories though. How true they are, I don't know. One guy said that one of his friends used to talk to them and after they got famous they told her they couldn't talk to her anymore. What-ever. I don't believe that they would be like that. He also said that he does the lights for jess and avery's dance recitals and the three of them sit up there with him. He said Tay and Ike are cool, but Zac is snobby. Then we went to The Icing and the guy in there said when he was 16 he used to work at Spencer's. He said Ike used to come in there all the time and he used to mess with him. Like asking him what he's doing and harassing him cuz he thought he was shop lifting!lol Besides the few stories (no matter how fictitous they may be) the mall was a total waste of time.
After following the gas station (Git 'n' Go) guy's directions we get to Hanson's road! If you've ever been there you know that when you turn onto it theres a big hill....well my dad turns onto the hill and we go up it. I look over and I'm like Oh my god, I think that's it! Then my sister looks over and she's like yeah, it is. So as we're doing this my dad did something with the gears and totally screwed up his transmission. All I heard him say was oh god I just blew the transmission. So here we are broken down in front of Hanson's house!lol My mom is asking my dad if she wants her to go knock on their door and see if they have a phone book she could use to look up a transmission place!lol Me and my sister were all for it, but my dad said no we would be fine. So we didn't get a chance to take any pictures then cuz he wanted to go get his car looked at. My sister did get video though of the whole fiasco! So, after he went to Aamaco (sp?) and they said it would be fine for a while, we went back to the house. My dad dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and went around the block this time! So we walked to the front of the house and I took some pix and my sister took some footage from different angles. There was a black Honda in the driveway. Anyways, there was "Private Property" and "No Trespassing" signs all about their yard. So, my father pulls up and as we're getting in the car another car comes driving by with two girls, and they start screaming when they pass the Hanson house!lol So me and my sister want to talk to them, of course.
So we make my dad stop and see if they are coming back, and they did, so we jumped out of the car! We ran down the road to them and we talked for a few then she asked if we had seen their tree house. We hadn't seen it cuz we thought it was in their backyard. It isn't. Its over on the lot next to their house. Its really cute, nothing like in Hanson fan-fic. Its in the woods about 20 feet, i guess, and when you walk up there's two climbing ropes hanging from trees then theres the "tree house". Its like 5 steps up then a platform around the trunk of the tree. So, when my sister seen the tree house in the woods she says "I'm going in, we just drove 2 and a 1/2 days so im going to climb in their tree house." So we all ran back there and climbed up into the tree house. Its was cool. My sister video taped the whole experience!lol Then she says she wants to take something at a souvenier and as she says that she looks down and goes oh my god theres a shoe lace! It was tied around the railing of the stairs. So she took it as a souvenier. So we all left, after i took a few pictures of the tree house with out her in it! While standing on their tree house i got a pic of their soccer net, too. As we're walking (ok, running!) out of the woods and back to the car my sister starts yelling "I've got a show lace!"
We start walking back to the car and we hear a loud guy voice coming from the house and a woman laughing. So we moved a little faster! We got in the car and left. Our Hanson house experience over 8-(
We didn't anything else that night cuz we were tired from all the driving. The next morning we woke up and went to the Blue Rose cafe. We had a waitress lady come out and on camera (she might have thought we were stupid for video-ing her but in a few years it will be cool to look back on...) point out where Hanson set up and performed. After that we got t-shirts, took a few pictures of the out side, and left.
Next up was LazerQuest. We pulled up only to find out that they didnt open til 3pm and it was only 11am. My parents didnt want to stick around til then cuz we had a lot of driving to do to get back to Florida. After a lot of complaing we got them to say we could stay til they opened. So, to waste time we went and got some lunch and bowled a couple of games. When we got back there they were opened! We looked around the lobby cuz we were looking for the infamous Hanson names carved somewhere. Whatever they didnt carve their names newhere that we could see. They had fan pictures with Hanson up on the wall with a shirt that Hanson signed and drew on. Then we talked to the guy that worked there and he was really nice. He had only good things to say about the boys. He said they havent been in there since last October, but when they came he asked if they wanted to go into a party room cuz there was like 40-50 people in the lobby. He said Isaac told him no, they're gonna go play with the other guys. So they did. He said they went over and played air hocky qwith some guys that were al;ready over there. He said most people just stood back going i think thats hanson but no one really had enough guts to go up to them. Needless to say, we got t-shirts from there too and we were on our way.
Another 2 and a half days on the road to get back to Florida. Tulsa is so great though and totaly worth the trip. I'm going to move there, and not becuase Hanson lives there. Tulsa is the coolest place. People are nice and theres things to do. Unlike my small city. Actually my city has about 60,000 people, but nothing to do. Oh well.
Hope you enjoyed reading about my vacation! Feel free to email me if you have an questions/comments!
