BudgetTravel

Day 1
One of the first jobs my mom had after college was teaching in Tulsa, and as I accompany her on a trip to the city more than 30 years later, I'm surprised by how much she remembers. At the Utica Square shopping mall near downtown, she tells me how fashionable it used to be. "People dressed up to shop here," she says.

Having just arrived in the city, we're more eager to eat than to shop. Queenie's Plus Cafe is packed in the middle of the afternoon, and I soon learn why: the carrot cake, the strawberry cream cake, and the giant gingersnaps and snicker doodles in the dessert case. I hurry through a chicken-salad sandwich to get to my sugar fix--a still-warm chocolate chip cookie.

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We're happily stuffed and a light rain is beginning to fall, so I suggest we take in some culture at the Gilcrease Museum. It has an excellent collection of art and hist­orical artifacts of the American West, such as Thomas Moran's landscapes of the vast, empty frontier and colorful Native American rawhide pouches and headdresses.

The rain is letting up when we leave, so we go for a stroll in the rose gardens at Woodward Park. I've booked a room at the Inn at Woodward Park, but we're apprehensive when we see the sign out front that calls it a "Roaring 20s Bed and Breakfast." Fortunately, the inn is charming, not clichéd. We're in the Hollywood Room, which boasts a mahogany bed, an elegant chaise lounge, and fleur-de-lis stencils on the bathroom walls.

Gorging on country-style food is an essential Oklahoma activity, Mom informs me as we drive to the suburb of Claremore for dinner at Hammett House Restaurant, known for portions so large that most people have trouble finishing. While the decor could use help--a random football poster hangs on the peach-colored walls--the food is outstanding. I order the chicken-fried chicken: a chicken breast coated with flour, deep-fried in oil, and covered with a thick gravy of milk, flour, and eggs. I can't eat the entire dish, which looks like it could feed a football team.

Driving back, we turn on the radio and find a country-music station. When Brad Paisley's "Celebrity" comes on, we gleefully join in: "'Cause when you're a celebrity, it's adios reality!" I'm still humming the tune as I climb into bed that night.

Lodging

• Inn at Woodward Park 1521 E. 21st St., Tulsa, 888/712-9770, innatwoodwardpark.com, from $95

Food

• Queenie's Plus Cafe 1834 Utica Sq., Tulsa, 918/749-3481, sandwich $7
• Hammett House 1616 W. Will Rogers Blvd., Claremore, 918/341-7333, hammetthouse.com, chicken $10

Activities