My wife Abby and I just returned from a miniature vacation. We do that sometimes – drive to some nearby metropolis and get a hotel room, dinner, breakfast, shopping, whatever we feel like doing. It’s fun to get away, just the two of us.

We drove to the Oklahoma City metro area and did some Christmas shopping at Academy, Target, Toys-R-Us, and Pier 1. We had dinner at Zio’s Italian Kitchen, which was so good that before the meal was even over Abby said, “We should come here again.” She had fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and I had a grilled vegetable lasagna.

We got a room at an Embassy Suites hotel, based largely on it being the tallest hotel we could find, since I wanted the views and the photographic potential. Breakfast was part of the room package, and included a freshly-made omelette of our choice.