Oklahoma City OK

Oklahoma City was a very nice surprise. We weren't expecting much from it, but it's a delightful city. If you're sent there on business, do not despair; there is much to see and do.
I wanted to see the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It's really well done. The museum was interesting in that it told the stories of how people were rescued and what it took to find them all. Recovery was even harder due to the damage the building sustained. It was a huge effort that went on until the building's remains were imploded.
This is the reflecting pool, located on what was N.W. 5th Avenue. There are two symbolic gates, one is marked 9:01 and the other 9:03, the times before and after the bombing of the Murrah building.

The field of empty chairs is where the Murrah Building used to be. There are nine rows, one for each floor of the building. Each chair has the name of a person who was lost, the little chairs are from the daycare. There are 5 more chairs for people outside the building who were killed. The beige building in the back was the Journal Register building, it now houses the museum.


This is what the inside of the Register building looked like after the explosion. Most of it was repaired, but this was left to show what it had looked like after.

The Survivor Tree was surrounded by burning cars after the bombing. Pieces of debris were embedded in its trunk. It was burned. Afterward, heavy equipment was parked on its root system, compacting the dirt. But it lived. It became an important symbol to the bombing survivors.



The Methodist church behind the bombing site. The rose window was blown out of the church by the bomb. It took about a year, but they were able to reopen.



Bank of America building downtown. It's pretty cool.


Public art.


Old building, in the Prairie style.

The huge Bass Pro Shops anchors the Bricktown district, so called because the buildings are all red brick. The city has done a bang up job of refurbing the area and making it very pleasant. They have a triple A baseball team downtown as well as the basketball team they got from Seattle. There are a ton of restaurants and shops.


Stuffed bison in the store. They have lots of things hanging from the ceilings and perched on various surfaces.


An armadillo.

Taylor Craft airplane.


And for all of you hunter gals, camo skivvies!


Toby Keith has a restaurant in Bricktown. We didn't eat there, we went to a barbeque place for lunch. They had fried okra that was just to die for it was so good.




The canal that runs through Bricktown, with a water taxi.


Public art, Sisyphus pushing the rock.

The end of the canal walk, that's a huge mosaic.


Then we went to the Myriad Botanical gardens. 17 acres downtown of very nice plantings and walkways.


This is the Myriad's enormous greenhouse.


The art museum. Look at the glass inset. It has a huge Chihuly in it. They had a really good exhibit of Cezannes and Turners collected by a couple of women from Wales back in the day. They also have a huge Chihuly exhibit. Why there? Because his mother in law is from OK City.



There's a lot to see and do in Oklahoma City. If you're RV'ing through the area it's worth a stop. And, we think the toilet is finally fixed.