Day 2 (cont.): O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A, Oklahoma, OK!

It stopped raining! So, after resting just a bit, we went to Bricktown in downtown Oklahoma City. What a great place! Located near the Santa Fe railroad tracks, this area was once a major center of commerce. One thing that all the buildings had in common was that they were constructed of red brick. You can read more about the history of Bricktown at the link, but it is now an entertainment district with more to come in the near future.

The first thing we did was take a ride on the water taxi. A couple of streets have been converted into a canal resembling the Riverwalk in San Antonio. We had a great guide who told us lots about the history of the area, pointed out areas of interest and told us what was coming in the near future. I always seemed to be on the wrong side of the taxi for getting good pictures. The tile mosaic at the top has over half a million tiles and took a couple of months to complete. It was much more beautiful in person.

There were several murals on the sides of buildings depicting what life was like at different times in the city's history. These are just a couple. You can still see some empty buildings with broken glass here and there. It really gives you an idea of what it all looked like not too long ago. What a wonderful idea the city leaders had to transform this place into an entertainment district.

The most beautiful though was The Land Rush Monument that is being assembled one piece at a time. When finished (approximately 2015) there will be 40 pieces at one and a half times life-size. There are currently 19 pieces. The detail is absolutely amazing. We must have spent over an hour walking around the pieces and taking pictures. The pics are of the soldier and cannon who will start the race, Rich standing next to one of the pieces so that you can get a sense of the scale, and a front on view of some of the horses and buggies. There are a few plaques scattered around telling the history of the land rush. I sure hope I can make it back when all the pieces are put into place. It is going to be truly amazing!


Walking around all these sculptures we worked up quite an appetite. We wanted to have dinner at Earl's Rib Place but they were closed. The water taxi guide told us that they have been voted the best ribs in Oklahoma City eight years in row. Disappointed, but still hungry, we walked along the canal a little bit and had dinner at Bourbon Street Cafe. We didn't need to be disappointed after all, because dinner there was wonderful. The food was great and we were able to sit outside on the patio overlooking the canal and watch the water taxis go up and down the water. So relaxing.

As we left the restaurant we passed Harkins Theatres and decided to see what was playing. Rich still hasn't seen The Dark Knight, but we would have had to wait for an hour before the next showing, so we saw Tropic Thunder instead. We thought it was pretty good and laughed a lot until about 3/4 of the way in. The movie stopped, the lights came up and it took management almost five whole minutes to come and tell us that they were having issues with the projector and that it would be fixed in five minutes. More than ten minutes later the movie started up again and it was obvious that we had missed a few minutes. They did give free passes to everyone on the way out, but being from out of town I turned and gave our passes to some people walking next to us. They were pretty happy. It was well after midnight by the time we got back to the hotel.

Out hotel was a Hawthorn Inn. Their logo was embroidered on this pillow. A few minor revisions and I think it could make for a nice quilt pattern.