Sunday, March 26, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Oklahoma City
Day 2
The primary task that we wanted to get done on Tuesday morning is to attend a session at the OKC LDS Temple. We got there at 9:30 or 10 and had to wait for the 10:45 session.
We did get to do the session ok but it was rather tedious. I was waiting for 45 minutes or so and there was no chapel so I resorted to pacing up and down the hallway. There were a few other things too but I won't discuss them here.
After we finished at the temple, at 1:30 or so, we went to the National Cowboy Museum. There was SO much stuff there, some of it even interesting. There was an 'Hollywood' section, a 'rodeo' section, a 'calvary' section, and several more that I can't think of right now. Pretty interesting. Also, there was and extensive Native American bead art exhibit that was moderately interesting.
I took this photo out in the foyer. I had the wife stand in front of it to make it clear how humongous this statue is:
Then we had some bbq for lunch and it was on to the 45th Infantry Division Museum.
This was really interesting to go through although we only had 20 or 30 minutes until closing time. The interior(no pictures) had a large firearms collection, a nazi memorabilia room, US infantry vehicles, canons...all sorts of stuff. I wish that we had had more time to look through it all.
Outside was just as interesting though; there were all kinds of US armed forces vehicles & aircraft on display.
It was really cool to see all those vehicles.
After that we picked up some dinner and headed back to Texas. It was a nice getaway.
Day 2
The primary task that we wanted to get done on Tuesday morning is to attend a session at the OKC LDS Temple. We got there at 9:30 or 10 and had to wait for the 10:45 session.
We did get to do the session ok but it was rather tedious. I was waiting for 45 minutes or so and there was no chapel so I resorted to pacing up and down the hallway. There were a few other things too but I won't discuss them here.
After we finished at the temple, at 1:30 or so, we went to the National Cowboy Museum. There was SO much stuff there, some of it even interesting. There was an 'Hollywood' section, a 'rodeo' section, a 'calvary' section, and several more that I can't think of right now. Pretty interesting. Also, there was and extensive Native American bead art exhibit that was moderately interesting.
I took this photo out in the foyer. I had the wife stand in front of it to make it clear how humongous this statue is:
Then we had some bbq for lunch and it was on to the 45th Infantry Division Museum.
This was really interesting to go through although we only had 20 or 30 minutes until closing time. The interior(no pictures) had a large firearms collection, a nazi memorabilia room, US infantry vehicles, canons...all sorts of stuff. I wish that we had had more time to look through it all.
Outside was just as interesting though; there were all kinds of US armed forces vehicles & aircraft on display.
It was really cool to see all those vehicles.
After that we picked up some dinner and headed back to Texas. It was a nice getaway.
Friday, March 17, 2006
We're Back from Oklahoma City!
So we got back from OKC Tuesday night after 2 days of a rip-roaring good time. Not riproaring, really, but it was still an ok trip.
We arrived Sunday night after a 3 hour drive from Denton. I hadn't slept in more than 24 hours but we seemed to make it ok thanks mostly to copious amounts of diet Mt. Dew. It worked. We got to the hotel(Holiday Inn Express) and were too exausted to do anything else so we just watched tv.
Day 1
Monday we set off to get on the water taxi but got lost on the way there. We found the Alfred P. Murrah building museum & memorial, though, and spent a couple of hours going through that. It was quite a sobering experience hearing the stories of the survivors & the ones who perished.
The memorial:
On each end of the body of water(very shallow - at the most an inch deep) there were stone walls. One bore the inscription of 9:01 and the other, 9:03. 9:02 is when the bombing occured.
Another part of the memorial are the metal(bronze?) chairs that represent those who lost their life in the tragedy:
The upper left hand part of the picture where the chairs are is where the bomb went off. As you go left to right the chairs represent those who died in each floor.
Except for these chairs which represent the five who died in nearby buildings:
This tree was planted in gratitude for all those who came from far wide to help with the disaster recovery effort:
About 4 that afternoon we mosied over to downtown okc and the canal that ran for a mile or 2 though a section called 'bricktown.' From there we took the water taxi and the mini tour that came along with it.
As far as I could tell, Bricktown consisted mostly of restaurants. Those were the shops that were open, anyways. The canal ended at a Bass Pro Shop. Bricktown(and the canal for that matter) seemed like a lame attempt to artifically make downtown okc somewhat interesting.
The Pro Shop was pretty cool though. They had just about everything there related to fishing or camping. The coolest thing to me was the giant aquarium that was there.
I'll bet that it really helped with business.
They had several different kinds of 'fishfinder' radar equipment. Essentialy(from what I could tell) it could scan the bottom and tell you exactly where the fish is. Doesn't seem very sporting to me.
So we went out of the Pro Shop to meet the water taxi right on time, at 5:10 just like the driver told us. So we waited. And waited. Finaly at 5:30 we guessed that the taxi had already come and gone so we started walking. The canal really wan't that long anyways. So we walked over to the Sonic world hq building and went in and wandered around a little bit.
There was nothing to see, really, because everybody had already gone home and they didn't give tours anyways. We did go to the adjacent 'sit-down' Sonic restaurant and had some ice cream. They had booths and tables and we ordered by using this phone that was at our booth and they brought the sweet yummy goodness out to us.
Then we walked up the canal a little ways and were getting bored with ourselves. Then we spotted a movie theater(Harkin's) and decided that that would be a fun thing to do. We saw, 'The World's Fastest Indian' which was a fun movie. I was really impressed with the theater. Retractable armrest, big comfy chairs, and the chairs also reclined some. Primo movie watching conditions.
After the movie(which was a 6:40 showing) we went to Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. We like the name so much that we just had to go.
Toby Keith has a hit song called, 'I Love This Bar',BTW). It was nicely themed restaurant with a projection of Toby Keith videos playing overhead.
Later, they switched it to a live tv feed divided into 4 secions on the screen(4 diff channels). I liked the videos better. The food was ok but not great.
After we were done there we found the car and went back to the hotel.
I understand that the city is proud of the canal and bricktown but I just didn't think too much of it. An otherwise enjoyable day.
So we got back from OKC Tuesday night after 2 days of a rip-roaring good time. Not riproaring, really, but it was still an ok trip.
We arrived Sunday night after a 3 hour drive from Denton. I hadn't slept in more than 24 hours but we seemed to make it ok thanks mostly to copious amounts of diet Mt. Dew. It worked. We got to the hotel(Holiday Inn Express) and were too exausted to do anything else so we just watched tv.
Day 1
Monday we set off to get on the water taxi but got lost on the way there. We found the Alfred P. Murrah building museum & memorial, though, and spent a couple of hours going through that. It was quite a sobering experience hearing the stories of the survivors & the ones who perished.
The memorial:
On each end of the body of water(very shallow - at the most an inch deep) there were stone walls. One bore the inscription of 9:01 and the other, 9:03. 9:02 is when the bombing occured.
Another part of the memorial are the metal(bronze?) chairs that represent those who lost their life in the tragedy:
The upper left hand part of the picture where the chairs are is where the bomb went off. As you go left to right the chairs represent those who died in each floor.
Except for these chairs which represent the five who died in nearby buildings:
This tree was planted in gratitude for all those who came from far wide to help with the disaster recovery effort:
About 4 that afternoon we mosied over to downtown okc and the canal that ran for a mile or 2 though a section called 'bricktown.' From there we took the water taxi and the mini tour that came along with it.
As far as I could tell, Bricktown consisted mostly of restaurants. Those were the shops that were open, anyways. The canal ended at a Bass Pro Shop. Bricktown(and the canal for that matter) seemed like a lame attempt to artifically make downtown okc somewhat interesting.
The Pro Shop was pretty cool though. They had just about everything there related to fishing or camping. The coolest thing to me was the giant aquarium that was there.
I'll bet that it really helped with business.
They had several different kinds of 'fishfinder' radar equipment. Essentialy(from what I could tell) it could scan the bottom and tell you exactly where the fish is. Doesn't seem very sporting to me.
So we went out of the Pro Shop to meet the water taxi right on time, at 5:10 just like the driver told us. So we waited. And waited. Finaly at 5:30 we guessed that the taxi had already come and gone so we started walking. The canal really wan't that long anyways. So we walked over to the Sonic world hq building and went in and wandered around a little bit.
There was nothing to see, really, because everybody had already gone home and they didn't give tours anyways. We did go to the adjacent 'sit-down' Sonic restaurant and had some ice cream. They had booths and tables and we ordered by using this phone that was at our booth and they brought the sweet yummy goodness out to us.
Then we walked up the canal a little ways and were getting bored with ourselves. Then we spotted a movie theater(Harkin's) and decided that that would be a fun thing to do. We saw, 'The World's Fastest Indian' which was a fun movie. I was really impressed with the theater. Retractable armrest, big comfy chairs, and the chairs also reclined some. Primo movie watching conditions.
After the movie(which was a 6:40 showing) we went to Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. We like the name so much that we just had to go.
Toby Keith has a hit song called, 'I Love This Bar',BTW). It was nicely themed restaurant with a projection of Toby Keith videos playing overhead.
Later, they switched it to a live tv feed divided into 4 secions on the screen(4 diff channels). I liked the videos better. The food was ok but not great.
After we were done there we found the car and went back to the hotel.
I understand that the city is proud of the canal and bricktown but I just didn't think too much of it. An otherwise enjoyable day.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Oklahoma City Bound!
My wife is a teacher and since next week is her spring break we thought that it would be a good idea to get out of town for a couple of days. We kicked around some ideas about where to go until I mentioned that I had wanted to see the federal building memorial in Oklahoma City as well as go through a session in the temple there. It was only intended to be a passing idea but she really liked it. So OKC bound we are.
We are leaving Sunday sometime. I already have the hotel reservations(Holiday Inn Express - ff miles!) made. It could be a fun trip although I understand the okc is not the first thing that pops into people's minds when they are considering vacation destinations. We'll get back Tuesday evening.
A some interesting-sounding things from the okc convention & visitors bureau website that piqued my interest:
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Oklahoma City National Memorial and Memorial Museum(Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building memorial)
Water Taxi of Oklahoma
45th Infantry Division Museum
It'll be nice to get away for a while and it sounds like there are plenty of interesting things to do & see there.
Yeehaw!
My wife is a teacher and since next week is her spring break we thought that it would be a good idea to get out of town for a couple of days. We kicked around some ideas about where to go until I mentioned that I had wanted to see the federal building memorial in Oklahoma City as well as go through a session in the temple there. It was only intended to be a passing idea but she really liked it. So OKC bound we are.
We are leaving Sunday sometime. I already have the hotel reservations(Holiday Inn Express - ff miles!) made. It could be a fun trip although I understand the okc is not the first thing that pops into people's minds when they are considering vacation destinations. We'll get back Tuesday evening.
A some interesting-sounding things from the okc convention & visitors bureau website that piqued my interest:
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Oklahoma City National Memorial and Memorial Museum(Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building memorial)
Water Taxi of Oklahoma
45th Infantry Division Museum
It'll be nice to get away for a while and it sounds like there are plenty of interesting things to do & see there.
Yeehaw!
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