OKC’s Transformation to Vacation Destination Amazing
Tulsan Michael Bates (of Batesline) took his 10-year-old son on a short vacation trip to — Oklahoma City. Highlight of the trip was a day at Frontier City. Despite living in Oklahoma for decades, Bates had never been. Bates says they had a great time — even in 104 degree heat. If you have a kid or grandkid, you might be interested in Bates’ account of their Frontier adventure.
Michael, I hope you and your son can come back soon to see more of what Oklahoma City has to offer. Oklahoma City’s transformation from boring cow town to regional vacation destination is amazing. Bricktown is more fun when it’s not so hot. Come on a day when the Redhawks are in town so you can visit one of the best minor league ballparks in the nation. The National Memorial and adjacent museum is a must see. The zoo is excellent. It’s fun to walk or bike the perimeter of Lake Hefner. There are several excellent museums. A few minutes in one of the Mexican grocery stores on SW 29th is an interesting experience.
OKC residents — what attractions am I leaving off the list?
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UPDATE: Just came across another blogger on the TerraX blogroll who has visited OKC recently. My old friend David Fish, a professor at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO, who writes Random Thoughts From a Fish, passed through OKC recently. He and his family spent some time in Bricktown and visited the Memorial.
I live just about 4 hours away, but I had never visited. As I walked onto the grounds, where the Oklahoma City bombing took place…I was deeply moved. As I began to look at the names engraved on wall displays, my eyes teared up. Generally I can rein my emotions in fairly well, but I was overcome with extreme sadness.
I’m only four miles from the Memorial, but it overwhelms me almost every time I get within a block or two of it.
With the upheaval now mostly over, things should be back to normal at Omniplex, the science museum located near the OKC Zoo.
And a plug for a couple of slightly non-mainstream galleries: Individual Artists of Oklahoma (811 N Broadway) and Untitled (Artspace) (1 NE 3rd St).
There is so much more to OKC. The Civic Center always has something going on there, mostly in the evenings. There is the (old name)National Cowboy Hall of Fame on 63rd and I-44, the Omni-Dome Theater on the Omniplex grounds, shopping???? There is Penn Square and Quail Springs Mall, lots of antique stores and restaurants and movie theaters. This
is coming from someone who hates to shop too.
We’ve visited a lot of the other attractions you mention in the past, like the zoo, the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the Omniplex, particularly when my nephews still lived in OKC, but it’s been a while. And back in April, I accompanied his 3rd grade class on a field trip to the Capitol, the Governor’s Mansion, and the National Memorial.
We were there (Del City, actually) with the whole family for a wedding back in June. It was too hot for the two littlest kids to walk around Bricktown, but I did drive them through Bricktown and the Capitol Hill Main Street.
We still haven’t made it into the museum at the National Memorial, and we haven’t yet visited the new digs of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Next to Frontier City, the highlight of the trip for me was the 45th Infantry Museum.
I just wish I could have convinced my son that there were better places to eat in Bricktown than the Sonic. (”But, Dad, we know Sonic is going to be good.”)