The Big Friendly

The girlies and I decided to tag along with Mr. Smith to OK City for the day. He had business meetings, and we had nothing on our schedule.

We started out our day in "The Big Friendly" by walking to the Myriad Botanical Gardens in the heart of downtown. It was a very warmish day, with afternoon temps promising to be over 100º F, so we decided we had better do our outdoor activities before we got into the really "heavy sweater" part of the afternoon! Our morning stroll through the various gardens was actually quite pleasant. 

One of our favorite things in the botanical gardens is the Thunder Fountain. The water feature opened at 10 AM, so we had plenty of time to take a few photos before the water turned on. 

We had the place to ourselves at 9:45 AM, but precisely at 10 o'clock, the "thunder" began to crash, and the water sprays turned on. Almost instantly, this colorful water feature was filled with wet, giggling children. Obviously the locals know exactly when this fountain springs to life. It was almost as if the children materialized out of thin air. 

As we left the gardens, I captured one of my girlies peeking around the edge of a big red sculpture. We agreed that we need some yard art like this at our casa to get the neighbors talking. (This should fit on the top of the car, right?)

We next toured the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The last time I remember seeing this area, it was a year, or so after  the April 19, 1995 bombing. At that time, the rubble from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building had all been cleared, and a chain link fence was surrounding area where the building once stood. Flowers, teddy bears, pictures, ribbons and other memorabilia was affixed to the temporary fence. There is still short section of chain link fence with mementos attached to it, as a part of the permanent memorial. 

Although my middle child was only six months old at the time of the bombing, and the youngest one wasn't even born yet, the girls found this to be an interesting, yet sobering place. The memorial is very well done and it truly honors the victims, survivors, and rescue workers.

Each "chair" represents one of the 168 men, women, and children who were killed in this domestic terrorist attack. 

We continued our walking tour of downtown, detouring through air conditioned buildings a couple of times to get cooled down as the afternoon temps heated up rapidly.

Last, but certainly not least, we happened upon this interesting building in the "Automobile Alley" district of downtown OKC. We did not venture inside, but learned that this is a gallery of sorts. I am a bit curious as to what is on the inside if the outside looks like this!

After a late lunch with the mister, we started our drive back to Texas. We've taken a look in our neighboring state and can confirm that Oklahoma is still OK.