Oklahoma still remembers…

We decided to extend out stay here, due to the fact the weather is very nice, and we wanted to see more of Oklahoma!

We were on our way Downtown by 9:30 this morning in bright sunshine…

Oklahoma City has a real nice trolley ride, that is FREE!  Gotta love it.  We parked at the Bass Pro Shop, and jumped onboard the trolley.  It takes you around the Downtown area.

One of the items Judy and I wanted to do was to go to the Oklahoma City National Memorial to pay our respects.  Also we wanted to visit the Museum.  If you recall, that dreadful day of April 19, 1995, the Murrah  Federal Building was bombed, and 168 innocent people lost their lives.

Below are the Memorial Gates that lead to the site, there is one set at each end… one is numbered 9:01, and the other is 9:03… this represents the period of time during the bombing, and how it has changed this City forever!

They have left the chain link fence up, and people still come!

This child below is creating a chalk drawing, that all the kids are encouraged to do in front of the Museum daily.

In this picture below, I am taking it looking west… I have the one Memorial Wall directly behind me, and am looking at the other… the street used to be where the reflecting pool now is, and the Murrah Building stood facing the road on the left.  There were two other building to the right of the pool, and both had to come down as they were so badly damaged.

This picture below is looking directly where the Building used to be, and now you can see the Memorial Chairs on the grounds… there is one chair for every person who lost their life at the site…

There was 9 stories to the building, and the chairs are arranged by floor number, and the number of people who were on each floor.  There was one Registered Nurse who was a first responder to the building, and ended up with and head injury while rescuing people, and lost her life.

Below is the old Journal Record Building that was badly damaged, but since rebuilt and is now the Museum.  This is one of the nicest Museums I have come across, as far as presenting the story, and the facts in an excellent manner, meant to educate people visiting.  Judy and I have a total different awareness of this disaster after our visit… you have to experience it…

We left the Memorial, and walked around downtown and enjoyed lunch… it was in the 80’s today, and was beautiful.

Oklahoma City may not be the biggest City, but it is very nice, clean, modern, and is easy to get around in.

Once back to the Jeep, we toured what is know as Bricktown.  This area was very industrial, but is now full of restaurants, nightly entertainment, sport centers, and a water taxi to take you around… very well done!

You can see the water taxi below on the river…

We could not figure out what this sculpture below represented, if that is what it is… It is out on Highway 40, right at the downtown cut off…

We enjoyed our time in Oklahoma City, however tomorrow is time to hit the road again, and start heading north! 

This morning we had a skype call with little Gwenny, and her Mom, and Gwenny was actually waving at us on the screen! 

We had a nice skype call tonight with Shawn, Jenn, Emmie and Paige, who tell us they were building a snowman on the front lawn today!!!!!  I don’t want to go home yet!  Hope that snow goes away soon…   On the bright side, Shawn had to fly to London, Ontario today for part of his medical training, and reported a nice day in London before flying home to Ottawa.  We stay just 30 minutes east of London.

Till tomorrow…