Chillin' in OKC

After the 9+ hour drive last Friday from El Paso to Lawton, OK (home of Ft. Sill), I picked up Cam and we headed another 90 miles north to Oklahoma City. Along the way, it was fun to catch up on all that he had been doing for the last 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't have much to share because I haven't been doing ANYTHING exciting...

After checking into the hotel, we went in search of dinner. An Army buddy of Cam's suggested we try Toby Keith's I Love This Bar in downtown OKC. After SEVERAL trips around the block, we finally located the restaurant and a parking lot. One of the features of this restaurant/bar is local live music (the band that night was really good and played several country and rock covers) and military personnel get a free dinner! We then strolled along the Riverwalk in the Bricktown area of the city and finally had to give up when we (read: Kristy only) were covered in sweat due to all the humidity!

Saturday was a super busy day for us! We started off the morning with a leisurely stroll along the deserted Riverwalk and admired many of the Land Rush Monuments that have been installed. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to take the River Taxi tour, but followed along beside one for a while. We learned that the only reason Oklahoma City became the capital of Oklahoma was because 2 people stole the "official" state seal from a neighboring town in the dead of night. These folks then drafted a letter stating the capital was Oklahoma City and stamped it with the official seal. Therefore, OKC became the capital in 1907.

We then headed to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum in honor of the Federal Building bombing in April 1995. See the post below for more details.

After getting baked in the sun all morning and afternoon, we took an air conditioned, self-guided tour of the Oklahoma state capital building. The building was full of white marble, amazing murals of the state's history, and crazy detailed plaster on the walls. I was quite surprised by the lack of people inside on a Saturday afternoon, especially given my childhood experience of visiting the Capitol Building in Olympia one summer with my family.

We ended the day by getting all dressed up and dining at a local restaurant suggested by online reviewers. Despite Cam's reservations, the food was delicious and the atmosphere charming. While we had grand plans of attending the Triple A OKC Redhawks game after dinner, after our busy day we ended up CRASHING as soon as we got back to the hotel.

Sunday was a much more relaxed day. We caught the very early showing of "Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince" movie. (It was one of the better of the series, but as always, the books are FAR BETTER!) We then had a leisurely lunch and headed back to Lawton and Ft. Sill just in time to check into my hotel. Cam showed me around Ft. Sill a little and we also found Geronimo's grave in the Apache graveyard on post. All of the grave stones were lined up by family and dated from 1901 to present day.

After a fun filled weekend, it was sad to say goodbye. The drive home Monday morning seemed to take much longer than the drive up. Could it be that I wasn't excited to get home to an empty house?