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# Sunday, 11 January 2009
Oklahoma City - Christmas 2008

The children were very happy to discover that the Rockwell RV Park at Oklahoma City had an indoor heated swimming pool! There were straight in there on our first evening, to help ease the withdrawal symptoms that they had been experiencing!

Nessie had been all decorated for Christmas-even with her own little fibre optic tree-she was feeling happy with the Christmas spirit!

A couple of days before Christmas we visited the Oklahoma Science Museum. This was a fun packed day and we even ran out of time – as there was so much to see. Ben was in his element at the Live Science experiment show. He went and asked the scientist if he could help explode something and for his nerve (and cheek!) he became the first volunteer! There were lots of demonstrations involving different types of explosions and the factors that are necessary to cause an explosion. They all led up to an enormous ‘big bang!’

There were many ‘hands on’ activities and even an outer space rocket simulator. The children flew over England and checked on our house for us!

We watched a 3D show in a domed theatre and this featured the spectacular Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. The film was explaining how the river is under threat because of the increased population who are taking water from the river that feeds the dam. Also the farmers are still using flood irrigation on their fields which is using much more water than is necessary.

We can’t wait to see the Canyon for real very soon!

At the museum there was also a Planetarium, life-sized dinosaurs and an extensive shipwreck feature, with many rescued artefacts.

On Christmas Eve, we went to visit the Harley Davidson Store – and Ben did some more dreaming about when he is a grown up!

The children went swimming again, before watching ‘Santa Claus-The Movie’, to prepare themselves for the big day! On a last look outside before going to bed we all saw a perfect sleigh line shooting across the skies above Nessie.......and Father Christmas did find us- just like he promised last year! Phil cooked a fantastic Roast meal in Nessie and we all went swimming in the afternoon-although some of us spent more time in the hot tub, than the pool!

On Boxing Day we went to the National Cowboy and Heritage Museum. This centre helps to keep the Western Heritage alive and preserved for future generations. There were many artefacts and exhibits that were very informative. In the entrance hall stood ‘The End of The Trail’ – a very powerful sculpture that is 18 feet tall and weighs approximately 4 tons. This is James Earle Fraser’s interpretation of the last cowboy in history.........Prosperity Junction was a 1900 Western Cattle town that we could walk through at dusk. We re-visited the life of a bygone era and experienced a saloon, school, church and even got to throw the children into jail for a while!

We had a great time in Downtown Oklahoma. This was a lovely time to visit with all of the lights and Christmas cheer! We took a horse and carriage ride around the ‘new city’ -as they just celebrated their centenary last year!

We took the ‘Melting Pot’ experience for my birthday meal in Oklahoma City and it was by far more unique than dipping marshmallows into melted chocolate at home! This was a Fondue Restaurant and a whole new experience. Our Server, Karl, had a wealth of knowledge to help guide us through the meal! We took the ’big night out’ option and enjoyed a cheese fondue, salad, entree and chocolate fondue for desert. All the raw meats and fish were cooked in the fondue pot right there in front of us, in the middle of our table. There were then many choices of dips and sauces to accompany the meat, with many different flavours. The meal was then completed with the Cookies ’n’ Cream Marshmallow Dream! Many thanks to Karl for his expert advice and Christmas cheer! We shall keep an eye open for the ‘Melting Pot’ in the future as Karl told us that the company is hoping to extend into Europe in the near future.

We then finished off the evening with a boat ride down the one mile long stretch of canal and were very well entertained along the way!

We could not leave Oklahoma City without taking the time to visit the National Memorial which remembers the 168 life’s that were lost (including 19 children) on April 19th 1995. The Memorial honours the victims, survivors and rescuers who were changed forever after the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building was bombed on that morning. There are monumental twin gates of time which frame the moment of destruction at 9.02am. These mark the formal entrance to the Memorial. To the east the gates represent 9.01 on 19th April and the innocence of the city before the attack. To the west, the time is set at 9.03am –the time everything was changed forever. There is a reflecting pool through the centre. On the site of the former Murrah Building stands nine rows of empty bronze and stone chairs. These represent the nine floors of the building. Each person’s chair is set according to the floor that they were either working on or visiting on that morning. Each chair has a glass base with the victim’s name etched into it and at night those glass bases light up as a beacon of hope.

There is an American Elm Tree (90+ years old) which survived the bomb blasts and it is now encircled and known as ‘The Survivor Tree’. It has an inscription to visitors which reads “The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated: our deeply rooted faith sustains us”.

More than 200 feet of the protecting fence has become a place to leave tokens of remembrance, love and hope. We found this Memorial site to be an extremely moving place to be. Across the road stands a statue of Jesus, covering his face with his hands, with these words – ‘and Jesus wept’.

We packed up Nessie and said our farewells to Oklahoma City and Christmas 2008.

 

FACTIODS:

·         Oklahoma’s written history dates backs to 1541 when Spanish explorer Coronado ventured through the area.

·         The area was the home of the Plains Indian Tribes such as Osage, Kiowa, Apache and Comanche. In 1803 Oklahoma was sold to the US, as a part of the Louisiana Purchase.

·         In the 1830’s the Federal Government forced the five civilised tribes to leave their homelands.  

·         Oklahoma City (original) was born in a single day on April 22nd 1889, when about 50,000 homesteaders gathered at the boundaries. At noon the cannon roared and hordes of people streamed over the line on wagons, buckboards, horse-back, on foot and even bicycles into the 2 million acres of land. They made their claims and overnight the city grew out of the plains.

·         The Settlers who entered to claim land before the official start of the run were called’ Sooners’. Still today this is Oklahoma’s State nickname.

·         On November 16th 1907 the Oklahoma Territory and the Indian Territory joined, and Oklahoma became the 46th State.

·         Oklahoma does not have any Indian Reservations. There are, however, 39 Federally-recognised Tribal Nations Headquarters in the State.

·         Just East of Downtown Oklahoma City there is Brick Town which is the renovated ware house district.

·         Oklahoma now has the second largest American Indian population of any State.

·         Many of the American Indians living in Oklahoma today are descendents from the original 67 tribes inhabiting Indian Territory (and we met Nick who explained that his Great -Great Grandfather was the recognised chief in the Comanche Tribe! Nick is now an Environmental Education Specialist at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma – which we visited later – more to follow!)


Sunday, 11 January 2009 04:03:34 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  USA