Painting the town orange.

We began our Tuesday morning with a visit to Route 66 park near Lake Overholser. After spending a good chunk of our June vacation traveling along Route 66, Katie and I felt obliged to pay a visit to OKC's homage to the Mother Road.

Upon arrival we were disappointed to see very little at this particular park. But once we got out of the car, we could see the centerpiece of this recreational area: an inlaid map of Route 66 there in the plaza.

Katie insisted that we walk the route, beginning in Chicago.

"Sirup"? REALLY?

And I wonder who Will Roger is. Will ROGERS I have heard of, but his famous highway would not have an apostrophe after the "r"! Seriously, how do you go to the trouble and expense of creating this massive mural in the ground and mess up the punctuation?

And look! Will Roger gets his own memorial! Too bad Will ROGERS didn't get the same respect!

ANYWAY, we continued our walk down Route 66, pausing in Oklahoma to acknowledge our current locale.
Then we got to relive some of our vacation memories, like the Big Texan in Amarillo,

Tucumcari, New Mexico,

and then Holbrook, Meteor Crater, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.

We ended our trip down memory lane in Santa Monica. It's been three years since THAT vacation, but we still recall our fantastic afternoons spent on that beach.

After our visit to Route 66 Park, we made our way downtown to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. We had visited this sacred ground before, but Katie really wanted to go back.








Even though we'd seen the outdoor memorial and toured the museum before, this was still a powerful visit. Now that Katie's older, she was able to better understand what happened during not only the bombing, but throughout the investigation and trial afterward.

From there we drove out to Uncle Mike's store to meet him for lunch at Freddy's Frozen Custard.
Since it was Mike's birthday, he got a free sundae, which he promptly gave to Katie!

After our birthday lunch with Mike, we went shopping for a few hours. We wanted to head to Bricktown, but we weren't all that anxious to be there at the hottest time of day! Eventually we drove back downtown to ride one of the Bricktown water taxis.

One HUGE improvement since our last visit to Bricktown? Covered boats and misters! (No, not THAT kind of mister, Mister!)

Again we saw the land run monument.
And again we heard about how the sculptor, Paul Moore, depicted himself in one of the statues.
After eating dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse there in Bricktown, we went back to the canal for another tour.




Of course, I always have to pay my respects to the Sonic corporate headquarters!

After that river taxi cruise, Katie and I walked down to the land run statues to get a better look. The tour guides had told us that it was OK to touch and even climb on the art, so Katie really wanted to get up close and personal with them.








It's an impressive monument! I'm glad we took the time to walk around it to see all the details the sculptor included.

And that was day 2 in OKC!