*For a list of Oklahoma's top yearly events, click here.

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Oklahoma City

The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum is a museum and shrine to all those killed and affected by the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The people who made this museum did an amazing job, by that I mean it's beautiful in structure and concept, informative and educational, and will have you crying by the end of the tour. If the audio clips, pictures, and stories from that day don't get you, when you walk into the section dedicated to the preschool that was a part of the building and was destroyed that day... well, it's impossible not to be affected by that room. By "beautiful in concept," I mean the imaginative outside sculptures. 

 

The Gates of Time that you enter and leave the memorial from has 9:01 on one, representing the innocence prior to the bomb, and the other has 9:02 for the moment of destruction. The third gate has 9:03 which represents hope. Also, the empty chairs (whose bases light up at night) representing the 168 people who died during the bombing are beautiful, but again, hard to see. You'll notice 19 smaller chairs...

 

Plan your trip accordingly, the Memorial takes a lot out of you. 

 

You may want to do the fun stuff the city has to offer prior to that visit, or you could do it after to help bounce back to happiness. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum has more than 28,000 old western and Native American artifacts and artwork. You'll see old weapons, tools, and clothing styles, read stories, and see paintings ranging from landscapes to John Wayne. The museum also houses the Rodeo Hall of Fame. There's also a small recreation of an old west town to venture through. My kids really liked this part. Of particular interest to me, as I am a big fan of John Steinbeck, was the exhibit on the Dust Bowl which also gave a timeline and educational information about terrible events of the pictures. 

 

Also, a MUST-SEE, in the special events room, there is giant triptych oil paintings (biggest in the country) of western landscapes, like the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, by artist Wilson Hurley. These are incredibly stunning renditions of the landscapes, filled with beautiful coloring.

 

Once you're done with museums, go see Bricktown. This area was once an old warehouse district that has been renovated (and modelled after San Antonio's Riverwalk) so that now it's filled with restaurants, nightlife, and shopping. Plus you can take a narrated cruise in the canal running through Bricktown's center to hear all about the history of Oklahoma City. 

 

Want to add more fun to your otherwise sobering trip to Oklahoma City? Go to Frontier City Amusement Park, a western-themed amusement park with rollercoasters, water rides, and shows like the Wild West Gunfighters Stunt Show. I also blame this city for my boys' obsession with hotel rooms. They love hotels, love the pools, and always want to "go back to the hotel room"...even if we're doing fun activities! The hotel we stayed at in Oklahoma City had a pool with water features for kids, like water cannons and things spraying at you from all directions...so hotels are now as much part of the tourism as anything else we do.