Oklahoma City Visit - Part 2

Robin took off from work on Monday May 4th so we could do some mother daughter quilting bonding. She and I hit the quilt stores and you can read about my purchases in my DianeLoves2Quilt  blog post for May 6th. Frank had no idea we were going to leave him stranded at home for over three hours! But gosh, that is less that two hours per quilt shop, especially when you add in travel time! We have no pictures of us at home playing with fabric. Why take pictures when you can touch and feel the real thing?

Jeremy went off to work Monday, May 4th but he planned to come home a bit early so we could make an evening excursion to Bricktown and ride the water taxis. It was a warm night with only a slight breeze - shirt sleeves weather and perfect for an outdoor stroll. Robin summoned up some energy even though I'd run her ragged in the quilt stores earlier in the day.

We boarded a water taxi. Since it was a weeknight they were not running full. With central seats and chairs along the outer edges and some vacancies, Autumn was free to shift around amongst the four adults, satisfying the perpetual motion nature of a 2½ year old.

We passed close to waterfalls, murals, mosaic artwork and historic brick warehouses turned avant-garde restaurants and shops. We floated past Jazmo'z Bourbon Street Café where Jeremy and Robin held the rehearsal dinner for their wedding. We navigated between bronze statues one-and-one-half times life size commemorating the Great Land Rush of 1889 when the Oklahoma Territory was opened up and land was given away free.

After the water taxi ride we walked along the canal and around the area to find a place for dinner. We stopped by this fountain. The breeze picked up just enough to blow the spray on us. Autumn squealed in delight, although she did bury her face.

An icon in the distance near the Bricktown area is a U-Haul truck up on top of their corporate building. Frank, strong man that he is, did his part to help support the vehicle.

We decide to eat at Earl's Rib Palace, overlooking the canal with its water taxis and pedestrians along side it out for a leisurely stroll, just like us.

The date was May 4th so in honor of the phrase May the Fourth Be with You, Robin wore her T-shirt contending that The Force is Strong with This One .

We asked the waitress to take a group shot of us.

Autumn got an ice cream as part of her meal. It was near closing time so I think the personnel were a bit overgenerous with her serving size. It was supposed to be a kid-size ice cream. We sat there quite a while – cue the music from the final round on the Jeopardy game show – while Autumn was intent on devouring the entire full cup.

Note that a bit of syrup made its was to her nose somehow. The slightly dubious expression on her face might lead one to believe that she was getting a bit full.

After finally convincing Autumn that the rest of her ice cream could be put in the freezer at home for tomorrow, we left and walked back to the car.

Tragedy of tragedies, the nearby Bass Pro shop had just closed for the evening, but Jeremy drove by slowly in its parking lot and pointed out all the features to Frank through the large plate glass front windows. Jeremy also drove us out to where his training facility's offices were and gave us a headlight tour of the huge machinery, valves, pumps, fittings, and fixtures employed in the oil industry. It was very, very, impressive, even with the limited visibility of night. We continued on home and everyone pretty much collapsed into bed after a  full evening "out on the town".

Ironically, two evenings later, Wednesday night, the very day we'd left to fly home, a trailer park just blocks away from the facility Jeremy had shown us was destroyed by a tornado. His Oklahoma City work location was relatively unscathed but nevertheless was closed the day after. Jeremy did not get the day off because was conducting training out of town at another location.