OKC 5 of 5: Bricktown & Departure May 13-14

On Wednesday, May 13th, while Robin and Jeremy were at work, and Autumn and Isaiah were at school, Frank and I decided to spend some time in the revitalized former warehouse district of section of Oklahoma City called Bricktown.  A favorite feature of this entertainment area is a canal boat ride called the Bricktown Water Taxi. We took an Uber from the hotel to browse the Bricktown area about 10 miles north and were dropped off at the entrance to the canal boat tour. 

The boat moves along at a rate slower than a walk and takes 40-45 minutes for a round trip from the upper northwest corner of the following map down southeastward to the lower edge and back up again.

The first piece of artwork we encounter on our journey was the 1150-square-foot mural As Long as the Waters Flow, a 2007 mosaic by Mary Ann Moore, installed at the northwest corner of the Bricktown Canal. "As Long as the Waters Flow" refers to President Andrew Jackson's vow to Native Americans that they shall posses their land "as long as the grass grows and the rivers run." Devon Energy funded the mosaic as part of the state's centennial celebrations. Devon Energy Corporation is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. Peeking up behind this mosaic is the tall Devon Tower (officially, the Devon Energy Center) which is a 50-story corporate skyscraper in downtown Oklahoma City. The Devon Tower is the tallest building in the state.

The next piece of art we viewed along the canal was a mural by Bob Palmer created from images of vintage postcards and aptly titled Postcard Mural. The challenges presented while painting this mural — such as resolution, night time painting, narrow ledge restrictions — are discussed in this three minute Postcard Mural YouTube video. Bob Palmer has painted numerous other murals in Oklahoma (as well as throughout the country) and perhaps Frank and I can see many more of them on our next visit to Robin and Jeremy.

For me, the highlight of the canal tour is the Centennial Land Rush Monument commemorating the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. Per Wikipedia and a Sage Journal publication

The sculpture was erected in 2019 and features 45 bronze statues, each one being "one-and-a-half times life-size". It took Sculptor Paul Moore over twenty years to complete this powerful work, which is one of the largest monuments in the world. The work depicts horsemen and wagons racing over the Oklahoma landscape, with a total area slightly larger than a football field. The sculpture contains masterful images of straining horses and frantic individuals caught in a vital effort to succeed in this race to claim valuable homesteads and pastureland.

Here are some images starting with the cannon shot that signaled the start of the rush to grab landsites. There are horses with riders and horses pulling wagons and various other poses from flat out runs to leaps over obstacles. 

Per the research of the Oklahoma dramaturgical team from the Ball State University College of Fine Arts, there were approximately 10 land rushes between 1889 and 1906. This multi-statued monument commemorates the first land rush in 1889 that started it all.  These land rushed occurred after President Andrew Jackson's two terms from 1829 to 1837 and his "as long as the grass grows and the rivers run" promise. All that was left of Indian Territory after 1906 is represented in grey on the map to the right. This map raises the definition of the "unclaimed" territory. The grandeur of The Centennial Land Rush Monument and its representation of an historic moment in time cannot be denied, regardless of the opinion of the legitimacy of the act it commemorates. The art impact of the sculptures themselves is magnificent.

This blog is intended to be a lighthearted account of our wandering and pondering and not a political platform. Sometimes though, as I go down the rabbit hole of internet research, I find an article that sparks thought. Such was this essay by a Massachusetts College professor who was raised in Oklahoma, commenting on the Oklahoma Land Rush entitled History is Written by the Victors, but it’s Victims Who Write the Memoirs.

Was it a momentous day for American Manifest Destiny, a victory of rugged individualism and the indomitable pioneer spirit over the untamed wilderness, an enormous transfer of wealth and an opportunity for everyone, including women and African Americans, to become landowners? Or just another treaty-breaking, land-grabbing swindle by a colonizing federal government that had already nearly eradicated many Native American tribes and forced survivors onto inhospitable parcels of “Indian Territory?”

The  recurring question is the conflict between preserving history with its flaws and mistakes versus eradicating it. I am pleased to see how Oklahoma acknowledges and emphasizes its Native American heritage without sweeping it under a rug. Similar when I went to Georgia in 2019, it was encouraging to see how that state acknowledged its treatment of slaves rather than burying it. The previous quoted essay about victors and victims cites approaches in other states; it is well worth reading.

As our canal boat tours draws to a close at our origin dock Frank and I contemplate a stroll around the more compact commercial/entertainment area of Bricktown, taking in local flavor. For the second photo of Frank, my iPhone was mistakenly set on portrait mode. I got a repeat image of Frank when my goal was a focus on the bison in the background behind him as a symbolic idiosyncrasy of the area.

We walked by an outdoor themed miniature golf feature with the publicity, 

Brickopolis Miniature Golf on the Bricktown Canal offers the ultimate miniature golf experience in Downtown Oklahoma City! Putt your way through 18 holes of obstacles, bridges, and cascading waterfalls.

What particularly caught my eye were more bison plus a wolf and deer. For other pictures of the course, check out A Couple of Putts. The weather was warm, and had the course been a bit more shaded, we might have given it a try. But we strolled on, keeping in the shade of the buildings.

The cartoon charters on the Brickopolis sign fascinated me. I learned they are not random but represent state symbols of Oklahoma.

Then we had the idea of seeing much more of Bricktown and downtown OKC in the comfort of an air-conditioned trolley. We caught one not far down from the baseball stadium and rode the full round trip route as shown in pink in the following map. There is a lower loop that runs counter clockwise and transitions to a clockwise direction for the upper loop. We essentially started in the lower loop at the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, located on the lowest stretch of the map. Frank and Robin attended a game there when she first moved to Oklahoma and bought her first house.

The ballpark is named in honor of the Chickasaw Nation. The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma is the 13th-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States. Most of their descendants remain as residents of what is now Oklahoma.They traditionally followed a kinship system of matrilineal descent, in which inheritance and descent are traced through the maternal line. Children are considered born into the mother's family and clan, and gain their social status from her. Women controlled most property and hereditary leadership in the tribe passed through the maternal line. I did find it ironic that even with a maternal line of history, the great seal is still that of a man.

The next notable area on the trolley route was Scissortail Park which contains the Skydance Bridge, a pedestrian bridge to cross Interstate 40, also known as Scissortail Bridge.

Architects Hans and Torrey Butzer conceived of the bridge as being inspired by the mating dance of the scissor-tailed flycatcher, Oklahoma's state bird. The double-winged structure would be a sculptural landmark and provide support to a pedestrian deck that connects two portions of Oklahoma City's Scissortail Park. ... The location of the bridge was chosen as part of the "Core to Shore" initiative, which was intended to connect the core of downtown Oklahoma City to the shore of the Oklahoma River.

Had we gotten off at this stop, we may have walked across the bridge just for the experience. Perhaps we will do this on another visit, in cooler weather. The bridge is also famous enough that a quilt replicating it was made by the Oklahoma City Modern Quilt Guild as a fund raising community quilt and selected to be exhibited at the Modern Quilt Guild’s national QuiltCon.

The next stop on the trolley route was Myriad Gardens. Here is an overview of the 15-acre landscaped area in the heart of OKC metropolitan area. Featured in the center is the crystal bridge. Robin told us it is beautiful and we should walk across it. We looked deep into the park as the trolley rolled by and it did look tempting. Next time. This is yet another attraction to add to our list of things to do on our next visit.

Just north of Myriad Gardens, we passed next to Devon Tower, which we had viewed from our canal boat ride. Exiting our counterclockwise course of the lower trolley loop, we entered the northern loop in a clockwise direction. The northern loop passed through the metropolitan area of OKC, taking us past the library and law school, without much worthy of note other that the overall ambiance of a city's downtown. On the way back south though, we could gaze into the lawn area of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum with its 168 chairs for the victims of the 1995 bombing of the federal building. This was one of the first places Frank and I visited on our first trip to OKC. It is still a sobering moment to see, even without venturing inside the museum building. The chairs are arranged in nine distinct rows to symbolize the nine floors of the building with nineteen of the chairs being smaller to represent the children who lost their brief lives. This Wikipedia article gives more information.

In exploring the internet for this blog post, I saw many articles about the survivors and the victims since it is now 30 years later. This one about PJ Allen, the youngest survivor of the blast, 18 months old at the time, I found particularly worthy of note.

When the trolley re-entered the Bricktown District, Frank and I got off, just before the Mickey Mantle stop. We browsed briefly in The Painted Door, a gift boutique with many eclectic wares to amuse and corresponding prices that did not amuse. This store was still a fun place to look even if it was not a fun place to buy.

Next door was the  The Old Spaghetti Factory; they restaurant and the store even shared elegant bathroom facilities. We decoded to have lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  The ambience was kinda neat but we only ate a portion of our meal and took the remainder of it with us to go. 

Apparently the roof top is reputed to have a good view, but we decided to forgo it during the heat of the day. Maybe one evening on our next trip out to OKC ...? The proximity of the Painted Door to the restaurant is visible in the following photo.

After eating we took an Uber back to Robin and Jeremy's house. That evening we managed to fit in some games — adults only, kids opted out. We enjoyed a few rounds of SkyJo but called it an early evening. Frank and I had to pack and get some rest before our flight(s) back to California the next day. Robin and Jeremy drove us back to our hotel and came up to the comfort our suite, visiting for a bit longer. This bonus time was an enjoyable closure to our excellent, even if a bit hectic, visit.

On Thursday, May 14th we flew back home to California. We had two flights, connecting in Denver. In flight, we learned to our surprise that even though we had two flight numbers with two board passes for each of us, it was the same plane. We did not have to get off and make a mad dash (in wheelchairs) to another gate. We did have to change seats, however, but that was no big deal. Once in San Jose we observed the following rotating sculpture. Curious, I looked up its story.

It is titled Space Observer, created in 2010 by artist Björn Schülke. Other views and background of this mesmerizing, motorized sculpture can be found in this digiart link. Per the San Jose facility directory of public art collections and this San Jose Government public document

Space Observer is a landmark artwork located on the airport's highly trafficked meeting, greeting, and circulation mezzanine. In an airport, one of the most highly secured and surveilled public facilities of our modern time, the sculpture's whimsical, yet high tech aesthetic and use of surveillance technology, reinforce the San Jose Airport's Art + Technology Program theme. Reminiscent of a space craft, this glossy white 26' tall sculpture, perched on a tripod of 8' tall legs, explores the interactivity between humans and modern technology. When a passer-by engages with this elaborate yet delicate object it quietly rotates following him or her with the aid of two propeller-tipped arms. Its eye reveals images picked up from embedded cameras. As stated by the artist, "it can recognize you and detect your movement setting off a trigger of kinetic responses like a conversation or a dance". The placement of the sculpture was designed to reinforce passenger way finding towards either security (north) or baggage claim (south)

This was the final item we observed during what was, in retrospect, an art-centric visit. Between the visual art of a stage production with Autumn, the historical art within the Cowboy Museum, the mosaic and painted murals along the Bricktown canal boat ride, and the bronze statues both at the Cowboy Museum and in Bricktown, we have been culturally enhanced. Plus all of this enrichment is plunked right in the middle of the laughter, hugs, and interactions with family! What a great trip!

For links to the previous four posts about this visit see:

• OKC 1 of 5: May 8-10    Arrival and Legally Blonde Jr
• OKC 2 of 5: May 10       Post show and Mother's Day
• OKC 3 of 5: May 11       Cowboy Museum
• OKC 4 of 5: May 12       Chilling at home with kids
• OKC 5 of 5: May 13-14  Bricktown and departure (this post)

OKC 4 of 5: Saxophone & TV & Games May 12

Tuesday, May 12 Robin had meetings with out of state co-workers that she had to attend. Jeremy took off from work and dedicated a couple hours mid-day to Park Day at Isaiah's school. It is Isaiah's last week before summer break and Park Day is one of several fun activities planned. Parent participation is encouraged and Isaiah loved having his dad there. Ya gotta take advantage of those opportunities before the teen years of parental avoidance start.

After work on Tuesday Robin and Jeremy attended a press-the-flesh type dinner with Robin's out of town co-workers. Frank and I had a chance to bond with Autumn and Isaiah on their home turf throughout the evening.

Autumn got out her saxophone and played for us. She just started this school year and I was impressed with her progress. She sight read several songs from a music book I had brought for her.

To encourage her budding interest, I also made her a project bag for her music or anything else saxophone related (or even non-related). Some closeups and the details of my making it are in my other blog DianeLoves2Quilt in a post dated 4/16/26.

I also made an item to suit Isaiah's interests, a crocheted Wooble raccoon named Scooter. Isaiah loves these crocheted critters. He visits the Woobles web site and has made a prioritized list of those he would like for me to make for him. Scooter is the fifth and most recent. Details are in my other blog DianeLoves2Quilt in a post dated 4/20/26. That post also contains a list of links and snapshots of the previous four I have made for him. Isaiah has read all of those posts. All five Woobles are lined up on the game table in the photo after Scooter.

Isaiah's Woobles can also be found on his lap as he watches TV. They are definitely an eclectic crew. I picked a movie to watch with Isaiah. I assured him that if he did not like it several minutes into it, we would switch to another of his choice. I did rule out one category of his favorite — YouTube movies of video games played and recorded by some random individual out there in the digital universe. Personally, I do not see the allure, but perhaps Isaiah is honing his gaming skills by gleaning playing strategies during observation.

The movie on Netflix that I picked for us to watch together was Remarkably Bright Creatures. I had read the book several years ago and had really enjoyed it then. Sally Fields plays the starring role of a lonely widow who works as a cleaning lady at an aquarium. Correction: Sally Fields plays the starring human role. Marcellas is the octopus star. Per an article from Octonation.com

Marcellus has a real-life muse, and her name is Agnetha. She’s a three-year-old giant Pacific octopus living in the Pacific Canada Pavilion at the Vancouver Aquarium, and she’s the reason Marcellus moves and looks the way he does on screen. The entire CGI Marcellus was built from hours of footage of Agnetha that VFX lead Chris Ritvo and director Olivia Newman captured at the aquarium. Think of it like rotoscoping (the old animation trick of tracing live-action film frame by frame): every Marcellus arm curl, every color shift, every long stare through the glass is based on something Agnetha actually did.  ...  Agnetha appears in the actual movie! Real footage of her is intercut with the CGI throughout the film.

I kept observing Isaiah to see if he was enjoying the movie or merely being polite. The underwater scenes were awesome. He was really in to it! I was impressed with his depth of empathy and understanding, which I thought was more developed than what I would have expected in a ten-year old boy. He saw a photograph of the cleaning lady, Tova, with a man and young boy. He commented, "She must be a widow who lost her son". Also when Tova kept the door closed to a room, Isaiah guessed correctly that it had been her son's. Isaiah got was so engaged at one point he chastised me, "Aw, Grandma! You made me get all emotional over a squid!" Luckily it was a good choice of movie. I highly recommend watching it if you have not yet seen it.

Later on Autumn picked something for me to watch. It is called The Amazing Digital Circus. Wikipedia lists its genre as "adult animation, dark comedy, psychological drama, and surreal comedy", an apt description on all counts. Autumn warned me, "Grandma, it's weird." I watched the first episode and part of the second with her and she is so right. I intend to watch the follow-on episodes after travel back home from OKC, but so far, I have only watched one more. I will persist. 

The premise is that a bunch of extremely creatively-drawn characters go on a series of adventures within an amazing circus that they cannot escape. When they get emotionally distraught they "glitch" — black, jagged, spiky images — like any streaming transmission is wont to do. Here is a YouTube trailer that may explain it best — if it can be explained at all.

The Amazing Digital Circus features a main cast of six humans trapped in a virtual reality simulation, overseen by an erratic AI ringmaster, named Caine and his bubbly, floating, and obedient sidekick name Bubble. Their following descriptions should allow for matching them with the previous illustration:

Pomni: The newest human to join the circus. She is a jester whose design features a panic-prone, wide-eyed expression and a colorful jester hat.

Jax: A tall, purple, rabbit-like humanoid who is known for being a mischievous and cynical prankster.

Ragatha: A kind, optimistic, and motherly ragdoll who often tries to keep everyone's spirits up.

Gangle: A timid and melancholic ribbon-wearing humanoid whose comedy and tragedy masks change based on her current emotional state.

Kinger: The longest-residing human in the circus. He is a chess piece-themed character who is paranoid and slightly unhinged.

Zooble: A cynical, gruff character made of various modular, geometric toy parts that can be detached and rearranged.

Screen time sometimes get a bad rap. I got some insight into my two grandkids watching shows with them. But we also played two games Uno and Apple to Apples. Did Autumn pick those games because she thought we could handle them? If so, I choose to be pleased with her thoughtfulness rather than be offended by her possibly low assessment of us. She does have adequate data from other times we have been there and had our eyes glaze over as we struggled to learn more complicated role playing games. So how did we do with the games she selected? 

With Hello Kitty UNO we did OK but did hesitate just a bit because the stylized icons for Reverse and Draw 2 in the Kitty version were sometimes a bit obtuse for Frank and me since we'd never confronted them before. UNO is a classic game that has reached icon status and those stylized directions should have been obvious to Frank and me. You do not need to know the name Nike to know what a check mark means nor do you need to know the word McDonald's to recognize the golden arches. But we figured those UNO icon out and soldiered on ... and lost.

Apples to Apples was a bit more transparent. In this game a player sets out a green adjective card and the other players put out the best choice among the red noun cards they are holding in their hands to match it. The person who set out the green descriptive card is the judge and also the player who picks the best red naming card to go with it. Although this game is straight forward there was a definite division between the way the minds of the young and the minds of the old think. Invariable, and not with cheating of any sort, Isaiah and Autumn tended to pick the card of their sibling while Frank and I tended to pick the card of our spouse. Surely this phenomenon was not random but rather more evidence of a generational diversity of experiences and brain processing.

While Robin and Jeremy were out of the house, between TV and games Frank and I took advantage of a wonderful opportunity to get to know our grandkids better. Chilling at home has its rewards. Frank and I reaped those rewards that evening.