Day 9 – Hanging in OKC (Saturday)

Today we had a ‘fun’ day.  No work…just hanging out and having fun.  We started the day by visiting the Oklahoma City Memorial…the site of the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing.  We were all touched and inspired by the beauty of the memorial.  The youth were just young kids (and some weren’t even born yet) when the bombing happened and some had never even heard about it.  It was a nice little side trip that turned into an educational one too!  If you haven’t ever been there…we would highly recommend that you go.   

While in OKC we were joined by about 10,000 bikers.  “More than 10,000 Harley-Davidson owners and motorcycle enthusiasts will converge on Oklahoma City for their annual celebration and rally, June 26-28, 2009. Activities, concerts and block parties will take place in and around downtown Oklahoma City all weekend.”

After the memorial we loaded up, stopped for lunch, and then descended (I use that word because that is what the 23 of us do everywhwere we go J) on the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  We only spent about 2 hours there…but probably could have spent much longer.  It was really cool – and huge.  There were rooms and rooms of sculptures and artwork, a whole old west town complete with a church, saloon, and school house. There was a rodeo area, an area about Western movies and tv shows, and more.  It was really neat. (We would suggest a visit to this one too!)

After the Cowboy Museum, a group wanted to take a rest at the hotel…and a large group of youth wanted to go to the mall again (it was a really nice mall).  So…Mindy took 11 youth back to the mall while the other adults and youth went back to the hotel for a bit.  We all met back up at Bricktown (OKC’s version of the San Antonio’s Riverwalk).  First stop…Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World.  Everyone knows that Jeb doesn’t pass a Bass Pro Shops with out stopping and shopping! After Bass Pro (and looking for a lost set of van keys---yikes!) we hopped on the trolley and headed down to the heart of Bricktown for dinner.  And we were once again reunited with our 10,000 bikers who were also taking in the sites of Bricktown…and also it seemed to be the gathering place for their rally.  Dinner was great and by the end of the night we were all ready to get back to the hotel.  Especially the adults who had to get up and drive everyone back to ABQ the next day J