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| A Visit to Oklahoma's Bricktown! |
I forgot to mention last night on our little jaunt down the road to the steak place, we were in pretty dire need of gas. Actually, the car said we did have 6 more miles left but we weren’t too sure if that was accurate or not. We did decide to get gas at the first available station and indeed the car was pretty accurate. Our tank is 30 gallons and Robby put in 29.77 gallons in it. Living on the edge!
Some time during the night, Graham joined me in bed and Campbell joined Robby in his bed. Robby and I had stayed up until 1ish (still just 11 to us though) doing laundry and catching up on our computing. The kids were exhausted this morning and probably could have slept for another few hours but we started opening the windows (we bring clothes pins to keep the
curtains closed the and light out). I probably shouldn’t be surprised that the kids were tired this morning-we did keep them up until midnight. Robby woke up a little after 9 and soon he was using his trick “if you don’t get up now, we will miss the hotel breakfast and have to eat cereal in the car” and that gets them moving really quickly. Of course, as he loaded the car this morning, he said that we can’t bring cereal in the car anymore-it is everywhere. If a bear at Yosemite had been near the car, then he would have still smelled the cereal all over the floor and helped himself. There is probably enough cereal on the floor of this car to feed a hungry child for 5 days.
The kids and Robby went to breakfast while I finished getting ready. Then Whitman and I came to breakfast to eat with everyone. Robby went back to the room to start getting things packed up and soon we were walking out of the hotel. On the way out, Reagan said “Las Vegas has those big hotels; Texas has the big steak restaurant. What does Arkansas have?” Hmm, the diamond mine? Crystal Bridges? Clinton Library? (We haven’t been to the first 2 on that list-need to do those soon)
We had to hurry to get ourselves into the car, stop to get ice, and find the church service on the internet. Nothing like driving down the road listening to your church. We missed listening to church last Sunday. The kids are glad that we weren’t in the car early enough to listen to both services this morning but Robby and I were a bit disappointed about that!
After a drive, Robby found a stop to see a “big Indian.” When we drove up the big Indian was not so big after all. That was fine since it still proved plenty of room to run around. It was at a National Route 66 museum (which wasn’t yet open for the day) so the kids enjoyed stretching their legs and taking pictures. Reagan is my picture taker-she wants to take her picture at every single spot possible-we eventually have to cut her off.
We could have run around there longer but Anderson had to potty so we went for gas and a potty stop. While the big ones were in the potty, I let Keaton call Pops. She just grinned from ear to ear as she talked to him. I think that she has started talking more on this trip-she has jumped from using just one word at a time to speaking in sentences (though others probably wouldn't know what she is saying, we sure do.)
Well, for lunch Robby pulled into a Sonic/gas station. We piled out with plans to eat inside of the restaurant. By the time we made it in the door, Robby knew we weren’t eating there-I have never seen so many crickets in my life. Even though most of them were dead, they were everywhere inside and outside that place. Eeeew, yes, we still bought food from there but ate in our car (a bit cleaner). Robby said another gas station he has been out in Oklahoma today had crickets like that.
Everyone didn’t mind eating in the car and we drove on as we munched. Maybe they didn’t mind where they ate because they all had Sonic drinks in their hands. Our lunch happened during Sonic happy hour-we have got to get back on a schedule! A bit more driving and then our next stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
Of course you have to explain to the kids what the memorial is all about and what happened there. The kids have heard about 9/11 and seen the Pentagon Memorial so they kind of understood what it was all about. Though Campbell later on during the day said “here’s some people that can talk to us that they didn’t shoot.” I guess she thought everyone was injured in the disaster and was surprised to see people around.
At the memorial, we walked around as Robby read information about it. The kids were interested in everything-though the boys were more interested in facts about the bomb than anything else (just as all boys probably would be) The little chairs for the kids sitting on the green space really caught their attention though.
After that history lesson, we drove just a bit to Bricktown. We found the canal and went to buy tickets for the water taxi. Of course we walked the wrong way to the ticket booth and had to go back the other way. It was a bit warm but not too bad and the kids persevered and we made it to the ticket place. Robby bought tickets and we let the boat that was there go on without us. They seemed a bit on the rowdy side for us so we waited on the next boat.
It was a neat little boat ride up and down Bricktown. The driver was a preacher so Robby didn’t mind tipping well-since he only had one bill in his pocket. The ride was informative and do you know what Oklahoma is called the Sooner state. In the late 1800s and early 1900s they had “land runs”-people would race to get plots of land that the government was passing out. People that started racing toward the land before time were called “sooners.” Now I know much more Oklahoma history than I do Arkansas history-maybe I need to take a canal ride in Arkansas.
After the boat ride, we had a light supper of tacos where the driver recommended. The big kids sat at a tall table while Keaton sat with us at a booth. Then it was back in the car for the hotel-our last hotel. Robby is probably very pleased to not have to load and unload the van much more. Though Tuesday’s task is cleaning this van-we are pretty hard on a vehicle.
On Tuesday though my first task will be buying diapers! I am sure that I have plenty in my attic but if we make it home with enough diapers for Keaton it will be a miracle. I have enough for Whitman but somehow Keaton had less. What I really should do is start working on pottying with that child-she tells us every time that she has pottied. Maybe the next week.
When we got to the hotel, we unloaded and then ended up down at the pool. The kids enjoyed getting to swim one last time on the trip. Whitman even swam some this time-we bounced him around so much that he spit up everywhere in that pool.
Back upstairs, we did laundry, had showers and started watching the Miss America pageant. Reagan is really into it. Anderson is semi interested and Graham could care less. Come to think of it, both boys were pretty interested during the swim suit part of the competition.
The plan is to get up bright and early tomorrow so we can get this crew home. It has been a great trip and I think we might could go for at least another week but alas we must return to the real world.
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