OKC

The day dawned cold but with bright sun and blue skies. We had a leisurely morning enjoying the hot hotel breakfast, swimming in the pool, and packing back up (again!). We headed into downtown Oklahoma City around 11 a.m. for a little drive around. It's a huge, beautiful city, but the silence was weird...it seemed totally devoid of people! Presumably it's bustling on weekdays. Nowhere we were interested in visiting was open, so we just headed to the capitol building to see the beautiful building, then picked up famous Route 66 heading west out of town. Several miles along we stopped at a "Route 66 Park," where the kids enjoyed snowball fights and playing on the playground for a little while.

Our drive to Amarillo was only around 4 hours; we got here by dinnertime. We ate at a tiny little spot called Cowboy Gelato. According to their advertising, they "bring the American cowboy together with gourmet Italian ice cream." With that sort of wacky pairing, how could we resist? Ha! We enjoyed our burgers, fries...and, indeed, relatively good gelato.

Now the boys (all 3 of 'em) are up in our hotel room now trying to get to sleep while I'm finishing a load of laundry. All of the rain, snow, and slush has meant a lot of muddy little boy clothing! Hmmm...I'm thinking we should stop somewhere to buy these kiddos some cowboy boots to tuck their jeans into. :)

 

Swimming at the hotel pool in the morning. 

*   *   *   

This statue in front of the Oklahoma state capitol building probably wasn't for climbing, but since the place was utterly deserted, we went for it. :)  It was high; the base the boys are sitting on is at least 7.5 feet off the ground. 

One of Oklahoma's claims to fame (?) is having the only capitol building with a working oil pump on its grounds. 

On the point of oil drilling, we were really struck by how pumps are simply everywhere. 

*   *   *  

We didn't realize we would be driving right by SNU until we actually were! We had no idea that the road we happened to take out of town brought us right by the front gates. 

*   *   *  

Here at the Route 66 park, just west of Oklahoma City, we decided to get an up-close peek at an oil pump next to the playground (after being a little weirded out that there IS an oil pump next to a playground). 

The park had a really interesting depiction of Route 66, the "Main Street of America," set into the concrete ground. It showed all of the main cities along the route, from Illinois to California. We had fun finding several of the cities we're stopping in.

 

Really, though, at the park the boys just wanted to throw snowballs at Daddy!

*   *   *

Finally, a few hundred miles later, we all were hungry for our late dinner at Cowboy Gelato.