Friday, Nov. 07, 2008

TRAVEL: Oklahoma

Capital City Offers Much to Do and See

By Rita Cook

Contributing Writer

For a quick weekend getaway or even an entire week of discovering the neighboring state of Oklahoma, you will want to be sure and spend at least two or three days in that state’s capital Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City is a bustling metropolis where the new meets the old. With museums, stockyards, great restaurants and a vibrant downtown, the city is just waiting to be discovered.

Pick a hotel downtown and you’ll find you are centrally located to just about everything.

Take some time to discover the area known as Bricktown Entertainment District. A newly renovated area in the city, restaurants, shopping and nightlife are easily accessibly by the water taxis moving up and down the canal or just on foot.

The Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark is also located here and is home to the Triple-A, Texas Ranger affiliated Oklahoma City Redhawks.

Nearby Bricktown — and more moving than words can express — is the Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum.

Dedicated on April 19, 2000 on the fifth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the museum aims to educate visitors about violence and the impact it has on society, as well as the events that led up to this particular terrorist incident.

From a distance, visitors can see the Gates of Times, the reflecting pool, the pathway flagstones and the memorial chairs representing the 168 people who were killed on that day. Inside the museum there are several floors dedicated to the various events surrounding the tragedy. One of the most moving displays is the gallery of honor where photos of the 168 people who died are preserved, and in some cases, personal items belonging to the deceased.

Other museums in the area stand out as exceptional and include the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Okla., where more than 5 million artifacts and the largest Apatosaurus skeleton ever unearthed can be found.

You will also find the Cooper skull, which is the oldest painted object in the world on display here and many more additional prehistoric artifacts.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art has a fabulous art café for lunch and then take in some art — excellent exhibits rotate often — the last one was Roman Art from the Louvre.

A bit further out of the city, but well worth the drive is the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

The art here is excellent — lots of Frederick Remington and Charles Russell — as you take in room after room of oil paintings and sculptures. You won’t want to miss the recreated western cattle town, with a dry goods store, a bank, a newspaper, a saloon and much more.

Once known as Indian territory, Oklahoma is still home to more American Indian tribes than any other state. The native American culture combines with the cowboy heritage in ways that truly make the capital city an interesting travel destination for the family.