We are here compliments of our son and daughter-in-law. Merry Christmas to us! They hosted both of their sets of parents for an evening at the ball game.
The game was fun, and the home team ended up on top. Go Thunder!
The Chesapeake Arena is in downtown Oklahoma City, so we started our evening in Bricktown for dinner. The river that meanders through Bricktown is lit up for Christmas!
We also spent time with both of Denisa's sisters. We did some shopping (and lots of eating) and made a trip to watch some elementary school basketball. Just north of Oklahoma City we also went to see a new exhibit at the impressive Armstrong Auditorium.
The exhibit is set up in the elegant foyer, and it centers on the precious contents of the wooden cabinet that Denisa's sister is examining. Inside are two bullehs found in the rubble in Old Jerusalem in Israel.
We learned that a bulleh is a tiny bit of wet clay that was used to seal a letter or a package. About a half-inch in size, it includes the seal of the sender that was pressed into the wet clay and then allowed to dry. This makes for a very tough dime-sized artifact that has lasted for more than two thousand years. The two bullehs on display were from King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah.
We enjoy time with our siblings, and Denisa went to lunch with a group of women from her sister's church. After a tasty lunch and time getting to know each other, we took a picture at the farm-to-market cafe in Luther. Welcome to the blog, ladies!
We also helped with some baby-sitting. Denisa's other sister hosted all five of her grandchildren for the evening, and she recruited us to bring up the adult-to-child ratio. We were out-numbered 3 adults to 5 children; but we were out-energized by about 3 to 500. We're proud to say that Mark only had to climb into the 3-story-tall (children only) play area one time, to retrieve one of the children on our watch.
Even though the weather was colder than we like, the next day we had a beautiful evening. So we took advantage of the free activities in downtown Oklahoma City. We started at Bass Pro Shop, where Santa was listening to the toy requests of a very long line of children.
The lights of Bricktown are mirrored in the river, making very interesting Christmas light pictures.
We made the trip to take in the free water taxi rides that take place this time of year. We obviously weren't the only ones that were taking advantage of the nice weather, as the line stretched as far as we could see.
After an hour, we made it to the front of the line for our ride up and down the river.
For those of us with more time than money, waiting an hour was a good deal. For others, it's probably best to just pay the $11 per person for the water taxi ride.
One stop on our water tour was the mosaic wall, filled with symbols of Oklahoma history.
The really big news for downtown Oklahoma City is the opening of the streetcars. Many years in the planning, the maiden voyage took place the day before we were visiting.
All rides are free until January 5, and will cost $1 after that. We took the Bricktown loop streetcar, and got off at the Myriad Gardens to see the Christmas lights. Crystal Garden is lit up with red lights tonight.
We love the over-sized red Christmas balls that are scattered around the outside of the Devon Tower. It's hard to miss this landmark, as the Devon literally towers over all the other buildings in downtown Oklahoma City.
Another winter highlight is the outdoor ice skating rink downtown. We snapped this picture right after they cleared the ice for a new group of skaters to try their feet at skating. You can be assured that the line was long for the rare opportunity to ice skate in Oklahoma.
A warm ride inside the new street car took us back to our car, and the end to another fun visit to Oklahoma City.
But we got bad news this day. Denisa's Mother fell outside her home in South Texas, and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. So we had a quick change of plans as Denisa flew to be with her in the hospital. While we were just enjoying our time in Oklahoma City, we suddenly had a change of plans!
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