OKC

Although it stinks that my brother lives halfway around the country and we don't get to see each other very often, its great that he gets to live in and visit so many places during his time in the Army. He'll be heading overseas in a few short weeks, so CJ and I took advantage of the long MLK day weekend to visit him in Oklahoma. He warned us that there wasn't much to do near the base and, to some extent, he was right. But a few Google searches and asking around to friends gave us enough ideas to fill the weekend with. We had a ton of fun and were glad we got to spend a weekend with Ryan.

Since Ryan wasn't able to leave base the first day of our trip, we spent it exploring Oklahoma City. Planning ahead isn't exactly our strong point, so we spent the first few minutes after our plane landed searching "things to do in Oklahoma" online.



First up was Stockyards City, where a weekly cattle auction is held (we missed it that week). We weren't sure what to expect, but it consists of a few blocks of stores packed with country western wear and saddles. It was a small area, but we had a ton of fun trying on cowboy boots and admiring some really unique Native American crafts.

 

Then we drove across town to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I was only four years old when the bombing happened, so didn't know much about it at all. The memorial was eye-opening and somber, and very well put together.

By this point in the afternoon, we were famished and headed to Bricktown to grab an early dinner. This is a revitalized area of downtown, with a ton of restaurants and small shops. Verging on the borderline of hangry, we stopped into the first restaurant we saw. It was a local brewery called Bricktown Brewery, and turned out being a great choice. CJ and I each ordered a flight of their local brews and some amazing calorie-laden food - a fried chicken salad for me and an "everything but the kitchen sink" burger for CJ. It did not disappoint.

We talked about trying to scalp tickets for an OKC Thunder game, but then realized that we were exhausted and decided to make the trek to Lawton to get some rest before visiting with Ryan.