Hello from Oklahoma City everyone!
Here's my first impression of Oklahoma, developed as we were flying in this morning: it's flat! There are no mountains. There are some hills, but mostly, the place is flat, flat, flat, at least where we are here in the middle of the state. Having spent my whole life in the intermountain west, it's weird for me not to see mountains. How do they know their directions here? In Salt Lake, I know that the Wasatch Mountains are east, the Oquirrh Mountain are west, Idaho is north and Provo is south. I'd be totally at the mercy of my car's compass here.
My second impression of Oklahoma is that it seems pretty nice. Not a lot of people here, the city is small, it seems pretty clean, and the people are friendly. The streets are narrow. I think Salt Lake has unusually wide streets though. Brigham Young, founder of SLC, wanted the streets wide enough to turn an ox-pulled wagon around. I think you still could if it weren't for all the cars.
Anyway, we've had a great day. T and I got to the airport a little early because I certainly didn't want to be any kind of late. We easily met up with Clay, the Jazz guy and he gave us our boarding passes and let us know the plan.
When we landed in OKC, a big bus came to pick the 14 of us up. There are six pairs of fans and two guys from the Jazz organization, Clay and Jim. When we got to the hotel, we just walked in and were handed the keys to our room. We are kind of in a little corner, but the room is nice and the beds are comfy. We are on the fifth floor, so maybe we won't hear the Skirvin ghost. I'll let you know.
On our way into the city, Jim talked to the group about things to do during our free time. He recommended going to see the Oklahoma City Memorial. I'd nearly forgotten about what happened here. In April 1995, an act of domestic terrorism took place here when the Federal Building was blown up, killing 168 people, including 19 children. A beautiful and symbolic memorial has been set up at the site of the bombing. It was only about a ten minute walk from the hotel, and I'm really glad we took an hour to go see it. It was a beautiful day here, the walk was pleasant and the memorial was worth the time.
After we had explored the memorial, we strolled back to the hotel, got a snack and napped (T) and read (me). Then it was time to meet the group for dinner.
We went to a cute little bistro, The Mantel Wine Bar and Bistro. I really enjoyed my meal. First there were appetizers for the table that included calamari, crab cakes and something with chicken. The crab cakes were very good. I had the Manhattan cut strip steak with mashed potatoes and asparagus, but to start, there was lobster bisque. Oh how I love lobster bisque. So creamy! So decadent! I could have been done after the soup, but the meal came and it was very good, too. My steak was cooked perfectly and there were also three yummy grilled shrimp.
T had a Caesar salad and pasta with shrimp. I think he liked the shrimp and the salad the best. He didn't make much a dent in the pasta.
After we were all stuffed from dinner, it was game time - the main event of the trip - watching the Jazz play the Thunder. I've never seen a game played in another arena and I was really excited about it. I was hopeful the Jazz could give the Thunder a good game, but it wasn't meant to be. The Jazz only scored 28 points in the first half, compared to 51 for the Thunder. The Jazz never really got close. It was kind of embarrassing and really hard to watch. The up-side was that we had pretty great seats from which to watch the massacre. The Jazz ended up losing by 23, 110-87, At one point I wasn't even sure if the Jazz would score 60. It was just a really, really bad game for the Jazz. It wasn't that great for Thunder fans either. Who wants to watch your team blow out another team that is obviously vastly inferior. And this admission is coming from a die-hard Jazz fan! It just hurt to watch the carnage.
Now we are back at the hotel. T is chatting with his friend on the phone. I am getting ready to call into my comfy bed, read my book and get some sleep.
ps Thanks Granite & the Utah Jazz for a great day :)
1 comment:
Sounds like fun, but for the game final score.
Did you tell T his grandpa was born in OK? probably he knew thsat already :)
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