Destination 13
Oklahoma City, OK
We then walked through the downtown courthouse area, and to Bricktown, a restaurant and entertainment development located in a former industrial and warehouse site on a canal. By that time, it was getting hot, and for $1 each, we took the very cute and clean OKC Streetcar back to our hotel. Later in the day, after dinner, we took a walk around the Automobile Alley neighborhood, where I especially appreciated the vintage neon signage.
The Room
Ambassador Hotel. This 1920's Art Deco building has been beautifully restored, and we had a quiet and large room, near restaurants and the OKC Streetcar. I highly recommend this property.
Great Meals in OKC
Neighborhood JAM. Our breakfast here the first morning was so good, we came back the next day. The biscuits and homemade jam were heaven, and the eggs, hash browns and everything else was great as well.
Cafe do Brasil. Located across the street from our hotel, with a great variety of Brazilian regional foods, including nice vegetables and salad (which we found hard to come by when traveling).
The View
After taking one last drive through Palo Duro Canyon, we loaded up the car and began the 4-hour drive to Oklahoma City. On Interstate 40, we stumbled upon a fantastic hamburger and house-made chip lunch at Chuckwagon, located in tiny downtown McClean, TX (another former Route 66 town), where nothing else seemed to be happening at all. That said, when we saw all the pickups parked out front, we knew the food would be great and cheap, and it was.
OKC was by far the most populous location on our itinerary at that point (pop. 670,000) and I was looking forward to seeing what this oil and cattle city would hold for us. We stayed in the Midtown neighborhood, and had the good fortune of being able to walk to downtown and the popular Bricktown canal-front development, but still sleep in a quiet, more residential area.
Yet again, it was hot, so we began our walk early, and made our first stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, in honor of the 168 victims of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. We didn't visit the Museum, but did tour the memorial grounds, with the assistance of a very helpful park ranger.
