One Day in Oklahoma City!

Our family is attempting to travel to all 50 states through creative road trips. We prefer to choose a route which may have several destination stops throughout the trip. This often results in spending a short amount of time in one city. We love to get the flavor of the place that we are visiting by experiencing dining experiences, seeing a well-known icon from that area or simply experiencing the understated charm of that particular area.

This post shares about our time in Oklahoma- our 35th state. We primarily explored Oklahoma City which was a really fun city!

Welcome to Oklahoma!

We were on a road trip from Indiana to Texas and wanted to explore Oklahoma along the journey. We traveled from Wichita to Oklahoma City (and then on to Texas.) My daughters really enjoyed their time in OKC.

On the way to OKC, we stopped for lunch at Pops 66 Soda Ranch. This is a classic tourist spot, but it was still a fun lunch spot along the way. Pops 66 is basically a gas station and convenience store with an additional diner. What makes it so unique is that they literally have bottled sodas of every color and every flavor imaginable. In addition, Pops is located on Historic Route 66 which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. We had lunch there and looked around for a bit. Lunch was good and, of course, I had to get fried okra while in Oklahoma. Another bonus was that we were able to pick up Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies while there. We had wanted to stop at their store to try one, but they were closed on that day. Finding them available at Pops was a nice surprise. We bought two to have later- pecan and chocolate. We enjoyed them!

Upon arriving, we traveled to Bricktown. We were excited to take a ride on the Bricktown Water Taxi to explore the area around the canal. We had a great sightseeing tour and learned a little about Oklahoma City. The ride was fun and just the right length to see some sights, but no time for getting bored. There are statues and art along the canal that is explained by the guide. Bricktown is a really fun area of the city. There are other activities such as putt putt and arcades in addition to several restaurants. The Bricktown area is also right beside Bricktown Ballpark which offers some baseball history.

After our time in Bricktown, we decided to explore more of the city. We noticed that a streetcar was advertising free rides until July so we decided to hop on. Our primary destination was the Oklahoma City National Memorial, but we were able to see a lot of the city while we traveled to the memorial. We hopped off at the memorial and took some time learning about the history of the bombing and reflecting. My girls were also able to get a stamp for their NPS Passports as this is a National Historic Site.

Once we finished at the memorial, we walked downtown for a bit eventually ending up at the Myriad Botanical Gardens. The gardens are free and beautiful! There is a Fountain Crystal Bridge Conservatory which does require a ticket. However, this was closed when we arrived. We enjoyed exploring the outdoor gardens. There was a children's garden and my girls even tried at the carousel.

While we walked, we noticed that Oklahoma City has quite a few murals and art pieces that made it a really fun and interesting city. My girls loved capturing the art in pictures. On our walk back to Bricktown, we discovered the cutest place called Pinkitzel. It is an amazing candy and sweets shop that is decorated so uniquely. They also have ice cream. It is worth a stop!

Once we arrived back at our van, we decided to head for dinner. We had heard that Oklahoma was known for onion burgers. We traveled to Tucker's Onion Burgers for dinner. We enjoyed the onion burgers which felt very akin to a classic diner burger. The fries were great as well. The location we chose led us back to Historic Route 66 which also felt like a great way to finish out our day in Oklahoma.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some pool time and rest. We chose to stay at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Oklahoma City- Bricktown.  This was a great location and we were happy with our stay. Peace out Oklahoma City! It was fun!

Read about our entire road trip on this post: 50 State Journey-The Midwest to the Wild West.

Follow along for more multi-destination trips at Middle of the Road Mindset.