After our tour of the Capitol, we drove downtown to the district known as Bricktown. It got its name due to the fact that it was an old wholesale warehouse district at one time. Most of the buildings were made of brick. Many of these buildings still have the original names of the companies embedded in its façade. After many years of abandonment and deterioration, many have been bought and restored into restaurants, boutiques, micro breweries and housing. Much of the restoration was done via raising the sales tax by one penny (1%). Raising taxes is not new. But in this case the money for all the work was in the “kitty” before the work was started. Once the revitalization was finished, the penny sales tax was removed. I find that amazing! No one removes a tax unless they replace it with another. But, praise Oklahoma City, they did it.
All day parking is in the $3 to $5 range. Event parking is higher.
This restoration also allowed the city to build a canal and a triple A baseball stadium.
The stadium is mostly brick and is beautiful. Two men from Oklahoma who made it “big” were Mickey Mantle (NY Yankees) and Johnny Bench (Cincinnati Reds). There are two much-bigger-than-life bronzes of these two men. Both are displayed outside the stadium…Johnny’s at the front entrance behind home plate (the catcher’s position); Mickey’s off to the left (still viewed from the front) near the back end of left field. The stadium is built so that they both appear to be in the front, but kind of sideways. This sounds like a paradox, but it was well designed.
Across the street from Mickey’s bronze is a restaurant called “7.” That, of course, is Mickey’s retired number. The seven is outlined in pin stripes.
Starting at the stadium we discovered large bison (American buffalo) sponsored by various people, groups and companies. All unique! As in many towns that have done similar projects, most are designed and painted by local artists. I have seen in other towns which we visited—dogs, horses, cows, moose. The bison was kind of cute. My favorite (I only saw a dozen or so) was the one sponsored by UPS. The bison had his brown UPS hat on and his brown UPS shorts (I wonder--if in the later part of the fall, he puts on long brown pants).
We soon discovered the canal. It was part of the restoration project. It is approximately one mile long. There boats that comfortably seat a couple dozen visitors. The cost for seniors is $6 per person. Gratuities are welcomed! The complete trip on this canal boat is two miles (up and back). The boat man on our boat was extremely knowledgeable. His presentation was well done and casual. The canal takes you past many of the old brick buildings. The first “attraction” one sees is a mosaic mural—absolutely beautiful. We boat under some very pretty bridges—most are pathways for pedestrians. There is another mural depicting labor and occupations of the area stretched over the façade of several buildings. We passed Sonic headquarters, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar Bar and Grill, some high rent condos, and oversized Bass store and town fountains. The boat man gave us a lot of detail.
Near the end of the canal is a magnificent set of bronzes depicting the Oklahoma land rush. There are covered wagons, people on horseback and on foot. It is absolutely amazing. I think he said there were thirty something pieces (and it is not totally complete). The only that really blew my mind was a covered wagon, with its driver holding a whip in the air over the heads of the horses. It was really close to the edge of the canal and looked as though it was ready to enter the water as we floated by. The wagons were drawn by horses or oxen. The whole display was absolutely breathtaking and amazing. The bronzes are in a city park. If one would like to see them without taking the canal cruise, a quick walk from Bricktown over a couple pedestrian bridges will bring you there.
Then, we cruised back though the canal to its dock.
As we had gone by Toby Keith’s restaurant, our boatman mentioned that Toby likes fried baloney sandwiches. I never knew any one in the world except Steve who ate those things. Well, we had not had lunch. So, you know that we had to walk back to the bar and grill. It was rather busy. Toby was not there, but makes lots of appearances at various times. Steve ordered his fried baloney sandwich; I ordered a salad. It was not as pricey as I thought it would be. We spent less than $20.00 for the two of us, but we were still on the lunch time menu. I tried the baloney. It was okay, but nothing I would choose to order. It was huge. I thought that it would be sliced thin like baked ham or something. But, no. It was a large chunk of baloney…fried…between some very nice Texas toast style bread…served with French fries. Oh, yum! (Sarcasm!!!!). The salad was huge and very good. I had a tough time finishing it due to its size. I would go back there is a minute, but I still would not order the fried baloney. The service was very good and fast. We liked the atmosphere including the back end of mid-fifties Chevies that were chairs. Cool place.
We thought we would try to find some more Route 66 attractions, but discovered the Will Rogers turnpike was about thirty miles away from Route 66 at the point at which we were looking. So, we headed back to Tulsa. It had been a fun day with a great many learning experiences.
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