Sunday, June 24, 2007

Day 3 in Oklahoma City

Joyce and Mike knocked on our door yesterday morning and invited us for breakfast. This time I was ready but Jennifer wasn’t. We had the buffet breakfast and Mike had us laughing the whole time. Joyce is very pregnant with her third child and at one point she jumped back in her seat because the baby kicked her so hard!

Mike wanted to go see the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum so we all boarded the bus to see that. The trolley was only twenty five cents. I still remember the bombing that happened in Oklahoma City 12 years ago and will never forget that day. The Memorial was beautiful and very interesting. The reflecting pool was beautiful and one could feel the emotion in the place. As you walked in, you could see chairs on the lawn that represented all the people and children that lost their lives that day. The small chairs represented the children and the larger ones represented the adults. I realized that I didn’t have my camera with me so Jennifer let me take a few pictures with her camera. We wanted to go in the museum but didn’t have time because Mike had to return to the Advanced Bionics booth to work.

After we left Mike at the Convention Center, Jennifer, Joyce, Dr. Norm, and I went back to the coffee shop we had visited the night before. I could not find my camera in the hotel room and thought I might have left it there. Sure enough, it was there – with some extra pictures taken by some goofy coffee shop workers! I was thankful that I found it – that shows a lot about the people of Oklahoma City. The four of us had lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse, walked around some more and got more souvenirs to take home.

We went back to the Convention Center, attended some workshops, visited more booths, and met more people. There was an ice cream social and we got more massages at the Cochlear booth. I also tried out a Bluetooth headset that would work with my CI and phone. This is the place to see and try out all the new gadgets!

I won several items at the silent auction and paid for those. I got a Starbucks basket with two coffee mugs, two bags of Starbucks coffee, a thermos and a Yahtzee travel game. I also won a basket with heart items in it. It’s going to be tricky getting all this stuff home in my suitcase! I gave Jennifer a mug and bag of coffee and told her that I would think of her as I drank my coffee in my matching mug! There was an ice cream social that afternoon at the Convention Center. Mike called me over to his booth and told me he had a free ticket to the banquet that night. I didn’t want to go without Jennifer but there were some extra ones for sale. So we bought a ticket and shared the price. We were told it was a dressy affair so we went back to our room to freshen up and change our clothes. We had originally planned to go out to eat again in the downtown area but we are so glad we didn’t because it started to rain and storm outside. We took the skywalk from the hotel to the Convention Center so we didn’t have to worry about getting wet.

The reception and banquet was nice. We found Dr. Norm again and talked with a few other people. The food was okay but the highlight of the evening was the Oklahoma Fancy Dancers. They were Native American Indians and were absolutely WONDERFUL! Their costumes were beautiful and they danced different dances for us as their lead singer/drummer played the drum. The narrator explained the different dances and history and we loved every minute of it. At one point the audience was invited to participate in a dance so we got to learn and dance with the Indians for a bit. They call themselves the First People and they were just so breathtaking and spiritual. My mouth was probably hanging wide open as I watched them dance. One guy danced with hoops and was fascinating because he put his whole body through them and made different shapes and figures.

I finished the shawl that I made so Barbara and her friend came to our room to pick it up. You can see a picture of it here on my knitting blog! She loved it right away. Jennifer and I stayed up late again talking and reviewing all the pictures we had taken. We are having so much fun and don’t want this weekend to end.

2 comments:

Mom said...

Nobody wanted that weekend to end! What fun!

I need your email address so I can send you some photos.

Jennifer said...

Wasn't it an awesome weekend???? I need to go work on my blog...I'm behind! :)