Once we ate breakfast we packed up and headed to the trail for Natural Falls, the namesake of this park. We tried to convince the kids it was a five mile one-way walk down to the falls but they just happened to be standing near enough at check in the day before to hear the ranger tell us it was only 47 steps down. Laney was super excited to learn this waterfall was featured in the movie "Where the Red Fern Grows" which she read last year.
We walked all around the trail surrounding the falls to learn more about the plants and animals in the area as well as to see the waterfall from different angles. Grammie even spotted a chipmunk who wasn't scared of us at all as he ate his mid-morning snack. Grammie must have been smelling really good this morning because a moth tried to adopt her on the way to our cars. No matter how many times we touched him to encourage him to leave he would simply fly around to the other shoulder. She ended up having to climb in next to the rose bushes to entice him to leave!
We got on the road and headed to our next stop in Oklahoma City. While we have just completed learning about modern history, it didn't cover as far up as the 1990s so Dave and I had the task of explaining the Oklahoma City Bombing to the kids in our car. I remember feeling so shocked and sad, but so much time has passed that there were so many details I didn't remember.We had our first experience exploring a bigger city with Grammie in her RV! Of course, Grammie scored the front row parking spot as she always does. Once she had Lola secured in the RV with the air on, we went to explore the memorial. We were welcomed to the memorial with the words, "We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope, and serenity."
The first area we got to was the wall where people could leave things. The kids were very anxious, trying to figure out something they could also leave. They saw a few pictures of the children that were killed in the bombing too.
Next we walked through into the memorial plaza and were instantly in awe of the concept of the memorial. We spent a few minutes talking to the park ranger about the meaning behind many of the objects in the area. There were the enormous walls with a reflecting pool between them. Each had a times carved into it: 9:01 for the last minute of innocence then 9:03 for the first minute of healing.
There were 168 chairs with names strategically placed on what floor and area of the building the victims worked or were visiting at the time of the bombing. There were some of the original walls still in place with names of the survivors from buildings in the immediate area.
The part of the memorial I liked most was the Survivor Tree. This tree was surrounded by burning cars after the bombing and still survives today. It would imagine is a symbol of hope and strength for so many people. And it's absolutely beautiful!
The view from the tree over the plaza was breathtaking.
After walking around a little bit more we decided to go by the children's area. For months after the bombing Oklahoma City received tiles from children from all over the country and they are part of the display. The kids also added their marks on the chalkboard tiles on the ground.
On the way out the kids had the idea to leave a few Pensacola Rocks for the children that were taken that day.A few hours later we drove into our spot in Little Sahara State Park. It was blazing hot and we were all starving so we set up in record time to eat. Of course we'd heard there was rain coming so we prepared by making sure the rain fly was secure. After dinner Brayden decided to read so the girls played My Ship Sails with me and Dave. We hadn't played since our summer trip 3 years ago. After a raucous game we decided to head to bed. I brought it my laptop and things to work on should the storm keep me up.
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