Van Meter Vacation Travel: Oklahoma City Bombing

Hey, it's Bailee. :) Going to the Oklahoma City Bombing sight has most definitely been my favorite part of this vacation so far. I had never even heard of what had happened until my parents told me about it. Can you imagine? Not just a terrorist, but a terrorist from our own country putting three (only one went off) bombs in a federal building, thus killing 168 people, 19 of which were children. Families...Grandfathers, grandmothers, daughters and sons. People who loved and were loved...Gone.

There are many interesting things at the memorial sight. As I walked through the memorial garden area, I saw metal and glass chairs, each representing someone who died that day. The name of each victim was engraved on the chairs. Something I noticed was that not all the chairs were the same size. The bigger ones represented adults, and the smaller ones represented the children. The fence along the road that has gifts in memory of the ones lost is really an amazing sight. People hung all sorts of things on the fence: Shirts, flowers, poems, pictures, songs, awards, drawings, and much, much more. We hung a handkerchief on the fence and wrote "Not forgotten" on it.

After walking through the memorial garden area and looking at the stuff hung on the fence along the street, we went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum. In front of the museum is a wall with tiles that kids painted on with messages of hope and healing, and in front of that was a bucket of chalk and an area to write and draw on with the chalk. It's amazing all the information they have and how the museum is set up. We were in the museum for almost 3 hours reading information, looking at photos, watching videos, and talking to tour guides. My mom and I could not hold back the tears that continuously filled our eyes. It's hard to imagine the grief of the people directly affected by the explosion.

If you're ever in Oklahoma City, OK, I highly recommend stopping by the bombing sight and going to the museum. I doubt you'll be able to leave that place un-moved.

The glass and metal chairs with names engraved on them.