Remembering

Today our two stops focused on remembering events that were important to 20th century US history, which was perfect since that has been our focus this year. We started out in Little Rock by visiting the site of Central High School. We had read all about the Little Rock Nine last month and our whole family was appalled by what happened there when 9 black students attempted to integrate in 1957. It was neat to go and see the visitor's center where they have displays which attempt to tell the story of what happened there. Then, we tromped across the street to take a few photos. Because the high school is still in operation, we couldn't actually go inside, but we were able to stand out front and imagine the events that happened there 50 years ago.

Central High, which was "hugemongous", according to Abe. And yes, he said huge monguous.

Did I mention that it was cold? Notice they're huddling.

Abe just wanted to lounge on a bench outside of the visitor's center, but since our teeth were chattering, we vetoed that idea.

Lizzy was listening intently to one of the recorded accounts they had, featuring folks who were involved in the events at Central High.

After leaving Little Rock, we headed toward Oklahoma City. The drive was longer than we'd hoped it would be as we hit some sort of issue on I-40. We were parked on the interstate for almost an hour. The one bright spot in the whole thing was that after our lengthy setback, we decided to make a pit stop and ended up finding an Oklahoma treasure called Braum's. This is apparently a dairy chain that comes from a large local farm. I don't know all of the details, but I do know that we ate generous portions of delicious, creamy, ice cream for a very reasonable price. We all ate cones for about the same amount of cash that Ryan and I would spend for just the 2 of us to have an ice cream at Cold Stone. And it was good, really good!

That put us pulling into Oklahoma City just in time to see the Oklahoma City National Memorial at sunset, which was perfect timing. I had read a book about the bombing to everyone as we were driving from Little Rock, so we had a good idea of what to expect. I have to say that it was overwhelmingly sad, but beautifully done. The kids had lots of questions and we tried to answer them, but the bottom line is, it is just a tragic thing that is beyond comprehension.

This fence was originally erected to provide a barrier for the bombing site. Many left mementos, notes, and such. When the memorial was created, they decided to leave a portion of it up. It was sad, but fascinating to explore.

This is one of the "gates of time" that you enter through. One of the gates is 9:01 and one is 9:03 and between the two gates is the memorial which reflects the tragedy that happened at 9:02.

These 168 empty chairs each represent one of the victims that was killed. They each have a name engraved on the base. There are 19 which are smaller and represent the children who perished.

Here are the chairs, all lit up as the sun was setting.

This is the view we saw as we were exiting the 9:03 gate.
The church across the street has erected this statue of Christ, He is turned away from the sight in despair, covering his face, and weeping.

Tomorrow should be a little more light-hearted. Overall, things are off to a great start. We've made it through our longest driving days until we start to head back toward the Atlantic in a few weeks and I'm very thankful for that. I'm also excited because it looks like we'll be able to peel off the hoodies and raincoats tomorrow. C'mon sunshine!

*I have no idea why a portion of this is underlined and I can't get it off. But, I'm giving up and leaving it that way!