Norman/OK is an interesting, unique little city which consists of two main parts: First, the historic downtown area (see pic), where we met with Stefanie this morning at the local tourism office on main street, and, second, the university campus.
"OU", the Oklahoma University, was founded before the town was there, in 1890. The renowned National Weather Center is at home on the campus as well as the great Fred Jones Art Museum, which we visited after the game. By far the most important faculty of the university is the Athletic Department, and the favorite team is the American football team, the "Sooners". The most prominent feature on the campus, therefore, is the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium with about 80.000+ seats. Architecturally more striking is the main library, a beautiful neo-gothic building (see pic).
Traffic from OKC to Norman was light this morning, in contrast to warnings that streets will be packed, and we made the 20+ miles in 25 minutes, which gave us enough time to explore the historic downtown and its old-fashioned railroad station first. Then we walked over to the stadium to watch the "parade" of the marching band into the stadium. We passed all the tailgate parties - BBQing,eating and drinking and having TV screens set up on pick-ups or in tents - on our way to the stadium for the 11 am kick-off of the game OU against Kansas State.
College football is always much more fun than professional football (NFL), but the atmosphere and the game were even more spectacular: stadium sold out, fans standing and cheering most of the time, a huge marching band, lots of cheerleaders, fireworks when the team showed up, three historic planes flying "formation" over the stadium, and a horse-drawn carriage, called "Sooner Schooner", in memoriam of the settlers "conquering" Oklahoma. The carriage (see pic) was circling the arena after each touchdown. There was a lot of action on the field, too, though the defense wasn't that good, and at the end the home team won 38:17.
After some "culture" in the art museum, with a great collection of American art and impressionists - and a stroll around Campus Corner (the main crossing on the campus, where all the bars and restaurants are located), we walked back to downtown to have a delicious dinner at "Scratch", named for its dishes being made from scratch. The spinach dip as an appetizer was as good as the pancetta-wrapped chicken and the steak & scallop plate we had as entrées.
Arrived back in OKC around 6 pm and used the remaining hour with daylight for a short stop at the Capitol (picture), and a walk through the Midtown neighborhood, where we stayed. Especially loved the food truck park - an open-air area with different food vendors - "Bleu Garten" – with a "T"!(see pic). Judging from the many young people around, it seems to be an up&coming neighborhood!
It's been gray and cloudy and not too warm in the morning, when we started, but it warmed up to about 80 deg. F. (26 deg. C) in the afternoon, with blue sky and sun. Just have to get used to the constant wind, which is, of course, typical for the prairie and one of the factors already the first settlers were complaining about.
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