My trip to the Oklahoma City Memorial is surrounded by twenty minutes of driving around in circles trying to find someplace to park. Parking, it seems, was not even considered when it came to the design of the Oklahoma City Memorial. Not that it should have been-the destruction of the Murray Federal Building and the creation of a National Park in its place was not planned.
But once it was decided to build a memorial and presumably allow people to visit it-it seems a bit odd that many of the parking lots surround the Oklahoma City Memorial have all kinds of nasty signs saying DON”T PARK HERE!! in one form or another. I found a parking meter three or four blocks away on the other side of the nice New Federal Building-which has plenty of parking-for the people who work there.
Ok, maybe I am being more than a little petty in griping about the lack of parking spaces at the site of one of America’s worst terrorist attacks. The Oklahoma City Memorial is an interesting site, but it seems to be a really over-thought one. There are layers of symbolism in everything. The empty chairs are arranged in an odd order of the number of floors in the building and the blast pattern. The two black arches have time stamps before and after the blast.
The Oklahoma City Memorial has a museum as well as the odd outdoor sculptures and pine trees. It cost ten dollars and I didn’t go in. The website makes it look pretty interesting.
On small reflection I should not have gone to the Oklahoma City Memorial-I have been in Oklahoma City plenty of times before and not gone. But I had some time to kill, so I went and took some photos. But I didn’t get any feel of the attack, all I got was annoyed at there being no parking.
Shoulda gone to the museum. Worth a sawbuck, at least once. As a native of OKC, I understand you frustration over the parking. Sorry it spoiled your visit.