Oklahoma City: Steaks, Bricktown and A Water Taxi

The boat guide slowly steers our boat through the dark waters of the man-made canal. The night sky is clear, the crowd at the nearby stadium is going wild, the younger generation are all at the giant cinema complex a block away, the hip and the fabulous are waving at us from the terrace of the bars and restaurants above us, and we all wave back. When we pass by a foot bridge, the boat guide tells everyone to shout "yee-ha!" Obligingly, we all shout back - men, women, children - "yee-ha!"

Oklahoma in Two Days
That is a scene straight from my trip to Oklahoma City. I was working on an engagement for one of the oldest and largest non-profit organizations in the US and my Manager wanted me to go over to Oklahoma for two days to visit one of the client's facilities. I was shocked at that, for even in the Philippines, I haven't even been assigned in Laguna. Now, he wanted me to go visit a city in another state, for only two days. From where I came from, that just wasn't done!

Arriving in the city on a Thursday, I get lost right away two miles from the airport. Blaming it on the car steering and bad directions, I went around the airport loop several times before finally finding my way out to the main highways. It seems I have a penchant for getting lost at the wrong places at the wrong times.

That afternoon, deciding to do something "local" other than working at the hotel, I went out in search of Lake Hefner. The lake is pretty near the city (according to the guidebooks) and I found it easily. Yes, I didn't get lost this time, thanks to online driving direction. There's a park around the lake and on a work-day afternoon, it's quiet with a few families having a snack here and there, several kids on the playground and rain clouds brewing in the distance. There must have been some kind of wind that day for after taking only a few photographs, it started to rain. Off I went back to the mall.

Obviously, I don't want to elaborate on what happened at work the next day. Suffice it to say that I saw some really cool stuff and had to do a lot of writing and editing afterwards. That night though, I thought that I had to make the effort to get to know the city a little bit. Sometimes, we do business in different cities but we just go to the places that are familiar to us and we do things that were part of our routine back home. At that time though, I was determined to understand local culture, so I madly read the magazine at the hotel, the one with all the city guides and information. Then off I went to find local flavor.

Get Me Some Local Flavor, Er Culture
Oklahoma is famous for its steaks. Please don't ask me about the beef production statistics there but the restaurant seemed to be on all the major recommendations for things to eat. I went out to the city center and settled on one of the best places in town - Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse. An Oklahoma native, Mickey Mantle was a baseball legend. Now, what could be more Americana than a medium well prime rib at Mickey Mantle's in the middle of Oklahoma's Bricktown district? I thought it was one of my luckiest nights.

After all that heavy-hitting dinner, I had to go and pass the time by doing something fun and frivolous. When I saw the yellow water taxi, I knew right away that I had to get on one of those. After all, my drama was supposedly to do what the locals do and experience what the tourists do.
The water taxi is a longer version of a speed boat. It goes along the Bricktown canal which winds its way through several blocks in the city center, affording one with a good glimpse of the bar and restaurant crowd, historical points of interest and several foot bridges. Unlike the Venetian gondolas though, this water taxi is powered by an engine.

So there I was, riding the water taxi with groups of families, a couple of people my age and an older couple. The weird thing is that in this water taxi ride, the guide doesn't just point out things and places of interest, he also makes everyone wave at people in outdoor tables and terraces, as well as cheer on everyone to say "yee-ha!" everytime we pass under a bridge or foot bridge. Until this day, I never understood why it's done. It must be a Southern thing. But I do intend to find out soon.

That was my quick adventure in OKC. I must have been there for only 48 hours but I felt like I had done a lot. I can still remember the sounds of the crowd from the baseball park across the street, Bricktown, downtown, and the drive around the city. What I did there was somehow affirming for me, that I can balance business and having other pursuits outside of work. What happened to that "affirmation" though is another long story. That trip also marked a start to having a new attitude towards business travel - that we can work hard and do business in other places but that it is also equally important to take the time to absorb the local culture, the city's eccentricities and traditions, as well as experience the local attractions. It can make a trip a richer experience.