In a move that should surprise absolutely everybody, National Geographic — one of the Great American Publications — dubbed Oklahoma City one of the best trips to take in 2015. We’re not talking, like, best trips in the Great Plains region or, hell, even the United States of America; they think OKC rivals any city in the world (and therefore the entire universe, given the limited feasibility of non-Earth-based destinations).
Here’s their reasoning:
“Oklahoma City has never been ‘mighty pretty,’ despite the shout-out from Bobby Troup’s iconic ‘Route 66.’ To look at, it’s been more like the beer-gut metropolis spilling across the Great Plains. But things have changed.
The central Oklahoma River has a community boathouse and a new West River Trail. An 11-acre white-water rafting center is due in 2015. Local architect firms and coffee roasters that wouldn’t be out of place in Portlandia now line once dormant Automobile Alley. And then there’s MidTown. Not long ago a den of crackhouses and abandoned lots just north of downtown’s 1995 bombing site, MidTown has sprouted condos, a boutique hotel, and Dust Bowl Lanes, a Tulsan import, with its 1970s-style bowling alley. The city even plans to add a streetcar loop downtown in 2017.
This is Oklahoma?”
Apparently so. Thanks for the backhanded compliments, Nat Geo!
They go on to mention Myriad Botanical Gardens (yep), deadCENTER Film Festival (alright), and Uptown’s own Back Door BBQ (I heard their ribs are good) as tourist attractions, but don’t get too big-headed now. Even if we’re viewed as equal to Tunisia, Switzerland, Peru, and San Francisco, we can always be better. And we definitely aren’t to Portlandia levels of excellence. But hey, we’re getting there.
