Suggestions? Boat Lights

[Karried]

Hey all, this will be our first time going to the river tonight to see the boat lights.. any ideas on where to go to get the best viewing? Do they have an announcer and where do you go to hear that?

Streets to park on and where to walk? I'm sure just seeing them go by will be cool but I'd like to hear from those who have gone before...

Thanks!

[metro]

Around the Chesapeake Boathouse is fine. Usually there isn't a huge turnout for this event. I'm sure parking will be easier than most events at the boathouse. I'd go down Byer's and park wherever you can. That's your best bet.

[Karried]

Great! Thank you Metro .. I imagine with this nice weather there might be more people than usual..

We went to Bricktown last night and that place was packed!

Had dinner at the Bricktown Brewery and there was about a 30 minute wait.. that place has enormous portions! It is always really good though and the prices are reasonable.

Looking forward to tonight.. poor hubby will have been to Bricktown 4 times this week.. Disturbed (he took our teen), Hornets, Trans-Siberian and now the Boat Light Parade.. he's a little Bricktowned out! lol

[metro]

For all you not familiar with what Karried is talking about. She is referring to the Oklahoma River Boat Parade which happens on the Oklahoma River just south of downtown tonight at dusk!

Karried, good call on the nice weather and more people. Didn't think of that. Usually less than 2000 I've seen for this event. Not like 30,000 or more for the regattas and Bricktown Nationals Speedboat Races.

Sounds like its a good thing you and your husband don't live downtown like some of us. Otherwise you might go crazy if you did.

[Karried]

Yeah, that's an interesting thought... while we embrace tourism, the people living downtown are probably really inconvenienced with crowds and traffic.

But it could be nice sometimes to be in the midst of all the hustle and bustle too...

[metro]

I wouldn't say we're inconvenienced. Most of us choose to live downtown for that reason. We like the hustle and bustle. The sense of everything going on all the time. Just can't wait until there is 24/7 streetlife and more pedestrians out all the time.

[Karried]

Sounds like its a good thing you and your husband don't live downtown like some of us. Otherwise you might go crazy if you did.

Ahh a message board.. so hard to tell what people really mean...

I love the activity downtown and so does my husband.. we go all the time and we enjoy the crowds.. I've always thought that was the best feeling, walking back to the car with about 19K other people after a Hornet's win.. it's exciting and wonderful to see ... now fighting the traffic and parking daily.. I don't know if I would want that.. that would be my first investment living downtown.. a bicycle!

[Doug Loudenback]

How about a report, Karrie? Take any pics? Was it good? According to an article in this morning's Oklahoman, a city official estimated a crowd of about 40,000! Wow!

I'm looking around to see if I can find any pics ... several from last year and the year before are here: Welcome to Wilson Watersports

[Karried]

Hi Doug!

I didn't get a chance to take pictures because by the time we arrived at the river bank ( Wiley Park was the place to be) it was dark and the boats travelled through the middle of the river so they were a little far for good pics.

It was crowded! We sat near the skate board park - packed with people everywhere. Getting in and out was a parking lot nightmare but we managed to leave just a few minutes early and beat most of that.. but we made up for it trying to take the kids to Sonic for ice cream afterward. ( Half hour wait in line just for Oreo Blasts! )

We crawled along in front of Ford Center at a snail's pace but it was nice to see all the hundreds of people out.. Bricktown was stunning.. filled with gorgeous lights reflecting off the canal.. people in good cheer.. tree looked beautiful. Weather was downright balmy and there were thousands out enjoying it.

We had started with an early dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse and the waitress was fantastic when we told her we were trying to hit the parade.. worked really hard, food was prepared quickly and it was delicious. Good thing we went early because as we left people were lined up everywhere waiting for a table.

We went to the park, brought lawn chairs and a blanket and settled in. One thing they needed very badly were more porta-potties. They had one near the skate park and that line was about 15 deep at all times.

The fireworks were amazing -started promptly at 6:30. They went all out and had a huge display... the kids were all oohing and ahhing... it was so pretty over the water.

And then the boats came... they were for the most part smaller power boats and from we were sitting, it was hard to catch most of the details but they looked really great with the twinkling lights reflecting on the river and those with Christmas music blaring were the best. They started at Chesapeake and came to the park and turned around there and went back..

After Bricktown we drove through Nichols Hills to see the light.. my little one fell asleep just as we exited the freeway! Bummer, so we have to go back this week.. I won't mind, it was spectacular to say the least. Those house were decked out like I had never seen. We started on Western - trees were gorgeous - Chesapeake Energy and drove through the neighborhoods between Western and Penn - Dorchester area.. it was amazing at the amount of effort put into making these homes so beautiful.

Overall it was a very beautiful holiday night spent with family.

[BailJumper]

My wife did a ladies night out of Sushi Niko's and then a play at Stage Center.

So..... Having the night to myself I went to the river. WOW - I went to that park at about 18 and Robinson and it was wall to wall people. I had to park in a scary neighborhood North of the river and walk. The boats were really nice (mostly white lights that got a little too predictable) but there were some really creative ones too.

There was a fireworks show that I didn't expect and it was very nice too and lasted quite a long time.

Wish there would have been some street vendors with hot dogs and hot chocolate, didn't see any though.

Overall, great event and lots of families and I felt very safe with all the police present.

I'll take the wife next time.

[Doug Loudenback]

Thanks, both of you! Good reports!

[OSUFlounder]

We also went down to see the boats and the fireworks but sadly did not have the same positive experience. We were with several older folks and sitting there in the cool air the extra 30 or so minutes before the fireworks started was not very comfortable for them. Some other older adults in front of us left because they got so uncomfortable! If an event says 6:00 start time, it should reasonable begin around 6:00 not closer to 6:30.
Secondly, there was only one hot chocolate vendor near us. My mother went to get a cup and waited 40min. When she asked for her money back, she was handed a COLD cup of cocoa.
Finally, the parking was a disaster. There was obviously no plan to handle that many people. While I can understand the lack of planning given previous turnouts, the parking attendents should have still known how to park cars! We were actually told to park other cars in and when my father questioned the attendent we were simply yelled at. Getting out was worse. Because there was no obvious parking plan people were driving all over the place trying to get out. People were even trying to do u-turns on a big hill in the middle of lines of other cars. There was not a policeman directing traffic at 15th and Robinson until after we got through the intersection (after a 45 min wait in line). Had a member of the police force been there earlier, it would have solved A LOT of problems leaving the show.
The fireworks and the boats were very nice and we have no complaints about the actual show. We would like to go again because we enjoyed the lights, however, hopefully the planning will be much much better next year.