When you’re planning a trip to Athens, you go to the Acropolis.
When you’re planning a trip to Agra, you go to the Taj Mahal.
When you’re planning a trip to Pisa, you go to the Leaning Tower.
There are some cities that are just known for their one, primary tourist attraction. Not that these places don’t have other things to see. It’s just that these powerhouse sites are SO overpowering that you’re likely to head straight to them, skipping everything else along the way.
So, what comes to mind when you think about Oklahoma City? Uh, flat? Tornados? Corn that is as high as an elephant’s eye? To be honest, OKD is not a big tourist city (although their championship basketball team, the Thunder, has recently put the town back on the map). There are certainly no World Heritage Sites in Oklahoma City.
Perhaps that’s why, with my expectations so low, I was absolutely delighted by the little-known-but-rather-wonderful Myriad Botanical Gardens.
Opened in 1988, the Gardens began as part of I.M. Pei’s 1960’s downtown revitalization plan to create a central green pace inspired by Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens. The centerpiece of this effort is the Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory.
Entering the Conservatory is like stepping into a tropical rain forest (in the middle of Oklahoma)! The air is warm, thick and redolent with life. You could easily imagine yourself inside an Amazonian jungle – if the jungle was contained within a vaulted, glass-paned cylinder. The walkways up high are particularly cool, affording bird’s-eye vantage points of the myriad plants below.
During my visit, I particularly enjoyed the signs talking about all the miraculous and fanciful vegetation all around me, like…the Miracle Fruit and the Lipstick Tree. Who knew, for example, that the liquid from the ordinary papaya is great for meat tenderizing?
Also fun are the displays allowing you to smell the various plants in question. I can say with some confidence now that I know what patchouli in the wild smells like. Not to mention the “ylang ylang” sometimes called the “flower of flowers” for its strong floral scent.
All in all, there are myriad reasons to visit the Myriad Botanical Gardens. They may not be one of the World’s Wonders but for Oklahoma, they’re pretty wonderful.
(When traveling, it’s easy to get caught up in “bucket-listing” – an expression I just made up for the practice of rushing from one place to the next, trying to check off all the remaining items from your bucket list. Myself, I like the satisfaction of completing tasks as much as the next guy. But why are you really doing this? Is it FOMO – the fear of missing out? Is it for impressing your friends? Garnishing your travel cred? As in nearly all things in life, I think it’s worth slowing down and opting for quality over quantity. You don’t have to see and do everything in this lifetime (especially if you believe in future lifetimes!). See what you can see, enjoy it thoroughly, and leave room for the random surprises you happen upon along the way to the next “marquee” location. Like a tropic garden in the Midwest.)