Tonight, I was volunteer for the Blue Tie Affair, a fundraising dinner for the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla.
The event featured an outdoor dinner at the Blue Whale grounds, and was catered by the nearby Molly’s Landing restaurant. The weather and atmosphere were perfect.
It’s not often that you see a string orchestra performing inside the mouth of a giant aquatic mammal:
The grounds and souvenir shack were decked out with white and blue lights for the evening.
This event is part of an ongoing effort by Catoosa Arts & Tourism and Fins of the Blue Whale to maintain and restore the Blue Whale and its other attractions — including the long-neglected Ark — for future generations.
And for much of the day Saturday, the group will open the souvenir shack for tourism season. There will be other announcements about improvements to the Blue Whale in the coming weeks.
This is fantastic, wish I coulda been there. We need more of this kind of thing up and down Route 66.
Looks like it was a great party. I purposely didn’t buy a ticket because the word “formal” in the invitation frightened me away. I don’t do “formal”. Now I see that it wasn’t formal at all, and I’m upset that I wasn’t there. I’m particularly glad that the weather cooperated so nicely. When I drove past on my way home from Afton Station and saw that there wasn’t a tent, I worried a bit since it had been raining like crazy up in Afton in the afternoon.
Looks fantastic! I haven’t seen the Blue Whale since my inaugural Rt 66 trip in May, 2002……..nine years! But I’ll be stopping there on my way to Amarillo in just 4 more weeks!! (Who gets from Colorado to Amarillo via Catoosa, Oklahoma?? A Rt 66 Roadie, that’s who!).