Oklahoma Adventure - No. 7

After our stay at Lake Murray State Lodge, we drove (about an hour) to Durant to the Choctaw Casino and Resort.  It has a great kids area, with a bowling alley, arcade, laser tag, food court, and movie theater.  There are also a couple pools, with a family pool and an indoor pool.  I highly recommend renting one of the cabanas at the pool area.  Inside there is a 'fridge, a fan, and an air conditioner.  The cabana rental is half price in the middle of the week.  And, as with all great pools, they will deliver nachos to you.  A must. 

Pro tip: stay in the spa tower.  The rooms are smaller, but newer than those in the 'grand tower.'  The rooms in the grand tower smell like cigarettes, or at least that was our experience.  When the bell hop took us to our room, it smelled like someone had smoked in there about five minutes before we arrived.  They then moved us to the spa tower, where all they had left was a king bed disabled accessable room-- this meant our shower was not as fancy, but did make hosing kids down a lot easier. HA!  Oh, and we all had to sleep in the same bed-- but everyone was so absolutely worn out from swimming and the sun, so this was no problem.  

I did not go to the spa, as the whole point was to spend time with the kiddos, but it did look fancy and serene.  Maybe a future girls trip?!?? 

There are many, many, many food options inside the hotel itself, no need to leave.  All-in-all a good experience.  If it was a smoke free environment, it would have been a great experience...but, then again they make a lot more money of vices than families, so I get it. 

Oklahoma Adventure- No.5 Blue Hole

This one was a bit of a drive, but I have to say it was my favorite of our Oklahoma road trips thus far.  We stopped at Sunnyside Diner before we left town.  It was super yum. As far as Salina's Blue Hole Park, I recommend going when it is REALLY hot because the water is ice cold.  Also, bring water shoes because the rocks might be sharp on the kiddos feet.  But, the water is crystal clear spring water, sooooo refreshing.    

Things to note:  there is a per car charge to get in the park. I think it was $12, but I cannot remember exactly.  Portapotties are the only bathroom choice.  There is a concession stand, but only things like hotdogs, chips, candy, coke...

Photos all shot on film with the exception of 4 iPhone photos.  No edits, just fun. 

Oklahoma Adventure- No. 4 Red Brick Nights

We lurve Guthrie.  Just a quick 15 minute drive from our house and a totally different world.  On the first Saturday of the month (through October?) they shut down downtown Guthrie for Red Brick Nights.  There are food trucks and bands and families.  Soooooo fun!  We happened to go on the 3rd of July, so there were also FIREWORKS.  The next day we went over to friend's houses to swim.   And I threw in a pic of Harvey with his awesome swim instructor, Tiffany Rains. 

All images shot on Walmart's finest Fuji Superia film with my handy dandy Canon Sure Shot A1.  A great waterproof point and shoot for when I want to relax and not think about apertures. 

Adventure Oklahoma- No. 3 State Capitol

This one is free!  And, honestly, July turns out to be a great time to go.  The building is almost empty.  We went for a breakfast at Kitchen 324 and then headed over to the capitol for some nice, free air conditioning.  And LOTS of stair climbing!!!  The kids LOVED the stairs.  I was surprised how much the kids like exploring around the state capitol building.  There are guided tours, but we just kicked around on our own.  Shot on an iPhone (because my film camera can't go through the x-ray thing they send your bag through).  

Adventure Oklahoma- No. 2... ENID

Our weekly Oklahoma adventures led us to Enid this week to check out Leonardo's Children's Museum.  It opens at 10 pm and has an outdoor and indoor play area.  It was $8 a person.  Honestly, it is the outdoor part worth the $8 per person.  It was awesome!  The inside was okay, but we are spoiled by the Oklahoma Science Museum, which is sooooooo good and so huge.  

We then went to Vance Air Force Base to let the kiddos see the planes take off and climb on the planes outside the base.  Harvey was not impressed.  Jude loved it.  Go figure.

We also visited an antique shop where we gave the kiddos a $5 bill and told them they had to work together to pick out a new toy.  #teachingmoment They loved it.  They worked together for the most part and we worked on counting, addition, and talking to adults (they handed the money to the cashier themselves).  

Then to top it off, we stopped by The Bike Shop, which was super cool!  They were so nice and had an awesome selection with great prices.  We will be back.   Then a quick stop at sonic for a snack for the ride home.  Awesome day.  We heart Enid. 

Once again we took our film cameras.  However, this time, I foolishly thought I could save some $$$ and scan the negatives myself.  Sorry for the major quality difference from the last Adventure Oklahoma post.  Anyway, next time I will let the experts at Bedford handle the scanning.  Until then, here is a mash up of jared's contaflex, my canon elan iie, and an iphone.  You will have no trouble deciphering the iphone photos.