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. 

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.  

Adventure Thursdays- No.1

We are on a mission to see the state this summer.  One Thursday at a time.   Oklahoma is full of cool things to see and do, but we barely make it out of a 10-mile radius of our house.  Well, that changes now.  (Except for this Thursday Harvey decided to get sick...so plans are on hold for a bit).  

These pics are from our last outing to the Pawnee Bath House in Pawnee, Oklahoma.  Lauren took her Canon Sure Shot A-1, which later may have met its demise.  But, before it did, it gave us these images, developed at OKC's Bedford Photo.  They are super nice and knowledgable there and charge just $5 to process a roll of color film.  

The Pawnee Bath House was built in the 1930s as a WPA project.  It is next to a beautiful and calm lake, where we attempted about 5 minutes of fishing before the boys were disinterested.  Here's a note though: Bathhouse does not open until 12:30pm.  It costs $2 a person.  The also sell snacks etc.  There is also a very friendly Sonic just down the street, about a 5 minute drive, in downtown Pawnee.  There were 2-3 lifeguards on duty at all times while we were there.

Seize the 'good stuff,'

The Keesters