Brandon was able to take a few days off last week, and we took a little trip down to Tulsa. We left after work on Wednesday, and after a quick stop for dinner, arrived in Tulsa a little before 9:00. Sharing a hotel room with four kids is already an adventure, but that was just the beginning of the fun!
We started our day on Thursday at Discovery Lab, a children's museum. We have been pretty spoiled with great children's museums in Iowa City, Des Moines and here in Wichita - so this one was a little underwhelming. It consisted of three rooms: 1) an insect room with some larger-than-life models of insects, and a few interesting interaction exhibits; 2) a small room where they were doing some kind of hands-on chemistry demonstration; and 3) the "math and music" room, that had some interesting hands-on displays about music and meter and sound waves, etc, but also the crown jewel of the museum: A giant system of tunnels and slides constructed out of packing tape. That part was pretty cool. Kind of freaky to walk through a tunnel knowing it's composed soley of tape! Something about its shape gives it sufficient strength - engineering is cool! We spent about 90 minutes at the museum before finding a place to eat lunch.
After a delicious lunch at Gyros by Ali, we made our way to The Gathering Place - a brand new, "world-class, riverfront park" in Tulsa. It is essentially a whole bunch of mini parks/playgrounds within a huge park complex - all completely free! It was crazy busy when we went, because, evidently, it was fall break in Tulsa - so it felt a little like Disney World: lots of crowds and waiting in line. But it was still fun to wander around and check out all the different areas. This seems like a place you could spend the whole day, or even several days, and not see everything; I don't think we saw a fraction of the attractions. Hopefully, someday, we'll get to go back again.
After the Gathering Place, we made a quick stop back at the hotel to let everyone rest a bit, then we headed outside of Tulsa to Talala, OK to visit some old friends we know from our time in Iowa City. Chris and Lisa DeLong were in Iowa City while Chris was in dental school, and they were part of our small group for most of the time we were in Iowa City. After leaving Iowa, they returned to Oklahoma (home for them both) after a short time in Dallas for Chris's residency. Chris now owns his own dental practice outside of Tulsa, and they recently purchased a small farm, where they raise their own cows - just for fun! Their kids match up almost perfectly with ours - Gage (7), Eden (4), and Isla (2) - and they had a blast playing together. Gage and Jonah spent most of the evening running around on top of hay bales, and Esther was perfectly content chasing grasshoppers and watching the cows. Chris took Brandon out on the ranger for a tour of their property. And Cora and Eden had fun hiding from the boys and playing dress up together. What a fun place to raise your kids! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and catching up with our old friends. We were sad to say goodbye; hopefully we'll make it back to Tulsa again, since (we now know) it's so close!
On Friday morning, Brandon took the kids swimming at the hotel pool while I packed up and Levi took a nap. After we checked out of the hotel, we headed to the Oklahoma Aquarium. After two nights of close sleeping quarters (and no naps!), the girls were dragging. But Jonah thoroughly enjoyed it!
One of my favorite parts was Sea Turtle Island. There was a large tank with many interesting fish. You could also walk around and up to look down into the tank. At first, I was a little bummed, because I didn't actually see a sea turtle. But then we realized the tank actually went way further back, and the fish were coming in and out of a darker area towards the back. Just before we left, a HUGE sea turtle came out and swam along the length of the tank (I didn't have my phone out and didn't get a picture - boo). So cool!!
After he swam by, the turtle was hanging out on the side of the tank next to a little observation area for kids (the yellow tunnel on the right of the picture above), so Brandon sent Jonah back into the little tunnel. The turtle was right next to him, but just out of view - Jonah shrugged at us, like, "What? I don't see anything," even though the turtle was right next to him.
Then it swam in front of the window, and Jonah's jaw dropped!! So fun :)
This guy was creepy! His tank was set up to look like a shipwreck, and he was just hanging out of one of the portholes, with his creepy blue eyes. And he just kept opening and closing his mouth (apparently, that's how they breath). It's some kind of moray (like an eel).
After we made our way through most of the exhibits, we stopped for a quick lunch at Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, before a smooth drive back home - where there was lots of napping! A quick, but fun trip. It was nice to have some uninterrupted family time, away from all the normal demands of everyday life. And Tulsa is a fun little city, just a quick drive away :)
We started our day on Thursday at Discovery Lab, a children's museum. We have been pretty spoiled with great children's museums in Iowa City, Des Moines and here in Wichita - so this one was a little underwhelming. It consisted of three rooms: 1) an insect room with some larger-than-life models of insects, and a few interesting interaction exhibits; 2) a small room where they were doing some kind of hands-on chemistry demonstration; and 3) the "math and music" room, that had some interesting hands-on displays about music and meter and sound waves, etc, but also the crown jewel of the museum: A giant system of tunnels and slides constructed out of packing tape. That part was pretty cool. Kind of freaky to walk through a tunnel knowing it's composed soley of tape! Something about its shape gives it sufficient strength - engineering is cool! We spent about 90 minutes at the museum before finding a place to eat lunch.
 |
| Pretending to be bees in a life-size honey comb! |
 |
| Esther was a little unsure about the tape tunnels at first ...but eventually she was able to stand and even run through them :) |
 |
| Looking down at the floor below |
 |
| The slide/exit from the whole structure |
 |
| Coming down the chute! |
After a delicious lunch at Gyros by Ali, we made our way to The Gathering Place - a brand new, "world-class, riverfront park" in Tulsa. It is essentially a whole bunch of mini parks/playgrounds within a huge park complex - all completely free! It was crazy busy when we went, because, evidently, it was fall break in Tulsa - so it felt a little like Disney World: lots of crowds and waiting in line. But it was still fun to wander around and check out all the different areas. This seems like a place you could spend the whole day, or even several days, and not see everything; I don't think we saw a fraction of the attractions. Hopefully, someday, we'll get to go back again.
After the Gathering Place, we made a quick stop back at the hotel to let everyone rest a bit, then we headed outside of Tulsa to Talala, OK to visit some old friends we know from our time in Iowa City. Chris and Lisa DeLong were in Iowa City while Chris was in dental school, and they were part of our small group for most of the time we were in Iowa City. After leaving Iowa, they returned to Oklahoma (home for them both) after a short time in Dallas for Chris's residency. Chris now owns his own dental practice outside of Tulsa, and they recently purchased a small farm, where they raise their own cows - just for fun! Their kids match up almost perfectly with ours - Gage (7), Eden (4), and Isla (2) - and they had a blast playing together. Gage and Jonah spent most of the evening running around on top of hay bales, and Esther was perfectly content chasing grasshoppers and watching the cows. Chris took Brandon out on the ranger for a tour of their property. And Cora and Eden had fun hiding from the boys and playing dress up together. What a fun place to raise your kids! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and catching up with our old friends. We were sad to say goodbye; hopefully we'll make it back to Tulsa again, since (we now know) it's so close!
On Friday morning, Brandon took the kids swimming at the hotel pool while I packed up and Levi took a nap. After we checked out of the hotel, we headed to the Oklahoma Aquarium. After two nights of close sleeping quarters (and no naps!), the girls were dragging. But Jonah thoroughly enjoyed it!
 |
| Giant Jellyfish!! |
One of my favorite parts was Sea Turtle Island. There was a large tank with many interesting fish. You could also walk around and up to look down into the tank. At first, I was a little bummed, because I didn't actually see a sea turtle. But then we realized the tank actually went way further back, and the fish were coming in and out of a darker area towards the back. Just before we left, a HUGE sea turtle came out and swam along the length of the tank (I didn't have my phone out and didn't get a picture - boo). So cool!!
After he swam by, the turtle was hanging out on the side of the tank next to a little observation area for kids (the yellow tunnel on the right of the picture above), so Brandon sent Jonah back into the little tunnel. The turtle was right next to him, but just out of view - Jonah shrugged at us, like, "What? I don't see anything," even though the turtle was right next to him.
Then it swam in front of the window, and Jonah's jaw dropped!! So fun :)
Nemo's home :)
This guy was creepy! His tank was set up to look like a shipwreck, and he was just hanging out of one of the portholes, with his creepy blue eyes. And he just kept opening and closing his mouth (apparently, that's how they breath). It's some kind of moray (like an eel).
After we made our way through most of the exhibits, we stopped for a quick lunch at Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, before a smooth drive back home - where there was lots of napping! A quick, but fun trip. It was nice to have some uninterrupted family time, away from all the normal demands of everyday life. And Tulsa is a fun little city, just a quick drive away :)
No comments:
Post a Comment