Vacation 2016: Little Sahara State Park

Location: Little Sahara State Park, near Waynoka, OK

Date: 8/2/2016

Fun Facts: Little Sahara is not a desert, it was created by sand deposits from Cimarron River; It is famous for dune buggy riding...which we didn't do, of course. 

This park was only tentatively on our agenda, but the existence of the state parks passport system and an extra hour or two of time put it on the radar.  The park ranger here was slightly less excited to see us, but did have a live rattle snake rattling away from the front desk... he also gave us the passport stickers we were missing from Gloss Mountain State Park.  He was less good at directions so we drove around some rather run down picnic/camp areas for awhile before seeking out more help in finding the overlook. 

Here we are walking up the winding, beautiful path to the overlook complete with nearly stormy Oklahoma sky. 

Panorama from the outlook --- yes, the dunes are strangely far away and kind of small looking --- it is weird. No idea why the outlook is so far from the thing we're looking towards.  Brent and I think this may be a situation where grass/forest is taking over the dunes.

Can you see them? 

Ok, here is a more zoomed in view.  There were a bunch of telescopes where you can see all the tracks on the dunes from the dune buggies.  The dunes are 25 to 75 feet tall for reference. 

This was the last stop on the trip and the kids were a bit punchy.  They were having a great time in their own way though. 

The telescopes intended for those in wheelchairs are also the perfect height for 4 year olds!

We observed, discussed, and pondered if dune buggy riding is something we might do if the park were open longer.  We did get to watch some other people on dune buggies. I am told there are 1600 acres of dunes... apparently not in sight?

So, we made our own sand fun. M create this sand cake with shiny rocks and sticks for candles (hint, her birthday is this week). 

E joined in the fun.  The sand was delightfully soft. 

 There were lots of beautiful wildflowers  - most of them seemed to be yellow.  It also smelled distinctly of sage.

And then we were off for a 2.25 hour drive home through the land of oil wells and wind mills.  The drive happens to be about the length of Hamilton so we listened to that one more time and everyone was happy, if tired. 

Vacation 2016: Alabaster Caverns State Park

Location: Alabaster Caverns State Park, near Freedom, OK

Date: 8/2/2016

Fun Facts - 330 stairs on the 3/4 mile long tour, only one of 3 caves with black alabaster, no stalagmites/tights so you can touch everything, my grandpa visited on his senior class trip and ran through it in the dark.  This last fact is insane after having walked through with lights and having had the lights turned off only briefly. 

Price: Tours are free for those under age 6,  $7 for kids 6-12, $10 for those 13-61, $8 for those over 62

This is our only photo as cameras/phones are not allowed in the cave to keep tours moving along and safe.  The tour guide did begin the tour with showing E a few sleeping bats, which was adorable. 

Photo via of Travel OK

The kids' two requests for vacation were lots of swimming and caves.  Done.  The caves were perfect for kids. The tour is 45 minutes and happens ever hour.  It moves a long with not that much talking and you can touch everything *(rare for caves).  There are cool lights, hand rails, and lots of slippery floors.  They loved it and so did we. 

Photo via Travel OK

 These are called George and Martha Washington's bath tubs.  Our Hamilton obsessed kids thought that was great.  The bath tubs were created by swirling water.  The caves really reinforce the power of water and time.

Photo via Travel OK

You can see some of the water coming through here.  There were lots of cool shapes and facts about Selenite/alabaster.  We bought a piece of selenite as our lone souvenir of vacation and the kids love handling it. I am so glad we made the trip. The caves were an awesome experience and the kids are now full of interesting mineral facts and excited about more cave exploring in the future.  This was B's favorite stop of the trip. 

Here is a video about the caves from Travel OK

Here is the historic Waynoka train depot where we stopped for lunch when we sadly discovered the German restaurant I'd been hoping to try is closed on Tuesdays.... 

Vacation 2016: Boiling Springs State Park

This year, our summer vacation was a roughly 3.5 day tour of northwest Oklahoma.  This is part of our system of having vacation in Oklahoma one year and out of Oklahoma the next.  Due to random technology issues, I'm going to blog by site we visited rather than in chronological order.

Location: Boiling Springs State Park, near Woodward, OK
Date: 8/2/2016
Highlights - beautiful forrest, crystal clear streams, oldest Burr Oak Tree in OK

Ok, so, spoiler alert, that video is the extent of the "Boiling Springs" --- that said, do not let that dissuade you from visiting as this is a completely lovely, beautiful park with so much more to offer.

 Boiling Springs was the 3rd of the 5 State Parks we visited, but the first time the staff explained the awesome State Park Passport system.  Our kids are very excited to visit them more parks, get their passports stamps, and achieve the various medallions.  Check it out!  The staff at this park seemed over joyed to see us and is even mailing us stamps from the state parks we had already visited.  SO cool. Also, note the cool stone work. Almost all the parks we visited were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp or WPA.  That was a heck of a program and decades later the work has held up/been maintained beautifully.

 The first, short trail at this park lead to this "River" B seems skceptical.  M is still clutching her passport.  We talked about animal footprints near the bank and why this water is clearer than in some other places we have visited.

 Here is E walking back from the stream.  He spent most of the time in this park clutching the trail map.  He doesn't know how to read maps, but liked to think he was navigating.  We also tried to spur some of the hiking along by pushing him to be the leader and go a bit faster than he was at the back of the pack.

 The colors are really off in these photos, but it was gorgeous.  This was mostly the kind of forest/wood with few under story plants, but just lovely

 The streams were all completely crystal clear and spring fed into sand streams.  There were zillions of tiny frogs all over.  Everyone wanted Ro to be there as he would have adored it.  Just so many frogs and these interesting bugs with blue bodies and black wings.

 This was the lead pack, waiting for Mr. E to take the path at his own pace.

 It doesn't really fit in the photo, but this is the allegedly 300 year old Burr Oak that is 18ft around.  Allegedly the oldest Burr Oak in Oklahoma. This trail was 2 miles long and the kids just did amazingly great.

 So many trees, so many photo ops.  M and I really lead the pack on the way back as there was a little bit of Pokemon hunting happening too.  Interestingly the GPS in the pokemon app seemed to work better in most of these places than our map aps or the paper hand out maps, hmmm.

I am a sucker for a beautiful walk in a quiet wood.  It was a lovely cloudy day and a perfect day for a walk in the woods.  Oklahoma remains full of delightful surprises!

Fifteen on Thursday?

1.  Yesterday, I went to the Mother's Day Tea at E's school.  I was 100% anticipating maybe doughnuts and a handmade gift.  Turns out, it was a full musical performance!  Below are two of the possibly six or so songs they sang.  I have more videos uploading if there is interest!

2.  Tuesday was "Alphabet Parade" day for the Kindergarten.  M chose to go as Anna of Arendelle --- we wrote a story of "a" words - like carrying avocados, apples, and apricots.  The hair was a challenge, but worked out in the end.  I quickly visited the school to listen to them sing one song in the cafeteria and headed back home. 

3.  I came back from wandering through NYC to these more mundane, but awesome Sunday adventures - 1) E playing with his new castle book from the Met; 2) B trying to do the mummy mazes from the Met --- they may be too hard for us?  3) M&E finding a new hidden hideout in the bushes. 

4 Grandma bought all the kids NY tshirts - they love them and are very cute. There are obviously epic amounts I could write about this trip and I'll try to keep throwing in little stories, but here are a few of the highlights briefly. 

5.  In NYC, I happened to discover that Simone Biles, 3x world AA Gymnastics champion was doing an outside demonstration on our first morning there.  It involved a fair bit of standing in the cold, but it was amazing to be so close to arguably the best gymnast ever. 

6.  One of the last things I did was ride the seaglass carousel in Battery Park. We just happened on to it, but it was great fun and the video of my ride was the kid's favorite of my photos/videos.

7.  We also went the the Metropolitan Museum of Art - honestly I could just live in the museums of NY for a week (with occasional Hamilton breaks).  Here are some of our favorites and a few views of GW :)

8, The biggest and best part --- actually the reason for the trip --- was getting to see Hamilton in NY with the original cast.  My mom and I are obsessed with Hamilton and to my great amazement the production exceeded my very high expectations.  I have almost no words.  Just completely phenomenal in every component.  Daveed Diggs is my favorite actor in Hamilton and we happened on to him on the street and got to say hi as we were exiting NYC.  Just a huge bucket list once in a lifetime moment to have this experience.  Thanks so much to my mom for the tickets and sharing this amazing experience with me. 

9.  In less huge, but quite delicious news, we also stopped at Levain for huge cookies and, I think, managed to have cookies of some kind every day. I happen to love black and white cookies which basically don't exist in OK so I brought some of those home for the kids (and me).

10 - Random picture of my mom and Frozen Characters in Times Square before we saw Hamilton (it really all comes back to Hamilton -- I'm sparing you pictures of his grave and our visit to his house.... and some paintings elsewhere... obsessed).

11.  My mom and I hopped off the tour bus to check out some more gardens.  We both loved all the lilacs--- right around here my big camera broke :(

12.  We went to see a triple bill at the NY City Ballet.  It was a huge, extremely talented company and everything was wonderful.  It was 180 degrees different than Hamilton and just a huge contrast in experience. 

13.  Me, fittingly with GW.

14.

Yesterday B's "family" for the upcomging land run built their wagon.  It went way faster than expected which was perfect given our crazy schedule yesterday.

15. We got to video some of M's dance practice yesterday.  She is front and center for most of both of her classses' performances so we're going to need to practice a bit more.  Enjoy!

Ps - let me know if any of those videos work. I'm always a little dubious. 

Family Vacation 2015: DC Days 4 & 5

 So what we're calling the 4th day of the vacation actually fell on the 4th of July, which is a very exciting time to be in DC.  (Although, in fairness, most of the locals leave and tourists take the city for a big, high security celebration on the mall).  We knew our kids would be getting tired at this point and had zero ambitious to take them to the National Mall.  We had planned to go to a smaller local festival, which rained out.  Instead, we took them to the National Cathedral, which was beautiful as always.

The Cathedral sustained damage in a 2011 earthquake so various sections were under construction.

 When we arrived there was an organ concert going on.  We listened to it mostly from below in the gift shop and through the catacombs and small chapels underground.  I really wanted the kids to see the inside of the cathedral, but clearly they were going to need to run before the concert ended so we went back outside to look around on a surprisingly cool day, with the rain largely at bay. (Note, I forgot to get M a patriot dress.  Heather had gotten Cleo a dress for the occasion that Cleo decided not to wear and M promptly put on.  They were deep in to sharing clothes at this point and everyone was happy).

 To my great delight, the bishop's garden was open. I don't think it was in the past and I adored it. If you know about how I travel, you know that it always involves a garden, and this trip had been lacking one.  This garden was just right for our crew. It had lots of little secret places, interesting plants that were often edible, and all sorts of paths to discover.

 We bought a few gifts in the gift shop, which B graciously carried.  He picked out a gargoyle for his bookshelf, which was extra sweet as Aunt Audra & Uncle Zach bought him a stuffed gargoyle at that same gift shop when they visited and he was only 1!

 M & Cleo

 Lilly!

Yes, despite lack of photo evidence I was on the trip too!

 Rest/Snack time with amazing views.

Love this smile :)

 My mother and this gardener would definitely get along.

 Everyone knew it was our last real day together and seemed more willing to have photos.  M & Cleo requested and posed for this one in particular.

 We spent a few minutes inside after the choir concert exploring

People were getting pretty worn out so we stopped for lunch at Noodles & Co and drove some more through always scenic Georgetown before making our way home for naps.  The rule in our house is that every single person is required to nap on the fourth of July as we'll all be up so late.  I think almost everyone failed at doing that.  Meanwhile, our hosts were sleeping soundly upstairs.  Finally, we made a break for the car to go get one more scoop from Dairy Godmother.  The moment we left it started to down pour, then moved right on to torrential rains.  We continued, undeterred, and got completely soaking wet walking across the street and down two store fronts from our car.  The custard, sorbet, and posicle were all delicious and totally worth being sopping wet.  Of course the rain cleared not long after and we enjoyed a grilled supper with our hosts before heading to the fireworks. 

 Our kids really like watching fireworks out of the back of the car.  This is our third year so now it is a tradition.  This time, we watched from the top of a parking garage at National Airport.  We arrived early to get a good spot and worried about all the clouds hanging in the air.

 Everyone was too full of excitement to just hang out so we went down in to the terminal to wander around and get a treat.

Yes, we'd already had custard, but clearly still room for frozen yogurt.  It is a national holiday, after all. 

The kids all played, ran, danced and made up games.  It is great to have memories of them here as I come through this airport on every trip. 

 Then we headed back to the car and broke out the glow sticks - much silliness ensued.

 M as "Bo on the GO" (A cartoon character)

 Yes, they watched from the top of the car this year too.  The low hanging clouds did impede the view a bit and all the smoke hung in the wet air.  It was still a great show.

And that was that.  We hopped in the car for a fairly quick ride home and finished packing our bags.  

Day 4 - Family Notes:

M- Dairy Godmother ice cream and new coloring book, watching fireworks

B - ice cream at the airport and watching fireworks

E- seeing airplanes (at the airport),  garden,  yummy ice cream & Popsicle

Brent - fireworks & blackberry blueberry cobbler

Abbey - bishop's garden & driving up Wisconsin Avenue (in Georgetown)- fireworks fun

 Day 5: - Heading Home

 The next morning, we headed right back to the airport, dropped off the rental car and checked bags, and began the trek home.  (In fairness this technically is a six day trip as they traveled a day to get to me, but you get the gist).

 They make a great travel crew. I was truly impressed at how well they did.  They took care of their own stuff, did what they were told, played together, were quiet on the plane, and did almost zero whining.  They hadn't charged the ipad since the trip out (!) so had about 6 minutes of electronics in the roughly 8 hours of total transit time home. And they didn't need it.  They were awesome. I am definitely going more places with this crew.

Finally we were back in hot Oklahoma and our next adventure of living in our new home began.  It was a great trip and I feel so amazed that we really pulled it off with all the other things going on and all the stress and logistics heaped on our family this summer.  The kids impressed me so much and I truly had a great time on vacation.  Staying with friends helped tremendously, but I think our kids are pretty amazing too, which was the best.  Hooray for great family fun and more adventures to come!