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Writer's pictureVicky

A More than 'OK'ay Road Trip

The first weekend in May we took a family road trip down to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We had one road trip done when Lizzy was 3-months old and now was time for her second road trip now at 5-months old. People kept saying she is going to be a different baby and it’s going to be different than the first road trip. They were right in saying it was different, but this time only because we were more prepared.


We left right when it was time for Lizzy’s afternoon nap. So, she slept for most of the ride until the last hour when she woke up and was hungry. Once we arrived, Lizzy was ready for adventure. It being in the evening we decided to go for a swim in the hotel’s pool. Lizzy was a little unsure of it at first, but quickly realized how much fun it was.


After a good night’s sleep Lizzy was ready for all the places picked out on this adventure.

 

Tulsa Zoo


The Tulsa Zoo is an 84-acre zoo that is located in Mohawk Park (Fun Fact: one of the largest municipal parks in the United States).


The best way to visit is once you are inside to immediately take a right. This will take you past the Chimpanzee Connection, which we did last. Our first stop was Life in the Cold building, which housed much to my own enjoyment a Snowy Owl. You could easily tell the Potterheads since they kept calling the owl Hedwig. Life in the Desert was next, there were some large ants in one of the last exhibits that made everyone say, "no thank you." We ventured into Life in the Forest, Life in the Water, followed by The Rainforest. The rainforest was Lizzy’s favorite. There were a lot of large fish that caught Lizzy’s attention.


By far her favorite was the jaguar, though I think the jaguar too found her very interesting. We then went to the Lost Kingdom to see the snow leopard and red panda (sadly not out).


My only complaint about this zoo is the poorly made map.



Gathering Place


Gathering Place is a large park along the Arkansas River. There are huge playgrounds. Lizzy was a bit small for this particular outing, but older kids would be in heaven. Think of your dream playground as a kid, then triple it's size. You might be getting close to the scale of these playgrounds. They were epic. Lizzy and I walked around for a little bit.


Gathering Place Tulsa, OK
Boathouse at the Gathering Place

Oklahoma Aquarium


This aquarium is south of Tulsa in a suburb called Jenks. Lizzy absolutely loved the aquarium. Basically, anything that was scary, dangerous, or big enough to eat her was her favorite, with one exception. Her first friend was the Moray Eel. She really wanted to pet it.

Aquarium
Lizzy's new friend the eel

Each new tank was another fish that got her so excited. There were 2 large tanks that had portholes to view the tank from 360 degrees. We were having so much fun going from spot to spot to see what her next favorite sea creature would be. At one point, I saw that you could “pet” some moon jellyfish. Moon jellyfish sting isn’t strong enough to penetrate human skin.



We then got to the Aquatic Oklahoma with large catfish, which was another large fish that got a lot of attention. The aquarium also had a busy beaver swimming around that fascinated her for a bit. This is where her exception to the big, scary, dangerous creature was located. She saw otters. There were two or three otters swimming around doing flips in the water. The more Lizzy roared with excitement (yes, she roars when excited) the more the otters would perform for her. We probably watched the otters for a good 15 minutes.


We then went to the Ecozone and Polynesian reef, she could have stayed watching the fish in the reef with their bright colors the rest of the day and would have been content. She sat and watched Nemo and friends swim around for another good 15 minutes.


Our last stop was Shark Adventure, which has a view area and a tunnel. Now when going to the tunnel there are signs saying you have to be quiet since sharks have sensitive ears. I told Lizzy she needed to be quiet, shockingly enough she actually was silent throughout the tunnel. She kept looking around and was so excited that she was buzzing. I set her by a nurse shark and Michael took some pictures of her and the shark. However, all you can see of Lizzy was a blur.


Aquarium
WAY TOO EXCITED!!!

This by far was her favorite part of the trip. She missed her nap time and a feeding because she was too excited and happy. She never once complained or whined.


Tulsa Air and Space Museum


This museum is located close to the zoo. It said online that it was kid friendly. I was curious just how true that was. It actually is quite kid friendly with many hands-on things to play with and experience. They have a space shuttle landing simulation (I crashed 3 times on the runway), a space walk joyride that you have to navigate back to the space shuttle, landing on a hot air balloon on a target (extremely hard), and much more.

Lizzy had fun looking around at everything. She did try her hand at “flying” a plane.



Mother Road Market


This is a food hall with an eclectic collection of local food establishments off historic Route 66. Michael and I tried different items from different restaurants. I went to Akira Sushi to get some sushi, and Michael went to Doctor Kustom for a taste of Brazil with a sausage pastel. We finished with some pistachio gelato from Zasa’s.



Everything was amazing.



Center of the Universe


This was just a random spot in downtown Tulsa that when you stand in the circle and talk the noises are echoed back loud. It was kind of trippy. We both tried it and I got a geocache.


 

Our trip back home went smoothly as well. Though Lizzy got a bit grumpy when she realized after a nap that there wasn’t any more adventures. This trip further proved that Lizzy is a "vacation-vert" just like her momma.


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