Out and About In Shawnee

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in Oklahoma. A few days ago when I realized how nice it was going to be I started thinking about where I could take the kids. I didn't want to just take them to the park so I decided we should take a short road trip. So I got out the atlas and opened it to Oklahoma. I took a compass and drew a circle around what I thought was a two hour radius outside of Tulsa. I started looking up cities inside that radius. Some had websites, other did not. After looking at about four cities I settled on Shawnee. I had never been there before and the website offered many different attractions that sounded fun.

We left at 8 a.m. I made a quick stop at QT and then we were on the road. We went through Sapulpa, Bristow, Chandler (which looked neat and we may have to go back and actually stop in), and finally ended in Shawnee. I had a map and of course my atlas but I also have GPS on my phone so I felt confident that we wouldn't get too lost. 

As we arrived in Shawnee I noticed several horse statues in front of different businesses. According to the website they're called "Horse in the City" statues. They are life size fiberglass horses painted by local artists. They are beautiful. I didn't get to see all of them but here are two of the four we did see. I will post the other ones in my facebook photos folder. 

Our first stop was the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art. Its located on St. Gregory's Campus. Which is beautiful! The museum is small but has great exhibits. We saw an Egyptian sarcophagus, and a real mummy,The Mummy Tutu! We also saw a real suit of armor and a Samurai helmet. There were also various Indian and religious artifacts and paintings. In one area they had a room full of pictorial carpets. 

Our next stop was lunch. We were all hungry and Jordan thought we should try to find a diner instead of eating somewhere we could eat here in town. I agreed and headed for main street because I figured there's always a diner on main street. I was right. We ended up at the Hamburger King. We found a booth and looked at the menu which told an interesting way of ordering, we had to order by picking up the red phone in our booth. The food was good as was the atmosphere.

After we ate we went down to The Sante Fe Depot Museum. The Sante Fe Railroad Company built the depot as a passenger station for Pottawatomie County. Passengers could ride from Newkirk, Shawnee or Cushing and then to Paul's Valley before joining the Texas line. They had so many neat things to look at, Native American items, train artifacts and even an old Model-T Ford pickup and a 100 year old horse statue from the St. Louis Worlds Fair. They were also hosting a quilt show and they were gorgeous. On the grounds there was a cabin that was the first home built in Shawnee after the land run. The Beard Cabin was built in 1891. As most of you know Conor loves trains. Located behind the depot was a set of train tracks so I let Conor walk right up to them and check them out. He seemed to be having a good time.

At this point it was getting late in the afternoon and I still had one stop I really wanted to make. I had heard about a local kids park that was supposed to be out of this world. I got directions and we set out to find it. We got there and they were right, it was out of this world. It was called Kid Space Park. It was so cool.

All the kids enjoyed the park. Its really spacious and theres lots to do. We let Emma down and she was able to run around and explore too. Its so much fun to watch them all find things they love about the park. Jordan likes to swing, Conor likes to climb and Emma likes to just be out of her car seat! I walked around taking pictures then sat in the swing with Emma for a bit. After about 40 minutes I was hot and getting tired and the park was filling with older kids so we opted to leave and go get ice cream.

Off to Braums we went. Then it was time to load up and head home. All in all it wasn't a bad day. They kids were happy and I love being able to take all of them on a field trip to wherever we want to go. I'm thinking that Mike would like to go next time so Ill have to plan something for a weekend when he can go too.

Homeschooling and independence  gives me the luxury to do this, and that's what it is, a luxury. I love the idea of just loading up and going somewhere. I am blessed to have a car that runs good, a husband that supports me and the time to do this. We're building memories that will last a lifetime. Stay tuned for more adventures from Morrison Homeschool.