Perhaps you’ve never heard of a small Arkansas town by the name of Bentonville, but most likely you have heard of a company by the name of Walmart. This company has it’s roots in this small town and it is a great place to visit with kids. There are many attractions that make it a nice place to stop in while visiting Arkansas.
There are some great museums in the United States and Oklahoma City is no exception. If you are visiting the area with kids I highly recommend a visit to The Science Museum Oklahoma and Sam Noble Museum. These are in our opinion the best museums in Oklahoma City to visit if you have kids.
This is a very hands on museum within a very large building. If you have active children, and let’s face it they’re all active, this is a great place to go. There are definitely too many exhibits and displays to cover in this article so I will just highlight a few of the ones we really enjoyed while we were in this awesome Oklahoma City museum.
Climbing structures are always a big hit with kids and this place has two of them. One is designed to look like trees. It has slides, ramps and stairs, as well as air cannons. The cannons are up high and can be moved to shoot different targets, like CD’s and wind chimes dangling from the ceiling.
When thinking of the Texas panhandle, what image first comes to mind? Windmills, of course. So it makes sense that Lubbock is where you will find the largest collection of windmills in the world housed under one roof at the American Windmill Museum.
The railroad industry relied heavily on windmills during the steam engine era. Which is why this is one of the first exhibits on display. It may be one of the best model train scenes I have ever seen.
The details in the miniatures placed throughout the display are impressive. It was designed to look like Lubbock during the heyday of railroads and windmills. Many trains are coming and going through the town, Thomas the Tank Engine even makes an appearance. They have a large spiral ramp the trains climb up and travel high above the room.
After wandering around the train scene you can check out the rest of the miniature collection. There are some very cool pieces on display. The kids each had their favorite, but Journey could have stayed in that area all day.
Family vacations can get expensive, especially on the east coast. The following is a list of family and budget friendly places you should visit.
This museum is located on an air force base in Pensacola Florida. Due to it being an active military site there is some security to go through before getting inside. It is well worth it though. The museum is huge. You will see airplanes from all over the world and spanning through time. Also make sure to get on the trolley tour of the back lot, where you will see some of the planes they can’t fit inside the museum. Kids will love getting inside some of the planes, the best part is that it’s free.
Our visit to Vicksburg Mississippi was a very educational experience. Not only did we have a great time visiting the historic Civil War battle site, we also stopped in the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. The nearby playground and mural wall were very cool too.
Our travels have taken us to many amazing places and we have seen some interesting things along the way. Mississippi was no exception. LaFleur’s Bluff State Park was a very convenient place to stay while visiting the Jackson area.
Moving around so much means that making friends on the road can be tough. When we choose our next campground there is always a randomness factor. Who will our new neighbors be? It is our hope that we get no neighbors or cool neighbors, but at least quiet neighbors. Never the neighbors with the “cute Christmas jingle” that plays every time they open their door.
Luckily for us our Thanksgiving campground destination happened to have some great neighbors. At Minooka Park, half way between Birmingham and Montgomery, we discovered a really great place to stay. It is an ATV park with RV campsites many of which have full hook-ups. The ATV riders were all very considerate in the campground and the trails are out of the way so noise is not bad. We loved it and made some new friends too!
Our neighbor at Minooka Park was one of the county commissioners, Jim Hardee. He invited us to spend Thanksgiving with him and his family. Sharing a wonderful meal with some great company made it a very nice holiday on the road. He also arranged for us to get a more personal tour of the capitol when he found out we are visiting all of them. We were very thankful to find making friends on the road is possible, especially when those friends are so awesome.
When thinking of Alabama rockets might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but it should be. Huntsville in northern Alabama is where the development of the space program, NASA, really began. Wernher von Braun was a pioneer in the field of rocket science. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville is like a tribute to this rocket scientist that changed the course of history in a major way.
Our travels through Tennessee led us to an unexpected location. A small town with lots of charm. Lynchburg, Tennessee might be known for it’s Jack Daniel’s distillery, but there is so much more to experience in this quaint small town.
