Vacation 2011!

Monday August 29^th, 2011

So MaryJane and I took a vacation to Oklahoma last week.  We headed out a little before 7 a.m. and traveled to Blue Bell Creameries in Broken Arrow, OK.  If you didn’t know MaryJane is an Ice Cream fanatic, so you can imagine how exciting it was to take a tour of an Ice Cream Factory.  It was very fun and informative.  It was just her, Kelly, I, and the tour guide.  Lionel could not be trusted around that much ice cream so he had to stay in the car.  Got to view from second story windows looking down, the unloading / storage area, the milk / sugar area, and the coolest area the flavoring / packing area.  The putting of the ice dream into the different containers was really neat.  We also watched a cute little video about the history of Blue Bell.  At the end we got to go to their little ice cream parlor / gift shop where we enjoyed some yummy cream and she got a set of 4 ice cream spoons w/ cute animal handles.

 We then traveled west to Oklahoma City to enjoy time at the Science Museum and Zoo.  Who would thought that the spoons she obtained at the creamery were musically talented.  They put on some awesome shows for me on the way there.  The science museum was really cool.  We had fun playing w/ light…the neatest probably being standing in front of these light absorbent boards in a dark room when a flash goes off in front of you and you can then step away and see your “shadow”; where the light was blocked.  We played in a giant treehouse twice that had this curly slide that went like million miles an house.  It was quite exhilarating.  We solved a murder mystery in a new area.  We gathered evidence and did forensics.  Really sweet set up.  Then her favorite thing was next…riding on the Segway.  We rode it twice and she was all smiles.  Would love to have one of those bad boys for real.  Amazing invention it is.  We checked out an old luxury train, had lunch and then headed up stairs to tour the mind games.  It was trippy.  Back down stairs we fiddled w/ a few more things like the erosion and earthquake displays and a tinkering area.  She got two real arrowheads from the gift shop…something we had talked about recently.  A really educational and fun place to go and they are adding more areas for new fun next time.

 Next it was to the zoo…which is literally 100 yards away.  It being so close sure was a time saver.  We saw lots of amazing animals.  Saw Rhinos near the entrance and we headed for the elephants.   On the way we stopped by the monkey zone.  There was a building we went into and there were two large areas you could see into from large glass walls.  They were in the process of feeding the Chimps.  They took the monkey out of the left area, opened the door, and came in w/ a large trash can pull of compost and started throwing it all over the place…along w/ a bunch of books.  So when they let the monkey back in he immediately went over, picked up a book, put it in his mouth, climbed up on a ledge, and started reading.  It was awesome and I tell you when I looked that guy straight in the face I saw a glimpse of Christian.  Haha.  So we made it to the back of the park to see the Elephants.  They were kind of far off, but there was a baby one that was so adorable.  Very precious.  On the way back to the front of the park we saw some smaller cats…not sure what they all were, but one was still a kid and one was a baby…I think they were Leopards.  They were beautiful.  Stopped by a play area build like trees you could climb around in.  We pretended to be a monkey family and that was great fun.  Also, went thru the area w/ the Galapagos Turtles, Flamingos, and Peacocks.  Those turtles have the cutest faces, but they are deceiving cause you’d lose a finger real quick messing with one.   Our last animal stop, and her favorite stop, was to see the Sea Lions and Seals.  Oh…on the way there we got to see a guy feeding the ducks and catfish.  He dumped this big bucked of feed into the water and they all went crazy.  It was nuts.  So the Sea Lions were cute and one made a kept making a funny, but annoying noise.  We saw them from the top.  Then we went underground and saw the Seals thru glass.  There were 3 in the tank area and they were super duper cute and having so much fun swimming around.  They would go right past the glass and one even came right for it and turned at the last second.  Wanted to take one home w/ us, but instead she gat a Seal stuffed animal named Sara from the gift shop.  They are perfect together…a cute faced girl and a cute faced seal.  Love.  That zoo is real good.

Our last stop was Incredible Pizza in Tulsa so we headed that way after the zoo.  On the way Lionel meet Sara and as hard as he tried to be like a seal he failed.  I got to train Sara to do some neat tricks.  MaryJane doctored both Sara and Lionel in the zoo game we played.  The pizza place was tasty and fun.  She loved the fact they had a big pasta bar.  Not sure she even ate any pizza, but I sure did.  Played fun games, got lots of tickets, and got some cool prizes.  Always a good time at that place.  So after that we headed home.  We actually didn’t end up in Joplin, yea, and I got more great performances by the ice cream spoons.  It was such a fun day.