Searching for Proper Barbecue - Colorado to Georgia

Quite literally in the middle of Kansas, 600 feet below the surface of Hutchinson, a Strataca Salt Mine tour guide asked me if I enjoyed Roy's BBQ for lunch. Bemused, I learned that Roys has such a distinct smell and the salt mine is devoid of smells, so tour guides quickly learn this approach with tourists. Strataca and Roys, or odd sites and barbecue were the treats on this road trip but the underlying purpose was for a move.

Michael at the Strataca Salt Mine.

My father-in-law (Michael) and I were in Kansas because our calling was to relocate one of our cars from Monument, Colorado to Atlanta, Georgia. The four-day journey was punctuated with a handful of museums and a superb selection of barbecue joints.

We set out from the Denver airport in the late afternoon and drove four hours to our first waypoint in Colby, Kansas. En route, we enjoyed a picnic dinner at the surprisingly well appointed Limon Railroad Park (by donation).

Day two's first stop was the Fort Hays State Historic Park. The buildings and exhibits are very well done. For young visitors, there is a 'bison herd' across the street (with bison numbering just a few). Plan 1-2 hours at this attraction. From Fort Hays, we drove to Hutchinson, Kansas for the Strataca Salt Mine. This was a major waypoint during the trip planning: where else can you descend 600 feet into the crust of the Earth to view an active salt mine? It turns out that the salt vein stretches into New Mexico, but this is the best way to get up-close to the operation.

An industrial elevator carries both workers and tourists down under. The tourist portion of the mine is sectioned off for safety. Tourists get to see dioramas containing mining equipment and the blasting techniques used to excavate salt from the mine - the salt is used mainly for ice removal. The underground gift shop has free wifi and there are a couple of add-ons for your visit. Tourists can ride the mine train in a loop that shows more of the mine or you can book a seat on the tram tour, which also shows more of the mine.

BBQ is an American treasure.

The Strataca Salt Mine was such a great stop that Michael and I decided to check out the other local Hutchinson attraction: the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. We expected a couple of planes and some cheap displays but we were instead treated to a plethora of rare air and space artifacts. The museum's motto, "Out of this World. Right in the Heart of Kansas" is an appropriate saying. Aside from the Smithsonian collection, the Kansas Cosmosphere impressed me more than any air and space museum I have seen (including the National Museum of the USAF, Seattle's Museum of Flight and many others). To quantify my claim, know that the museum collection contains a spacecraft from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (Liberty Bell 7, Gemini 10 and Apollo 13).

Ending a big second day of the trip in Wichita gave us the opportunity to ride the free downtown tram to Old Town where we enjoyed excellent pizza and local brews at Public.

Day three was a 450 mile push from Wichita to Little Rock but we found time for a few diversions. The first was Fort Smith National Historic Site where Michael was able to purchase his National Park System Senior Pass. Ten bucks gets you free access to all National Park properties for the rest of your life (seniors include those 62 and over). The Fort Smith prison, gallows and courtroom are all available for viewing. Kids love romping around the grounds to see the out-buildings and the neighboring Arkansas River. Tip: Pick up lunch at the Garrison Pointe Market, which is walking distance from Fort Smith (it is in a gas station, but those who know of the Whoa Nellie Deli know the deal). In Little Rock, we tried Sims BBQ but were thoroughly disappointed. 

Elvis's Birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Day four's drive was from Little Rock to Atlanta. The main diversion was Elvis's Birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi. Most fans visit Graceland but I found ticket prices there to be obscenely expensive. The Tupelo museum and home were small enough to visit in 1-2 hours and were right on our route to Atlanta. In Tupelo, we tried and liked BBQ by Jim. This joint was a meat and two sides type of place with excellent sauce and a family-focused orientation.

TripTips:

1. Stock the car with cold beverages and healthy snacks.

2. Plan activities in cities between your lodging locations. Most attractions do not open until 9am or 10am, so you will lose lots of drive time if you stick around in a city to do something there.

3. Picnic when you can to save costs.

4. A newspaper or magazines in the car give you something to chat about with your trip partner(s).

Erie, PA with Toddlers

We once again headed north to visit Oma and Opa in Erie, PA.

Last time I blogged about our Erie trip it was winter. Erie is known for its cold winters and record snows. You can read about our winter visit here, where we flew into Pittsburgh, did a few things and then drove to Erie. A summer visit means lots of outside time enjoying the lake and green, green grass.

This trip we flew into Buffalo, NY. We made a quick stop to visit with my 96-year-old great aunt. As we were leaving her place, we made the decision to take the kids to Niagara Falls before driving to Erie. I realize it is in the wrong direction, but we wanted the kids to see it before we left the country. (This is basically our mantra this summer.)

A summer Saturday is probably the worst time to make the spur of the moment decision to visit the falls. Parking in Niagara was $30 in most of the lots. We saw a few for $15. If your just making a quick stop, like us, there is a plethora of 2 hour free street parking.

Once we parked the car we asked at an information station how far to walk to the falls. The lady told us we were 30 min walking from the falls. Turns out we were only about 5 min. There is so much you can do here, so if you have the time check out all your options on the state park webpage. With the little ones and family so close, we knew we would be back.

We chose to simply walk along the Niagara River to the falls on the New York side. We did not venture out onto Goat Island, although it does provide my favorite view. We resisted the urge to make a quick visit to Canada and instead made the 1.5 hour drive to Erie.

Our focus for the trip was on seeing family. We spent most of our visit watching the kids play with their cousins in the yard. Opa let them sample currents from a bush. They picked cucumbers from the garden They had a wing and pizza picnic in the backyard. They played water balloons, trains and cooked in the kitchen. We only ventured out to give Oma and Opa some quiet time!

We had a huge list of things to do in Erie, but only checked off a few of them.

The Erie Zoo is a strange mix of old buildings and brand new exhibits. We went on their "frozen treats" day, so the zoo was crowded but still enjoyable. Every animal was out and about playing when we visited. (Even the sloth was working his way across the top of his exhibit.) The train is not to be missed as it takes you into an area that is only reachable by the train. The kids loved how the train goes over the creek. They have a wonderful kids area where you can pet the wallaby and feed birds. There is also a huge playground in the kids area. We packed a lunch and found a table right next to the penguin exhibit. We could have stayed all day, but it was hot and the kids were getting tired.

A visit to Erie is not complete unless you head out to Presque Isle State Park. In summer the beaches are the place to be. We set up our little camp on one of the beaches and the kids played all afternoon. There are lifeguards on duty that keep everyone in the shallows. We did not let the kids get in too deep, but they loved playing at the waters edge and digging in the sand. There was ample parking and we did not have to walk terribly far to our car.

We grabbed dinner at Sara's, which is a family tradition. We all sat at one long table with all the kids enjoying hotdogs, fries, milkshakes and cream sickle ice cream. When my little one was on a milk protest, this is where Opa took him to get a milk shake and he has been a milk drinker ever since.

Also on Presque Isle is Waldameer and Water World, an amusement and water park. We did not get to it this visit, but it will be top of our list when we return for older kids. There are lots of ticket options, including a pass that is perfect for little ones looking to just spend an hour or two there. You are able to purchase a set amount of points such that you can just do a few kiddie rides and head to the beach, if you want. The Tom Ridge Environmental Center is also located here. We have been here on a previous trip. The center itself is free, but there are IMAX shows for a fee. This is a great 30min indoor option to learn about the ecosystem of the lake.

We love to head down to the waterfront in Erie and walk around. H really wanted to head up the Bicentennial Tower, so we paid our admission and headed up. (We may have been the only visitors all day.)  The tower is not quite tall enough to see the lake, but you do get a great view of the bay and the entire city.  The tower offers free admission the first Sunday of every month. Down on the pier we watched some fishermen catch fish and crawled around on the statues.

The Erie Naval Museum is just next door. We had plans to visit, since it is part of the Blue Star Museum program, but our toddler had other plans. The Brig Niagara is sometimes in port and available for tours. Call first as she is often late and the webpage is not accurate. A few other attractions down on the waterfront (that we did not have time for) include: Harbor View Mini Golf, Scalawag's Pirate Cruise, and Liberty Park and the water taxi.

We made a return visit to the ExpERIEnce Children's Museum in downtown Erie. They have made a few large changes since our last visit. The top floor is a bit more organized and features an amazing play grocery store sponsored by Wegmans. In the basement a play area for little ones has been added. They have foam blocks for climbing over and a sensory wall. I had to shoo some big kids out of the way but then our teeny's had plenty of room to play without being knocked over. There is also an outdoor play garden. We only spent a few moments out there before the torrential rain started.

You know we found a railway museum to visit! We combined a visit to the Lakshore Railway Museum in Northeast, PA with a visit to Gravel Pit Park, where Jeff completed his Eagle Scout project many years ago. Gravel Pit Park has old playground equipment that the kids enjoyed, plus a bunch of snowplow blades they enjoyed looking at. The Railway Museum never actually opened the day we were there - the volunteer was late or something of the sort - but we still spent nearly an hour checking out all the cars. They have the best collection of working train switches we have ever seen at a museum. H loved switching them all and seeing how they worked.

Here are a few other things we had on the list but did not get to:
- Pick Your Own Fruit. There are a variety of places but Finnell Farms in Harborcreek is where my in laws get the grapes for their Jam. Rahal Farms in Northeast, PA also looked to have a good selection.
- The Asbury Woods Nature Center 
- Splash Lagoon Water Park which we have been to in the past and I tend to save for winter visits, but boy is it fun.

The one mishap of the trip happened when we mistakenly left the I-Pad at Oma & Opa's house. We were an hour into the drive back to Buffalo when we realized our mistake. Luckily I had a whole bag of Usborn Books that we barely used on the trip, so the boys were plenty entertained on the trip.

We did make one last stop at Ted's in Buffalo, another family tradition, to make sure the kids gave it a try before we leave the country! Ted's conveniently has a location right by the airport.

SeaWorld Orlando with Kids Under 42"

Day Two in Orlando we used our Waves of Honor tickets to visit Sea World.  I packed a small camelback with snacks for the day, diapers, sunscreen, small first aid kit and we filled the bladder with ice and water. SeaWorld wont let you bring in lunch but we had no trouble with our kids snacks. We also had our City Mini Double from Kingdom Strollers and a bag of all our rain gear that I just stowed in the stroller basket.


We stayed at the SpringHill Suites, SeaWorld so we were able to catch the free shuttle to the parks and avoid the $15 parking fee. The first shuttle of the day (8:30) got us to the park before it opened.


We downloaded the SeaWorld App, but found it largely useless.  We downloaded the app a few days early to familiarize ourselves with it, but were unable to access many of the features until we were in the park. I was able to pre-order and pay for our pizza lunch from Seaport Pizza when we arrived and were awaiting the "rope drop."


The entrance is not well signed, we got into what we thought was a stroller line only to be told when we reached the front that our stroller (rented through Kingdom Strollers) would not fit. We needed to be in the 5th or 6th gate over... however that is not signed. Luckily it was not very crowded so we easily moved over to that gate.


We were inside the park and waiting by the flamingos when the "rope drop" happened at 9am. We went directly to the Antartica ride. Our little ones are both shorter then the 42" height restriction. We were able to get into line to ride the "mild" experience. Our one year old was required to demonstrate that he could walk "one step" on his own.. he barely did it. We were put in our own queue and loaded into the same ride vehicle as the other riders, except ours was programed not to move up and down and side to side. It just followed the normal trackless experience. Everyone must be able to sit and be buckled into their own seat. The ride ends in an open penguin exhibit that was excellent. The penguins were all swimming around and playing.


We headed to the back of Turtle Treck to see the sea turtles get their morning meal. The manatees are also back there and were quite active so the kids enjoyed watching them swim around. This was the perfect diversion to burn some time while we waited for the 10am dolphin show, Blue Horizons, to start. We parked the stroller outside the theater and grabbed some seats. The kids liked the dolphin show, but there were slow parts that lost their attention and we were glad to have snacks with us to help us bridge those gaps.


We headed toward Seaport Pizza when the show was done stopping a few places to see some animals on the way. We had scheduled an 11:30 pizza pick up via the app. There was plenty of shaded seating and our pizza was ready right on time. This meant zero waiting for the kids to get lunch. It did not appear that many people were using the app but we were glad that we did. The pizza was perfectly acceptable. Seaport Pizza gets enough bad reviews online that we were worried about it, but honestly it was fine and quite edible.


After lunch we loaded onto the Tower Ride, which takes you up 300 feet and provides a great view of the park and surrounding area. Online there is a 42" height restriction but that is for riding unaccompanied. We had no trouble getting on to the ride with both kids.


We caught the 12:15 Pets Ahoy Animal Show, which was the highlight of the visit for our three-year old. This fast paced show filled to capacity, so arrive a bit early for good seats. Even my one-year old had a blast since pets are constantly moving across the set in and out of doors. After the show we were able to go down to the stage and meet a few of these pet stars.


When we emerged from the theater the clouds were looming. We ducked into a few more animal exhibits - turtles, sharks, walrus, beluga's. Many of the exhibits have rides or movies before you get to the animals. We had no trouble simply passing through these areas and going directly to the animals - just inform the employee loading the ride/movie area and they will send you right through the exit. This helped us be able to see more of the animals while the kids were still in a good mood.


We ventured over to the kids play area, but literally as we arrived they were closing the large kids climbing structure due to the impending storm. The smaller rides were still running though and they said would be until there was actual rain. We though, decided to head back to the shuttle since our littles ones were getting sleepy. We saw a few more animals in pools (dolphins and manta rays) as we headed out of the park but got on our shuttle back to the hotel as the rain started to come down.


We were all ready for a little down time out of the sun so it was the prefect time to leave the park. The kids got nice naps which will make for a better day tomorrow. The dinner plan is to drive 10 min to the Whole Foods, one of our favorite ways to eat out without feeling like we ate out. Hopefully we will catch a little pool time before bed too!

Orlando with Kids, No Theme Parks

Alright... the title is a little misleading. We plan to go to the theme parks. Due to some changes in our trip we have a bonus day in Orlando and wanted to do a few things outside of the theme parks.

Our flight arrived late in Orlando and we had a two hour time change so the kids were a little out of sorts. We rented a car and found that a week rental was less expensive then just a weekend rental, plus it gave us tons of flexibility. We also decided to do a few nights at the Spring Hill Suites, Sea World instead of heading right to Disney property.

The Spring Hill Suites turned out to be a great hotel. The rooms are quite large. There was plenty of room for our portable crib and for the kids to play some in the room. The pool has a great shallow kids play area. There is free wifi and breakfast. We arrived on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend so everything was swamped with people, but the hotel handled it well.

Our first stop was the Orlando Science Museum.  (The Orlando Science Museum is a reciprocal with the Denver Science Museum so admission was covered with our membership.) There is a large parking deck which costs $5 and connects with a bridge right into the museum. The museum was perfect for our three and one year old. None of the exhibits are particularly thorough, but almost everything invites children to touch and play. Kids Town in the basement,  has a play Orange Grove that the kids could have stayed in all day picking the oranges and loading them into the tractor. There is also a transportation area that has a variety of play transportation items - cars, trains, planes - that the kids loved. Digging for dinosaurs on the top floor is also a great play area. We were having so much fun that lunch time crept up on us and before we knew it, it was after noon.

The Orlando Art Museum is just across the park. On this particular weekend they were hosting the International FRINGE Festival, with the kids section of the festival just next to the museum. We headed over to the food tents to grab lunch. After we dropped into some of the kids performances and crafts. There was even a bounce house!

When we leaded back into the car the plan was to head to Celebration to play in the park and walk around. As we turned out onto the road we had two sleeping kiddos and the rain had started to fall. So we did what anyone would have done and rerouted to the coast. We made the 50min drive to Titusville and headed out to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  The visitors center was closed but they had maps available on the signpost. We found a short walking trail to take the kids on complete with lizards, spiders and lots of huge vegetation.


Somehow our three-year old got it in his head that we should head to the beach. Just a few miles down the road is Canaveral National Seashore. The seashore admission price was included in our National Parks Pass. We got H into his swimsuit and let him play around in the water. He laughed the whole time!

Jeff and I have been down to the cape a few times and have some "old stomping grounds" - ha! Anyway, we decided to hit up Dixie Crossroads, a place we had eaten on a previous visit. We love the corn fritters (coated in powdered sugar) that come to the table.  It can be hard to find non-friend options here. The shrimp tacos are my favorite. The kids meal portion was almost as large as Jeff's regular portion on fish.

After dinner we drove back to Orlando in time for H to get some swim time before bed. Both kids were exhausted and went right to sleep, which in our book is a win!

Canaveral National Seashore

Coral Touch Table at the Orlando Science Museum

Orange Grover at the Orlando Science Museum.