It’s been a week since I last wrote about our Trip to Oklahoma. I wanted to finish the final installment so here is a post about some of the things we did during our final day in Tulsa.
After spending some time at Oktoberfest during the first two days of our trip we figured our last day would best be spent checking out the sites around Tulsa. This included checking out a couple of more Route 66 sites, meeting up with a local twitter travel friend, eating some tasty BBQ and checking out a couple of museums.
Our last day was a very busy and full one which is definitely a good thing!
Here are some details and photos of Day 3 in Tulsa, Oklahoma:
After having a lot of fun at a couple of Route 66 stops on Day 2, we wanted to see more. With only one day left for the trip we focused on seeing a couple of sites which were in Tulsa. If we had more time, it would’ve been nice to drive for a while on the “Mother Road” a bit further.
Our first stop brought us to the massive Golden Driller statue which stands at 76 feet tall. The statue is located in front of Expo Square.
We were really amazed and enjoyed checking out the driller. As usual, Lucas found a couple of kids to run after while we were there. After a fun photo-op, we took a peek inside the Expo Center.
The Expo Center was being set up for some sort of horse show. After giving a quick look, one of the owners invited us over to check out her entry. The horse was beautiful and we got to pet him. Lucas usually loves animals but was afraid to touch the horse this time!
As we left the Expo Center, my friend Shane, who I know from Twitter travel chats met up with us. Being he is a Tulsa local, it was great to talk with him about the area. We then spent the next part of the day grabbing lunch and wandering around the area with him.
Driving around 10 minutes along Route 66 (from the Golden Driller) brought us to our next stop, the historic Meadow Gold sign.
From what I read, the sign was moved to its current location in 2009.
The Meadow Gold site is like a very interesting Route 66 stop since the structure is filled with a bunch of plaques which give information about the sign itself, saving the sign, along with other details (which I can not recall).
The Route 66 shield emblem is prominently displayed both on the brick structure that the sign site atop and as a huge tile on the floor.
Visiting the Meadow Gold sign was like stopping at a free mini-museum! My one regret was not getting to see the sign lit up at night in all of its neon glory.
After reading about a few barbecue options, Shane suggested one that I had not come across. Since he’s the local, we took his advice and headed over to Burn Co BBQ. (He also did a good sell by telling us about some of the interesting items on the menu!)
There was a big problem when we showed up at the restaurant. There were too many options that we wanted to sample on the menu!
So what did we do? Try them all!
Shane mentioned that they do a shared plate where you get to sample all of the good eats Burn Co has to offer. We ended up ordering what they call the “Happy Plate”.
When the food arrived, I have to say that I was a bit overwhelmed. I think the Happy Plate was meant to feed 4-5 adults but there was only 3 of us plus Lucas. Lucas wasn’t so interested in the bbq so the three of us had a lot of work ahead.
The plate came with:
- 3 kinds of sausages: Jalapeno Cheddar, Pork & Venison and Bratwurst
- Baby Back Ribs
- Smoked Turkey
- Pulled Pork
- Chopped Brisket
The two main, in-house specialties:
- Smoked Bologna
- The Fatty- smoked sausage rolled in pork sausage mixed with hot links then wrapped in bacon. (thanks to Shane for reminding me of what was inside)
Two sides of our choice:
- Bacon Mac & Cheese
- Grilled Potato Salad
The BBQ was awesome. Some favorites were the chopped brisket, smoked bologna and the Fatty. I also really enjoyed two of the sausages with the Jalapeno cheddar variety not being a favorite of mine.
I’m glad that we decided to try out the Happy Plate but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are sharing with at least 3 other adults. While we did leave a decent amount over, I still left feeling way too stuffed.
We then made our way over to a tacky yet interesting site, The Center of the Universe.
Tulsa’s Center of the Universe is located in the middle of a pedestrian bridge over some train tracks. When you walk to the center of the big brick circle, a magical thing happens. Once you speak, you’ll hear your words echoed back to you. The tall, metal sculpture in the photo has some a heavy knockers on each side. We banged them and I didn’t really get the point.
Overall, it’s worth stopping here for 5 minutes to check out the mysterious echoing circle.
After wandering around a bit more, we parted ways with Shane. Lucas fell asleep while we were on our way to the Tulsa Air & Space Museum, a place he was really looking forward to visiting.
We arrived at what we thought was an hour or so before closing. However, we were told that no more entries were being allowed due to the need to set up for a wedding that evening.
This ended up being a blessing in disguise…
While getting ready to leave, the women at the desk mentioned how great the museum was and that we should come again. I mentioned that we were going home the following day. After finding out we were in from New York they told me to go on in for a quick look.
This worked out great. Considering the entry fee was $15 per person, I was hesitant to spend that kind of money to get in.
Kim and I wandered around for around 20 minutes. There was an impressive collection of planes on display and we enjoyed our quick look!
Since Lucas missed out on the airplanes we decided to head over to a museum that sounded perfect for him.
While at the Golden Driller in the morning, we were talking to a family from Oklahoma City. They mentioned a great place to go for Lucas- Tulsa Children’s Museum Discovery Lab.
Lucas woke up as we were parking the car and it was great to have this wonderful surprise waiting for him. (We did feel bad though since he asked again about the airplane museum!)
The Discovery Lab is made up of two rooms.
The “Featured Room” currently has Red Dirt Dinos, a bunch of mechanical dinosaurs along with the fun slide shown above. Lucas was a bit scared to walk by the motion activated dinos on his own at times which was pretty hilarious to watch! We probably spent 15-20 minutes checking out the dinosaurs and Lucas probably went on the slide 7-8 times.
We saved the main event for the end. The “Move It” play room was really an amazing room. I’m not sure that I’ve seen anything like it ever before.
There are a variety different areas featuring all different fun things to do but I’m only going to mention the best one.
The Tulsa Tape & Tunnels has to be one of the most incredible play areas I’ve ever come across. The whole thing is made of layers of packing tape!
I didn’t try the tunnels with Lucas until the end since we ran into our friends from the Golden Driller at the museum. After chatting for a while I had to give the tape tunnels a try.
At first Lucas was running right past me and then I figured out why. Socks…
I forgot to take my socks off and kept slipping and sliding while Lucas was able to run right up the tunnels. Once I took my socks off, the fun began. In around 10 minutes Lucas and I must’ve done the course 4-5 times.
The main features are a suspension bridge and 30 foot slide. Packing tape doesn’t sound so sturdy but each tunnel is made of six layers of tape. The tunnels had some spring and bounce to them which was a lot of fun.
This children’s museum was one of the better ones we’ve been to. Best part, it isn’t really just for kids!
That wraps up our visit to Oklahoma. We had an even better time than we would’ve expected and actually had wished we had another few days to see more of the state.
This seems to be the problem of most trips. There’s always more to see and never enough time!
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