Road trips 2015

Tulsa World Supplement | Sunday, June 21, 2015

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Road Trips

Consider these fun, short trips

By Kevin Armstrong Special Projects Editor

Road tripping means not having to worry about finding a nearby airport, checking bags, etc. You’re free to head to any city or town you want, no matter its size.

If you’re looking for luxury and a lot of pampering, turn your eyes toward Missouri’s Table Rock Lake in the Ozarks.

Chateau on the Lake Resort & Spa offers the finest combination of indoor luxury and outdoor fun on the water.

“Table Rock Lake is truly beautiful, and our Day on the Lake package is a great way for the family to enjoy the resort’s wonderful lakefront setting, as well as the many other fun and diverse recreational options available at the resort and in Branson,” says Stephen Marshall, vice president and general manager of Chateau on the Lake Resort & Spa.

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Chateau on the Lake Resort & Spa (left) in Branson, Missouri, features luxury accommodations, while Independence, Kansas, (above) is home to Ralph Mitchell Zoo. It’s only a three-hour drive from Tulsa to discover this AAA four-diamond resort experience that promises “supreme comfort, absolute elegance and unabashed luxury.”

Chateau on the Lake has several restaurants from private chef’s dinners to a casual deli and cafe. The marina has ski boats, pontoon

boats, fishing boats, paddleboats, sea kayaks and canoes for rental. If you prefer the dry land, take advantage of the property’s scenic nature trails for hiking.

Whatever your interest, Chateau on the Lake is an amazing playground.

If pampering’s not in your budget, but fun is, then maybe Kansas is more your

style. The Sunflower State offers many towns full of summer pleasures just waiting for you to discover.

The closest and easiest trip is Highway 75 North through Bartlesville and over the border to Independence, Kansas.

You will likely be surprised to learn how much vacation you can find just 90 minutes

from Tulsa.

Independence is home to the Ralph Mitchell Zoo, the Little House on the Prairie where famed author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived, the William Inge Theatre Festival and Neewollah (Halloween spelled backwards) festival.

“Neewollah is held the last week in October each Continued on next page

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Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas, offers great shopping and many outdoor dining choices that are popular with visitors.

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year, and this year we will have the Oak Ridge Boys performing,” says Mike Flood, director of the Independence Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Independence is where it all began for them, and this will be a very special concert as the Oak Ridge Boys are being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year.”

You don’t have to wait until October to enjoy the town.

Independence is also home to two reservoirs that offer great hunting and fishing.

If you’re willing to drive a little farther, you might consider a trip to Lawrence, Kansas. This city’s home to the University of Kansas, and

summer is a great time to visit when the crowds are smaller and hotel rooms are more available.

Downtown Lawrence is considered one of the best tourist destinations in all of Kansas with its many shops and outdoor dining choices.

If you’d rather wait until the KU campus is back in full swing, you might want to make a reservation to visit in September during Restaurant Week, says Toni Dixon, marketing manager for the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“We always have live music going on downtown on Massachusetts Street,” Dixon adds.

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Road Trips

OKIE CULTURE Attractions abound across our state

By Kevin Armstrong Special Projects Editor

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RT: A new exhibit, “Faberge: Jeweler to the Tsars,” opened June 20 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. It continues until Sept. 27.

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CIENCE: “CurioCity” opens June 21 at the Science Museum of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City and offers a ton of interactive fun for kids.

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ATIVE AMERICAN: The evolution of Miss Cherokee copper crowns is an exhibit at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah.

The Oklahoma City Thunder has ended its basketball season, the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing was marked in April and the State Legislature is in summer recess.

That means it’s not a great time to visit the capital city, right?

Wrong!

The state’s largest city is teeming with excitement this summer, and most of it can be found indoors, providing a respite from the sizzling heat.

We’re not talking about pigskins, calf-ropin’ or horse racing. We’re talking honestto-goodness culture — Sooner style. This state’s full of it. You just need to know where to go to find it.

If you’re planning a family vacation, then build your getaway around the coolest new kids’ magnet anywhere to be found. It will cost you less than two hours of driving, an entire day of fun and about 12 dollars per head.

The Science Museum of Oklahoma has just opened “CurioCity,” which the museum says is larger than 95 percent of all standalone children’s museums in the nation. It features eight unique “neighborhoods” such as “Spark Park,”“Wunderground” and “Tinker Works” as well as hundreds of hands-on interactive elements.

Children can explore music, risk-taking (the safe kind), performance arts and more.

“It’s unlike anything else in the rest of the museum,” says spokesperson Christa Copeland.

“It’s well worth a tank of gas to go up and down the turnpike.”

If you’ve never been to the museum, you need to realize that this is simply the latest attraction among many. The Science Museum of Oklahoma also has a new exhibit called “Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body” and a new deep space adventure film titled

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OOD: H&8th Night Market is a monthly street festival built around a lineup of the city’s top gourmet food trucks and live music in Oklahoma City.

“Journey to Space.”

Learn and have fun – it’s what this place is all about. Copeland says it’s an all-day adventure.

The same can be said of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. On June 20, the museum opened what surely will be the most visited exhibit this year.

“Faberge: Jeweler to the Tsars” is on loan from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This is the first time the permanent collection has been out of the facility in Richmond, and Oklahoma City was one of only five cities in North America chosen to host a limited showing of these crown jewels.

The 230 treasures showcased in the collection were created by the House of Faberge for the Romanov dynasty in the late 1800s. Faberge was known for accepting nothing less than perfection from the country’s finest goldsmiths, enamellers, stone carvers, gem cutters and jewelers. Faberge is best known for creating ornate Easter eggs as well as animal sculptures, cigarette cases, photograph frames and desk clocks.

“This is the largest collection of Faberge items outside of Russia,” says Bonita James, marketing manager at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

She encourages visitors to enjoy looking at the art in the morning, have lunch at the museum’s café and then finish looking at the museum’s collection in the afternoon.

“We encourage people to make a day of it,” James says.

If you’re looking for some outdoor fun in the “City,” you will have a difficult time deciding which activities to include in your day or week and which to leave for a return trip.

Tulsa has a growing food truck culture, but wait until you see what OKC offers.

“Oklahoma City has the nation’s largest monthly food truck festival,” says Tabbi Burwell, communications manager for the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have over 40 trucks participating on the last Friday of each month from March through October.”

It’s called “H&8th Night Market” because the event began in 2011 at Hudson Avenue and N.W. Eighth Street. It has since spread over several blocks.

And that’s just the monthly version. Food trucks can be found every day in Oklahoma City in the Bleu Garten district, Burwell explains. In addition to the mobile kitchens, the area Continued on next page

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features outdoor TVs, two permanent bars and live music on weekends.

Another familiar site to Tulsans is catching a baseball game in a downtown venue.

While Tulsa is now home to the Double-A farm team for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oklahoma City is now home to the Dodgers’ Triple-A club.

The team formerly known as the RedHawks is now called the Oklahoma City Dodgers, and they play in a beautiful ballpark in the heart of Bricktown.

Our neighbors at the southern end of the Turner Turnpike also can teach us some lessons on making the most of the Arkansas River as it winds through downtown.

The Boathouse District in OKC offers all kinds of river adventures, from dragon boats to kayaks and canoes.

And finally, let’s not forget about Oklahoma’s Native American culture.

While tribal landmarks can be found all over the state, the capital of the Cherokee Nation is found not in OKC but in Tahlequah.

The Cherokee Heritage Center is open year-round and traces the history and culture of the tribe. In 2013, it opened Diligwa, which depicts Cherokee life in a 1710-era village.

The center also features changing exhibits, including a current exhibit of Miss Cherokee memorabilia from the past six decades. The exhibit includes dresses, copper crowns and other items, showing how they have evolved over the years. They will be displayed through Aug. 23.

Across town in Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation Veterans Center pays tribute to Native American soldiers in a new exhibit about “code talkers.”

These men used their language to relay important military messages and create unbreakable codes in World War I and World War II that helped defeat our country’s enemies, explains Tim Landes of Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism.

That exhibit will be open through November.

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Road Trips

Travel Safety Tips (StatePoint) — Adults 50 and older are some of the nation’s most frequent travelers; however, they can be particularly at risk for various vacation woes.

“The unfortunate reality is our time away from home can leave us vulnerable,” says Dave Austin, vice president of marketing services at AARP Services. “By preparing beforehand, travelers can diminish certain risks and focus on enjoying their trip.”

1. Safeguard Belongings Make copies of travel documents or scan them and email them to yourself so they won’t go missing, even if your bags do. Keep at least

ABOUT THIS SECTION Road Trips is produced by Tulsa World’s Advertising Department.

For more information, call 918-581-8519.

one source of money, such as a credit card, in a place other than your wallet — preferably not on yourself.

2. Secure Your Home Unplug electronics and turn off your main water supply. If possible, have a friend keep an eye on your home.

3. Protect Your Identity Leave items like social security cards or unneeded credit cards at home. Avoid public Wi-Fi when possible and make purchases with credit cards, which often offer better fraud protection than debit cards. Also, require passwords for access to your electronic devices.

4. Prepare for Emergencies If you’re traveling and get sick or injured, hospital costs could be extreme, even for relatively minor issues.

Consider buying travel insurance that includes medical coverage, trip interruption and more.

JUNE 21, 2015

Road Trips

JUNE 21, 2015

fun

in the c a r

Reclaim some childhood enjoyment (BPT) — On family road trips, do you spend the entire drive listening to the music your kids prefer, playing their favorite games and generally doing everything you can to keep them content — and peaceful — in the car?

Here are some ways parents can reclaim their fun on the family road trip: • Expand musical horizons. Pop in music they’ve never heard of and introduce the kids to different musical genres. Stop at a truck stop or Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and pick up a CD through their exclusive music program.

• Find an audio book that appeals to all. Bestsellers, non-fiction, self-help and children’s titles — audio books offer a great way for everyone to participate in the fun, including the driver.

Look for material with ageappropriate content if you’ll

all be listening together.

• Introduce kids to games from your childhood. Playing games is a great way to pass time in the car, but if you dread the thought of playing one more princess- or shape-shiftingrobot-themed game, why not introduce the kids to games you loved as a child?

Many require nothing more than your imagination, like group storytelling or licenseplate bingo.

• Pack a snack bag with everyone in mind. Everyone will get hungry on the road, so if it’s not yet time for a stop, a snack bag can save the day. Pack with balanced nutrition and broad appeal in mind. Be sure to toss in a few sweet treats for some extra fun. Look for nostalgic options that will appeal to kids while reminding adults of their own childhood, like Moon Pies or Cracker Jacks.

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Road Trips

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