Texas Road Trip
Day 1 - One of our favorite things to do is travel somewhere warm in the winter. We don't always bring curriculum with us but we do plan lots of hands on learning. Our first stop was the Illinois State Military Museum. A troop form Illinois found Santa Anna's (Mexico's general that captured the Alamo) camp. He escaped but left his prosthetic leg behind. The troop brought his leg home and it is on display at the Military Museum in Springfield. However, the day we were there the leg was not out. I don't know if we would have stopped knowing that the leg was not on display. But this museum is 1 mile from Lincoln's grave so it's easy enough to pair these 2 stops together. The Military Museum is free and it is a cool building and does have some good exhibits. Lincoln's grave is defiantly worth the stop. There is a monument for him that you can go inside. You can see his tomb and it's a really great memorial for him. This is also free. 2 miles from his grave is the Lincoln Home National Historical site. There is a welcome center there and you can tour Lincoln's home. It is free but you need timed tickets to tour the house. They are available on a first come first serve basis. Kids can earn a free junior ranger badge at the welcome center. There are a lot of other Lincoln things you can do in Springfield. It was just one of many stops for us and we were happy with our experience. We drove about another hour and stayed at a hotel in Litchfield, IL. We had a picnic dinner in our hotel room.
Springfield stop 1:
https://www.enjoyillinois.com/explore/listing/illinois-state-military-museum
Illinois State Military Museum
Springfield stop 2:
https://www2.illinois.gov/dnrhistoric/Experience/Sites/Central/Pages/Lincoln-Tomb.aspx
Lincoln's Memorial on the outside
Lincoln's Grave inside the memorial
Springfield Stop 3:
https://www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm
Visitor center of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site
Lincoln's home
Day 2 - We had a slow morning at the hotel, the City Museum didn't open up until 10:00. We had a 45 minute drive to get to the museum. The museum is SO much fun and after our whole trip was done all 3 of the kids said it was their favorite thing we did. It's a giant playground on steroids! There's a 10 story slide, indoor caves and tunnels, it's a lot of fun. You can't bring food in so we ate in our car because I'm cheap. There is a café and lots of restaurants near by. The ticket prices vary in price and the hours are limited during the winter. We ended up paying $18 each and $10 for parking. So worth it. The museum closed at 5:00 the day we were there. In the winter season it is only open on the weekends. Not far from the museum is the World Chess Museum. We weren't planning on stopping here but the tour guide at the Lincoln house told us about it. It is free and across the street is where professional chess players compete. You can tour and even play chess there. It was a fun bonus stop. After the chess stop we drove about and hour and stayed the night in Sullivan, MO.
Stop 1 :
https://www.citymuseum.org/
Outside the City Museum
This area was for younger kids
10 story slide
There is so much climbing and fun to be had here
Stop 2
https://worldchesshof.org/
World's Largest Chess Piece
Day 3- We drove about an hour and made our first stop of the day. We walked a portion of the trail of tears. This was a pretty impactful stop. There are many places to do this but this was in our path and had lots of great plaques and signs to read. It was a little tricky to get to tough. My GPS originally took me to the wrong location. This stop is located in Roy Laughlin Park.
We drove 2 more hours and stop two took us to the George Washington Carver National national monument. It is the first national park dedicated to an African American. It was a wonderful place to stop. There are hiking trails on the property and a visitor center with lots of information about Carver. He was an extraordinary man.
Next we drove and 1 hour and 45 minutes to Tulsa, Ok. I wanted to visit the cultural center at Greenwood to teach the kids about the Tulsa Race Riots but they are closed on the weekend. So instead we stopped at Reconciliation Park, which was pretty good too. They have a statue to all hard history of their town and lots of plaques to read about the race riots. Tulsa also has an ASTC children's museum that looks pretty awesome but it wasn't open the day we were in town.
The day had been a good one but a very heavy day with lots of difficult stops. Maddy had been asking about getting Boba tea on the trip so I figured today was a good day to do that. Tulsa had several Boba tea stores we just choose one that was on our way south of town. It was a nice way to end the day. From there we drove to a town just on the other side of the state line. We drove an additional 3 hours after Tulsa. Today was the longest planned drive day. We drove a total of 8 hours. But with four stops it didn't feel bad. We ate all our meals in the car so that helped us make good time too.
Stop 1
https://www.visitmo.com/things-to-do/trail-of-tears-memorial-laughlin-park-and-roubidoux-river
Trail of tears stop
Stop 2-
https://www.nps.gov/gwca/index.htm
George Washington Carver's National Historic Site.
Stop 3
https://www.jhfcenter.org/reconciliation-park
Tulsa Ok Reconciliation Park
Stop 4
http://places.singleplatform.com/hey-boba/menu
Boba Tea stop
Day 4 - We drove about an hour and made a stop at the Dude Perfect Headquarters. There is nothing to really do here but the kids were still very excited to see where one of their favorite YouTubers make a lot of their videos. We did leave notes in the door. From there we about 40 minutes to six flags. In the winter they are only open on the weekends and they are only open from 12-5. This does mean that the ticket prices are the lowest of the season though. We ate lunch before going into the park and dinner after the park and paid $34.99 for our tickets. I thought that was a pretty good deal. There were almost no lines. The kids were able to just stay on the ride and re-ride it at several rides. It was a great day of fun. They had tame rides for the 7 year old and I and my pre teens loved their bigger rides. After our fun day at park we drove about 40 minutes south and stayed in Waxachie, TX.
Stop 1
https://vymaps.com/US/Dude-Perfect-Headquarters-1577461415851166/
Dude perfect headquarters
Stop 2
https://www.sixflags.com/overtexas
The original Six Flags
Luge Run
3D ride
Westin and I enjoying the chill rides while the big kids hit up the big stuff
Day 5- We drove 2 1/2 hours from Waxapachie to Austin and timed it so we could have lunch there. Our family LOVES a good BBQ and we were excited to try authentic Texas BBQ. We ended up stopping at Terry Black's BBQ. It was good but VERY expensive. There were other restaurants we looked at but many of them were not open on Monday. From Austin we arrived in San Antonio. We had timed tickets to see the Alamo. Tickets to the Alamo are free you just have to reserve them in advance. We did the 3:00 free ranger talk which was good. After the Alamo we went to our BlueGreen hotel. We bought a package deal earlier in the year. This was a great place to stay. The kids were excited to swim in the heated outdoor pool. We stayed at the pool until it got dark.
Stop 1
https://www.terryblacksbbq.com/
BBQ in Austin
Stop 2
https://www.thealamo.org/
The Alamo
Koi fish at the Alamo
Stop 3
https://www.bluegreenvacations.com/resorts/texas/eilan-hotel-spa#gref
Our hotel in San Antonio
We stayed until dark at the pool
Enjoying the heated pool
Day 6- We had been traveling for almost a week. We decided to have a laid back chill day. We started the morning with a trip to Starbuck because it was right next door to our FAVORITE donut shop. Duck Donuts is so good. Their donuts are custom made and always hot. They are so good. After breakfast we set up shop outside. We laid pool side for hours. We ended up ordering pizzas for lunch and just enjoyed a relaxing day at our nice hotel. It was good to just rest for a day.
https://www.duckdonuts.com/
Breakfast out
Our favorite donut shop
soaking up the sunshine
Pizza pool side is a treat
Day 7 We checked out of our hotel at 10:00 and then headed to see the Spanish missions near San Antonio. These missions are owned by the National Parks system. We started with the aqueduct. There is still water running in, it which is pretty cool. We then went to the Mission San Jose it is the largest of the 3 missions and is the only one that has a visitor center. They have bike vending machines out side of them so you can easily ride your bike between the missions. You can not ride your bike inside the mission though.
After we visited the missions we went to the River Walk. It is usually the heart of the city but fun fact 1 week each year they drain the canal. We happened to be there on that week. It was still fun to go downtown and see it. We enjoyed a lunch at a Tex Mex restaurant on the empty canal. After lunch we drove about 3 hours and stayed outside of Houston.
https://www.nps.gov/saan/index.htm
https://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/
San Antonio River Walk
Aquaduct
San Jose Mission
Riding a rental bike around the mission
San Antonio Mission
Day 8 The Space Center Houston is about 30 minutes south of Houston. There is a museum there and a tour where you can see where NASA scientists and astronauts still work. This is an ASTC freebee. They have several shows throughout the day that are worth seeing. They also have a space shuttle that you can go inside. There are also lots of hands on activity at the museum including the opportunity to touch a piece of the moon. After a full fun day at the museum we drove to the beach. We headed to Galveston.
https://spacecenter.org/
Show on combustion
hands on activities
Tour of working NASA buildings
Experiencing working like an astronaut
Galveston
Day 9 We stayed at the Galveston Seaside Resort. It was owned by the Holiday Inn group. I opened a Holiday inn credit card and use the points to stay for free. We had a 2 bedroom condo with a full kitchen and living room with laundry. Their resort was two building. One was on beach and the other was across the street. They had 99 cent ice cream free movies we could borrow, free crafts, free put put, and an awesome pool. While we were there we played at the beach and enjoyed the free amenities. There was a Dollar General a few miles away where I bought a few beach toys for the kids.
Playing at the beach
free crafts at the activity center
99 cent ice cream at the activity center
Playing free put put
Ping pong at the activity center
Playing games at our condo
Day 10- We started off the morning at the beach where we saw dolphins. Then after lunch we had access to the infinity pool at the part of the resort we were not staying at. We played until dinner time. There are lots of activities in Galveston, but my crew just wanted to play at the beach and swim in the pool. It was a very relaxing time at the resort.
https://holidayinnclub.com/explore-resorts/galveston-seaside-resort
Playing at the ocean
drinks in the pool
picnic lunch on the pool deck
heated infinity pool over looking the ocean
Day 11- We checked out of our condo and headed home. We drove the hour back into Houston and stopped at their aquarium. I found a Groupon for our tickets. The aquarium does have some rides that the kids enjoyed and it was fun because its is located right downtown. They also have a shark tunnel that was really cool. After the aquarium we drove about 4 1/2 hours to Texarkana for the night.
https://www.aquariumrestaurants.com/downtownaquariumdenver/
Downtown Aquarium
Outside rides at the aquarium
Shark train through the shark tunnel
Day 12 -
We drove 4 hours and arrived at the Lorraine Motel and National civil rights museum. This museum is intense. The outside is the motel where King was shot and they attached a civil rights museum to it. You work your way through the museum and end up on the inside of Kings room that day. It is a powerful experience. Your ticket also gets you into the boarding house across the street where the shooter stayed.
After the museum we went to the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. Even if you are not a big outdoorsman this place is worth a visit. They have the tallest free standing elevator in the US. And the look out on top is awesome. It's a great view of the city and the Mississippi river. We went back to our hotel and ordered Pizza. After dinner we went and saw Graceland. You can see it from the street. If you're into Elvis their is a huge museum and tours you can take of his house. We were on a time crunch and just seeing the house was good enough for us.
View from the top of the Memphis Pyramid
Memphis Pyramid
Tallest free standing elevator in the US
The Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.
The Balcony where King was shot
Exhibit on the Montgomery Bus boycott
The room where king stayed before he was shot.
Civil Rights museum
Graceland
Day 13- We had planned to stay another day in Memphis but a storm was coming in so we decided to drive straight home. This was our longest day of driving and it took us about 9 1/2 to get home. This was a great trip and I would do it again. We had a good combination of educational activities and fun stops. We also had some down days which are needed on a long trip. I do wish we could have stayed one more day in Memphis to see their zoo and eat Memphis BBQ but I was glad to have not driven in the storm that hit the northern part of our path hard.
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