on the road: Pauls Valley

We took a couple of weeks off from our Friday field trips, but finally hit the road again today. The kids and I headed to Pauls Valley, a small town about 45 minutes south of us. One set of my grandparents lived here so I wanted to show my kids their house, plus visit some local attractions that sounded fun. They also still have a lot of the original brick streets.

We started at the Toy and Action Figure Museum.

a picture to look at in the future when I feel like my kids' rooms are getting out of control

 

exhibit of Oklahoma cartoonists

After touring through, I took the kids on a short drive up the hill to see where Papa and Grandma used to live. I wanted to peek in the backyard and see if it was really as big as I remembered but just stayed in the car. We then headed to Wacker Park. They had a lot of rain in town yesterday so there was a lot of mud and large puddles everywhere--and mosquitoes. This little slide was at the park when I was a kid. Always burning hot too.

a bit of the Rotary Rose garden, which has suffered some from all the rain (roses are planted along the fence)

We ate our picnic lunch in the pavilion to avoid the mud. It was still early for the last stop on the trip so I thought a bit and remembered the depot.

this was an OLD playpen, with a cover on top to keep the bugs off of the kids

always find a quilt

And of course my kids found some critters under the train.

We paid actual money to go to the Toy and Action Figure Museum and were there MAYBE thirty minutes. The museum inside the depot was free and my kids wandered around in there for an hour, looking at all the exhibits, photographs, and old timey stuff. The historian working there was great with the kids and made it all so interesting, despite the fact that none of us were from Pauls Valley.

It was time to head back to Wacker Park to the Water Park. This was not here when I was a kid or we would have spent even more time at the park. My daughter loved it. My son did not get in. He was expecting a bigger park I think, and much of the attractions there were geared toward younger kids except for the giant slides. I also think he was a bit worn out from a morning workout.

We ended the field trip with a trip to the Fields Pie factory. They cannot give tours anymore but they do have a thrift shop where you can pick up a pie that had a broken crust or whatever. I don't mind broken crust! I remember my grandpa picking these up all the time too. It smelled wonderful outside that factory!

 

If you live in the area and haven't been in a while, try a day trip to Pauls Valley. And even better, if you aren't as worn out as I was (and bring some cash), stop by Stratford on the way home for some fresh peaches. Their Peach Festival is next weekend!