Exploration Place

Wednesday was another relaxing day around the house. Randy woke up early to go golfing at nearby Cottonwood Hills golf course. He was the only one on the course, except for the grounds crew riding their lawnmowers and the bugs, of course. The rest of the day was spent watching a movie, helping my mom wash her dogs, and going on a bike ride as a family (thanks to some of my parents' friends that loaned us their bikes while we're here).

On Thursday we returned to Wichita to visit the Exploration Place. We came here 2 years ago on our last visit to Kansas and the kids had such a great time that we wanted to return! They have a huge castle area where the kids love dressing up, climbing in and through, cooking in the kitchen and more! There is also a permanent "Flight" exhibit, being that Wichita is known as the "Air Capital of the World" where we enjoyed riding on multiple simulators and building different types of paper airplanes and helicopters for test flights. Another exhibit was dedicated to all things Kansas. There was a room called "Kansas in Miniature" display, with tiny, swinging swings, a moving train, and tiny replicas of lots of Kansas landmarks. There was also a tornado simulator (Randy went in with the kids to experience a Level 1 tornado...winds at appx. 79 mph), a collection of Kansas bugs, huge blocks of salt (mined in Hutchinson), and lots more. It was a very fun day! After getting home we cooked up some buffalo burgers for dinner (from the Smoky Hill Bison Co. we visited last week)...yum!

I think we've visited all the places we hoped to see on this visit...and more! The rest of our time we don't have any plans but to relax together and stay close to home before heading to Colorado next week.