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Travel Log 5: Kansas Over Halloween
A slow two weeks in Kansas
Well, our 2 weeks in Kansas came and went. This life on the road isn’t always exciting and fun. Sometimes things are just difficult and challenging.
Table of contents
- Staying in Kansas
- Baldwin City
- Breakout
- Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead
- Topeka Zoo
- Crown Center
- Legoland Discovery Center
- KU National History Museum
- Exploration Place
- Continuing On From Here
Staying in Kansas
When the house doesn’t exactly match the description on Airbnb it can be frustrating. This house had a lot of potential but it just wasn’t as nice as it appeared on Airbnb so that can be something you have to adjust to.
The kids got sick and by the time everyone went through it that took a week of our short two-week stay in Kansas. Sometimes when you are sick and tired you just want your familiar, your own doctor, and your own home but we don’t have a home so it was the first time since the day we left that I felt a twinge of sadness that we no longer have anywhere to go that is ours.
The kids still bicker and fight even in other states. 😂 But regardless of all of that we are still so grateful for this life that we get to live and we were still able to have some fun while in Kansas!
Baldwin City
We stayed in Baldwin City, Kansas, home of Baker University. It was a quaint college town. We were just a block or two away from a coffee shop so Brian and I enjoyed that.
We also were really close to a park which we utilized a lot to get some sunshine and fresh air. We were much closer to things than we were in the last house in Golden, Missouri so that was definitely a plus.
Breakout
The kids have really enjoyed escape rooms so one of the first things we did when we arrived was find a local escape room. There was one in downtown Lawrence which was a neat little town. We successfully escaped this one with 16 minutes and 50 seconds left.
We are getting pretty good at these. 😁 We plan to try at least one in each city!
Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead
One night we went to Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead for their Night of the Living Farm. We enjoyed a night of festive activities.
They had a non-scary hay ride and a scary hay ride but I couldn’t convince any of the kids to try the scary one. They had some science experiments where they made smoke bubbles and put them on the kid’s heads or hands. The kids really enjoyed those.
They had some things like a superhero obstacle course, a maze, a pumpkin walk, and a playground. My girls’ favorite part was getting to meet Elsa and Anna. Even Gideon danced with Anna. It was a fun night and I definitely think we would have enjoyed the farm during their regular season as well.
Topeka Zoo
We took a day to head up to Topeka to their zoo. We were able to use our AZA membership to get in for free. They were having their “Boo Event” that day which was a nice bonus.
The kids were able to trick-or-treat around the zoo while also getting to see all the animals. It was a neat opportunity since we didn’t do traditional trick-or-treating this year.
My favorite part of the zoo was the baby orangutan. It was so cute!
We had planned to then head to the Oz Museum but that’s when one of the kiddos started to not feel great so we went back home instead.
Crown Center
We had a neat opportunity to go to a little bakery that had a cake-decorating workshop.
It was Halloween-themed. When we arrived each kid got to pick out something to wear like fairy wings, a mask, a cape, or a witch hat. The owner had cookies for them to practice on before decorating their cakes.
They of course got to eat their cookie after they finished. When they were ready they were able to decorate 4-inch cakes that she had made. She had different colored icing, candy corn, and sprinkles.
They all enjoyed that especially Emalyn. She also gave them some Halloween punch. When they were all finished she had a dance party. It was something unique that we really enjoyed.
Legoland Discovery Center
After the cake decorating, we went to Legoland Discovery Center across the road.
If you’ve never been to a Legoland Discovery Center, they are like mini Lego theme parks. They’ve got a 4D movie theater, some amusement park rides, a laser maze, a playground, a cafe, a Lego Wizard of Oz scene, and multiple Lego building areas. Basically, all your kids need to have a brick-tastic day!
Since it was almost Halloween the kids got to build Lego pumpkins and watch a monster show in the 4D theater.
They also had a unique pizza-building station that the kids loved. They picked up a Lego pizza, added some Lego brick toppings, and put it in the oven to “cook”. We’ve been to a couple Legoland Discovery Centers and a few Legoland parks be we haven’t seen the pizza oven before, so cute!
KU National History Museum
The last thing we had the opportunity to explore was the KU National History Museum. It’s located in the University of Kansas in Lawrence. So that made the parking interesting as we had a 10-minute walk to get from the parking lot to the museum itself.
The museum is a decent-sized place spanning 3 floors. They had a mix of taxidermy animals and live ones. They also had other exhibits like glow-in-the-dark rocks, fossils, bugs, and fungus grown from swabs of places in the museum. Gross!
Exploration Place
As we left Baldwin City and headed for Oklahoma, we passed through Wichita and stopped at the Exploration Place (free with our ASTC Membership!).
It is a fun science center with unique exhibits. There is an arcade area with health-themed machines, like a germ whack-a-mole. After that, we went into a medieval castle/village area that the kids could explore and play in. There is also an old toy area that feature large versions of toys and plenty of regular-sized toys that the kids played with.
There is also a miniature railroad representing different parts of Kansas, a fossil area, a building area, and pieces of a plane for the kids to explore.
The kids had a good time and it was a nice stop on our way to Oklahoma!
Continuing On From Here
Kansas was a rough two weeks but we are excited to be moving on to Oklahoma and continue this adventure.
