Spring Break Adventure - Oaklawn Racing

On Thursday, we drove over to Oaklawn Racing to watch the horses run. This was my first trip to the races and it was a lot of fun!

Our first stop was the concession stand so that we could grab some lunch. Then we headed out to the grandstands outside to wait for the races. It was such a pretty day to be out in the sunshine.

After we finished our lunch, we started looking through the program to see which horses we thought would win the race then went into the holding area to look at the horses as they were lining up. We all picked a horse and wrote down our answers in the program to see if any of us were right. 

When it got close to race time, we went down to the railing by the finish line so that we could see the end of the race. I don't remember if anyone picked the winner, but I know I didn't!

The next couple of races, we picked our horses then went inside to the machines and placed our bets. By the time we left, Grandmother and Granddaddy were both in the hole a few dollars, but I was ahead by one dollar and 60 cents. That's not even enough to cover the parking much less lunch! But we had a good time at the races. 

We came, we saw, we conquered. 

One the way back to the car, we had to stop by the bronze statue out front to snap a quick picture. Noah was pretty tired by this point, but he said he had a good time. 

After we left Oaklawn, we headed to Garvan Woodland Gardens. I took a couple hundred pictures while we were there so you will have to check back to see the details of that stop on our adventure. (Hint - the tulips were blooming and putting on a show!)

Travel Guide

Would you visit here again? 

Yes! Oaklawn was a unique stop. I thought there were plenty of food options, including some sit-down restaurants. The day that we were there was not super crowded and there were plenty of places to sit both inside and out.

Favorite thing about the trip?

Noah: The cheeseburger.

Emily: (I forgot her answer so I will have to ask again!)

Jennifer: The excitement of the races.  

Best photo op?

The bronze statue out front was a good place to take pictures. A picture along the railing outside would be pretty too.

Travel Tips?

I didn't feel like there was a whole lot for kids to do at Oaklawn. We only stayed for a few races. I don't know if the races could have kept their attention for much longer. Like I mentioned, Noah was already fading fast as it was. Overall, I think it was a fun adventure and I'm glad we got to experience a day at the races.

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Spring Break Adventure - Hot Springs

Our Spring Break Adventure continued Thursday with a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We did so many fun things that it's going to take several blog posts to tell you all the fun things we did on our trip.

Our first stop of the day was at Oaklawn where we ate lunch and watched the horses race. If you follow me on Instagram, I posted the first "Where are we?" from the outside viewing area at Oaklawn. If you don't follow us on Instagram, follow us here!

I will be posting more about our trip to Oaklawn later this week so be sure to check back for another post.

Next, we headed off to Garvan Woodland Gardens where the tulips were in full-bloom. This is where we posted the other "Where are we?" pictures on Instagram. They had rows and rows of tulips in every shape and color and size. It was amazing to see them all together. Doesn't the picture above look like a postcard?

We also hung out in a cave and Noah played in a waterfall. I tried to get Emily to take a selfie with me but I failed. That happens all the time.

We posted another Instagram from behind the waterfall. That was a pretty cool one.

I have approximately three hundred more pictures from Garvan Gardens that I still need to edit and upload so please come back and check later this week to see the rest of the details of our visit.

After Garvan Gardens, we were tired and hungry so we headed to Fisherman's Wharf to have supper on the water. We got a table outside and hung out while we waited for our food.

Since we were at a seafood restaurant, I got the catfish dinner with roasted red potatoes and black-eyed peas. The huge catfish filets were delicious and the potatoes were even better than that. 

Granddaddy got a steak and he said it was pretty good.  

The kids got their second cheeseburgers of the day and they both enjoyed them. Noah could eat a cheeseburger every day of his life and be pretty happy about that. 

We've had a lot of fun spending time with Grandmother and Granddaddy this week.

After supper, we headed to Kilwin's in downtown Hot Springs for a treat after a long and fun day. Emily and Noah got the Superman ice cream based solely on color. I got the butter pecan since I ordered the wrong flavor at the Walmart Museum the other day. My ice cream cone was really good. It had huge pecans in it. 

We sat on a bench beside the street to eat our ice cream. Emily was taking a picture for Instagram in the picture above. 

Next, we headed across the street to the hot springs for which the city of Hot Springs is known. The water coming up out of the ground is surprisingly hot! I know I shouldn't be surprised at that, but I was. It's supposed to have healing properties so I'm assuming I'll be as good as new by the time I wake up in the morning. I should have put my hurt foot in it! Gah! Why didn't I think of that?

Despite the lack of forethought about the foot, we had a great time in Hot Springs. I would like to go back and check out more of Hot Springs and the Lake Catherine area. It's really a beautiful area and it seems like there are a lot of things to see and do.

When can we go back?

Have you ever visited the natural hot springs in Hot Springs, Arkansas? 

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Chicken Pie

When we were at Heather and Stephen's house last weekend, Heather let us cook in her beautiful new kitchen. We made chicken & dumplings, chicken pie, and peach cobbler. I'm going to share all these recipes with you but today I wanted to start with the recipe for chicken pie.

This recipe is very versatile. You can make the same basic recipe into chicken and dumplings or chicken pie just by adding a crust or you can add any cooked vegetables that you like.

Whether you're making chicken pie or chicken and dumplings, the first step is to boil the chicken. I like to use 3 or 4 large chicken breasts but you can also use a whole chicken. If using breasts, you will want ones with bone and skin so that you can make a nice broth. 

After the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and place it on a plate or pan to cool. 

If you have a food processor, you can use it to mix up the dough. Just put the flour, salt, and Crisco shortening in the food processor and slowly add about 1 cup of broth until the dough forms a ball. If you don't have a food processor, you can use a pastry blender or two sharp knives to make your dough.

Now we roll out the dough! I like to put wax paper on my surface before I roll out my dough. Use a wet washcloth to dampen your surface before you put down the wax paper so that it will not come up while you're working with your dough. Be sure to use plenty of flour underneath your dough so that it will not stick to the wax paper. 

You want to roll out the dough very think. Back in the day, they used to say to roll it out so thin that you could read the newspaper through it. We rolled it out so thin that you could see the granite pattern through it. I think that's close enough.

You can either use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut the dough into thin strips. I usually make my strips about 1 inch X 2 inches. They don't have to be perfect. 

Bring your broth to a full rolling boil then drop your noodles into the pot. You will want to drop the noodles where the broth is boiling the hardest. This is so that the noodles don't stick together. You can very gently stir the noodles around a few times while you're adding them. Cut your chicken into bite-sized pieces. You can use a pair of kitchen shears to do this or you can shred the chicken by hand. 

While the dumplings are cooking, you can get your pie crusts ready. I used a refrigerated pie crust but you can certainly use your favorite pie crust recipe. You will need two crusts for this recipe. Spray the bottom and sides of your baking dish well with cooking spray, then use one crust to line the bottom of your baking dish. Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes. 

Fill your dish with cooked noodles, cooked chicken, and plenty of sauce, then layer the other pie crust on top. Be sure to pierce the top pie crust with a fork a few times to let the steam out. 

The chicken pie will need to cook for about 20 minutes until it reaches a golden brown color. This recipe makes enough for two chicken pies but you can leave off the pie crusts and have a big batch of chicken and dumplings. 

You can serve this delicious chicken pie with cornbread or a side salad for a full meal. 

Yield: 2 piesAuthor: Jennifer SmithPin it

Chicken Pie

Homemade chicken pie is the ultimate comfort food. Made with simple ingredients, this recipe is one that the whole family will enjoy.

prep time: 1 hourcook time: 1 hour and 20 MINStotal time: 2 hours and 20 mins

ingredients:

• 1 large fryer or 3-4 large chicken breasts
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup Crisco shortening
• about 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 refrigerated pie crusts

instructions

1. Boil chicken in salted water and debone. Make sure you have plenty of broth. 
2. Add flour, salt, and Crisco to food processor then slowly add broth until the dough forms a ball. You should use approximately 1 cup of broth. 
3. Roll out very thin on floured surface (so thin you can read a newspaper through it). Cut into strips approximately 1" X 2".  (I use a pizza cutter.)
4. Drop into boiling broth then add chicken.  Cook on low heat 12-15 minutes until sauce thickens.
5. Unroll 1 pie crust and place into the bottom of a greased round baking dish. Fill with chicken, dumplings, and sauce. Top with remaining pie crust. 
6. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

notes

Serve with cornbread and a green salad.

http://www.gracelikerainblog.com/2018/03/chicken-pie.html

Be sure to save this recipe so that you can find it later! You will not want to miss out on this one.

Shop this recipe

• Rolling pin
• Pastry blender
• Food processor
• Refrigerated pie crust

Have you ever eaten homemade chicken pie?

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Spring Break Adventure - Woods Place

On our way to the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources, we stopped for lunch at Woods Place in Camden, Arkansas. Woods Place is a local restaurant that is known for making everything homemade and fresh.

The inside of their restaurant was nice. The decor around our table seemed to be Grapette Soda-themed, but I don't know about the rest of the restaurant. We got there around 11:15 am so they were not busy but there was definitely a steady stream of people through the door.

As soon as we sat down, they brought out a basket of hushpuppies and bread. This photo is after we'd all had a piece of bread. The bread wasn't as delicious as my mom's monkey bread, but it wasn't half-bad if you put enough butter on it.

I ordered a half-order of the catfish filets because Woods Place is known for their catfish. I wasn't disappointed. I got fries and coleslaw as my sides. I'm not much of a french fry person, but I really liked the coleslaw. 

Granddaddy got one of the daily specials - the chicken fried steak with okra and broccoli & cheese. His plate looked really good. The kids both got cheeseburgers and Grandmother got fried chicken livers. The cheeseburgers looked big and juicy. 

Travel Guide

Would you visit here again? 

Sure, it wasn't bad. The food was good, the portions were right, and the service was good.

Travel Tips?

Menu, hours and directions can be found on their website.

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Spring Break Adventure - Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources

Our Spring Break Adventure continued on Tuesday when we headed to Smackover to visit the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources. We got there right after lunch because we wanted to do light painting, which started at 1 pm. The lady asked if we'd called in advance to register for the light painting because the class was full, but we hadn't. We didn't know we needed to, so we set off looking around the museum.

In the lobby, they had some gasoline pumps on display as well as some interactive exhibits about health, portion sizes, fitness, balance, and flexibility. 

Granddaddy and Emily tested out the balance board. We all got a turn but Emily and Noah were the best at it. 

I'm pretty sure everyone cheated on the flexibility test, but Emily scored really well on it. 

This giant cross-section of a tree trunk was in the lobby by the information desk. It was HUGE!

Another room had a lot of interactive exhibits about the human body. They had a light table with a bunch of x-rays of different body parts that you could mix and match to make a skeleton. There was also an ultrasound similar that would show you either one baby or twins!

The drum on the wall behind Noah was for listening to your heartbeat. You put your hands on the sensors and the drum would beat along with your heart. We all had very irregular heartbeats but some other kid walked up and put his hands on the sensors and the drum started beating in perfect rhythm. Maybe it was just us?

One of the things that Emily and Grandmother liked in this room was the fart noise machine. I didn't get to try it out but you sit on these little stools and it makes farting noises. There was a whole lot of laughing going on while they were playing with the fart machine. 

When we got finished in the body room, it was almost 1 pm so I went back to the desk to ask if they'd had anyone who didn't show up for the light painting so that we could participate. The lady said, "Sure, we can always make room! Just follow the signs." Wow, why didn't she say that when I asked 10 minutes ago when we first walked in? 

We went into the activity center but the room with the light painting was pretty full so they had maybe 15 people go out into the entryway to do other activities while the first group was doing the light painting. We got to put together some circuits. 

We got ours working where the switch would operate both the light bulb and the motor. It was pretty cool and I thought we had great teamwork. Noah's favorite part was obviously pushing the button on the switch. 

After we got finished with the circuits, we went to the light painting. It was very cool. They took some pictures of us making patterns with colored flashlights and strands of Christmas lights in a dark room. They were supposed to email us the photos they took, but I haven't received them yet. If they ever send them, I'll be sure to share. 

After the light painting, we went back to check out more of the museum. They have an indoor replica of the town of Smackover during the oil boom in the 1920's. It has some vintage vehicles, kerosene tankers, and different buildings and offices along the streets. 

This old car was parked in front of the cafe on the street. Noah was actually pointing to the theater that was showing a black and white film. Some of the offices would have voices talking when you walked in and that freaked Noah out completely. He was ready to get the heck out of there. He was also wary of going into the jail cell for some reason. 

One area had these oil men hard at work.

We went up the stairs and they had this bright red kerosene tanker on display. They also had a kerosene dispenser that was pretty neat. 

I thought it was neat to see different items they had from that time period. A lot of it was related to the oil boom but they had some other things too, like this guitar.

We were getting ready to leave and Noah found this elevator that shows you how oil is made under the earth. We rode up then had to walk all the way back through the town to get back out.

As we were leaving, two kids were playing in front of this skeleton screen. Whenever they moved, the skeleton on the screen moved too. After they left, Grandmother and Granddaddy got a turn.
Check out these videos!

How fun!

Travel Guide

Would you visit here again? 

Yes! It was a fun stop on our Spring Break Adventure. I thought it was great that the museum had so many interactive exhibits for everyone to enjoy.

Favorite thing about the trip?

Noah: Everything!

Emily: The balancing station in the lobby. 

Jennifer: Getting to play with the interactive exhibits. 

Best photo op?

The gas pumps that are on display in the lobby make a great prop for a photo. Also, there is a wall of old signs that is pretty cool. And the vehicles in the old town area would be a neat place for a picture.

Travel Tips?

If you're wanting to participate in any of the special events, be sure to call ahead to reserve a spot. The museum is pretty much halfway between Camden and El Dorado and there's not much else around it so plan accordingly. There is also a walking path and a picnic area outside if you want to bring your lunch. 

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Spring Break Adventure - Brown's Country Restaurant

After we visited the Arkansas State Capitol, we headed off to lunch at Brown's Country Restaurant in Benton. Brown's was a staple of my childhood years. We would often stop here when we were on the road to or from livestock shows. It's easy to get on and off the interstate and they have plenty of parking for trucks and trailers.

We stopped by for lunch on a Monday afternoon so, thankfully, it was not as busy as I remembered it.

Gah! This is the goofiest picture, but I was really fired up to visit this place and see if it was just like I remembered from my childhood. I have so many wonderful memories of stopping at this place because we would get to eat any kind of food we want and we'd always run into our friends while we were here. And all-you-can-eat desserts! And a soft-serve ice cream dispenser! And you can pick your own flavors of Jelly Belly's! And the stairway to heaven! (More on this in a minute.) My heart is beating fast just thinking about all of it again. 

So, this is my second plate of food. My first plate had fried chicken, a bunch of vegetables, and a roll. Did I mention this place has a 100-foot buffet? The highway billboard said they had fried green tomatoes so I challenged the kids to try something new on the buffet. Emily tried the fried green tomatoes but she said they were too sour. 

Since we're on an adventure, I let the kids choose their own desserts. This handsome fellow chose soft-serve ice cream with hot fudge sauce, crushed Oreos, and loads of fresh whipped cream.

Emily's ice cream was on top of a bed of ... (sugar-free ... yeah, that makes a huge difference right now) lemon jello? And it had whipped cream and Butterfinger on top.

My dessert was a medley of peach fried pie with ice cream, a cheesecake square, and a slice of coconut cream pie. It's not lost on me that the ice cream, cheesecake, and coconut cream filling are all basically the same color. I liked the coconut cream pie the best.

No, we didn't eat again for the rest of the day after this meal. 

I had not remembered this, but Brown's had some very pretty stained glass on display in the restaurant area that you can purchase. We were sitting by this pretty hummingbird stained glass. 

After we finished our lunch, we went to explore the gift shop. Their candy displays were amazing - look at all the candy sticks! Emily got three different flavors of these to take home. 

Look at the lollipop tree! I'm sure my eyes were as big around as saucers as I was walking through the gift shop.

There were so many colorful options that it was really hard to pick something to take with you.

[cue the angels singing] And this is the stairway to heaven, aka the upper floor of the gift shop. I remember that it had hand puppets and plastic snakes and other toys for the kids upstairs, but on this trip, sadly it did not. There were a few toys up there but mostly trucks and things. 

You can see the kind of plastic snakes that I'm talking about here. Have you ever seen snakes like this where you hold the tail and they wriggle back and forth? I clearly remember Brown's having these plastic snakes when I was a kid. 

We didn't find the Jelly Belly dispensers where you can mix your own custom bag of jelly bean flavors either. I guess they discontinued that sometime in the 20+ years since I last visited Brown's. 

I still had a great time at Brown's Country Restaurant and I loved the fact that my kids got to experience something from my childhood. I'd definitely make this stop again if I'm ever in the area.

What are your top buffet choices? I love all the vegetable options all in one place. 

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