Abilene Top 10...Fun and mostly Free

Just added pictures see below...

I'm in Abilene, TX this week. "The Friendly Frontier". Wes is taking a week long class at Abilene Christian for his masters degree and Taylor and I are hanging out. Taylor and I have now been here 3 times. We have become quite the tourists out here. I think we've done it all now and some things all 3 times. You know Abilene is in the desert...dry, dusty, and seemingly boring. But I've found that if you look there are many things to do especially with a toddler believe it or not. Here's my top 10 list in no particular order...

1. If you have a Montgomery Zoo pass it gets you into the Abilene Zoo free. Abilene's Zoo isn't as nice as Montgomery's in some areas, but they are working on it. There's an indoor rainforest exhibit and you can feed the giraffes!

2. The NCCL (National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature) A neat gallery that displays artwork from children's books. We just missed an exhibit featuring works from Golden Book classics. Taylor is a little young to appreciate most of this, but there is a fun reading corner and book store for quiet time.

3. The Grace Museum. It's an art gallery, history museum and kids hands on museum. They just remodeled the kids museum so we're going to check that out Thursday night when it's Free to go in.

4. See the prarie dogs at Red Bud Park. There's a huge field full of prarie dogs and their little holes. You can feed them and watch them pop up and down, then go over to the playground to slide and swing.

5. Sculpture tour. I started noticing there are a lot of art sculptures around town last summer during our visit. This trip I found a brochure on where you can find the coolest ones. Taylor has already climbed on board a ship with some other kids and kissed a pig.

6. Frontier Texas! A really cool museum full of hands on experience things to teach about the early days of TX. Taylor had fun learning about cowboys until the last video that is really 3D, experience oriented. That Indian raid on the cabin was a little too close for Taylor's liking and we left that video early. If you go to the visitors center downtown first you can get a coupon book or look at their website for coupons to some attractions. We got this one $2 off, plus Taylor was under 3 and free. So a fun hour for a total $6.

7. Buffalo Gap. A small town south of Abilene with an historic village like Old Alabama Town. Fun place for a picnic and some unique gifts. Also a retreat/recovery place for people with eating disorders. Rumor has it Wynona and Ashley Judd have been there. :)

8. Mr. Gatti's Pizza and games. This place is Chuck E. Cheese on steroids! A buffet like CiCi's, but a huge arcade, fun rides area in the back.

9. Ice Cream at Mary's Paleteria. The same people who own a Mexican restaurant across the street own this place. There are some unique flavors. You can mix up different flavored syrups for your own juice drink or slushie. Or have a frozen banana dipped in chocolate. You can get free samples of anything too.

10. Julio's chips and salsa. Wes' favorite. We were introduced to these by Jon and Lisa 2 years ago. Wes loves them and we can't get them in AL. So we usually eat our weight in them while we're here then take a month's supply back home. Wes is talking about buying enough to freeze some this time.