Last month, we packed our bags and headed to Tablerock Lake for the weekend to enjoy Bass Pro’s Outdoor Days. It was a 2 day event, that offered free camping at the beautiful state park. Unfortunately, Miss Manners had a dental emergency on Friday afternoon so we spent the day in the dentist’s office, and didn’t get a chance to pack our camping gear. Instead we stayed in our timeshare, which was thankfully located only about 10 minutes away. We are definitely looking forward to camping out next year, though.
There was so much to do and see that I will be doing a blog post for each day. Be forewarned that you are about to see way too many photos. 😀
There were tons of vendors, both big and small, set up all around the Tablerock Lake campgrounds. They had buses to get you from one area to the next.
There was tons of hands on learning. Each “station” had tons of information and resources that were full of exciting information. I could sit here all day, telling you the details of each station and the fun little facts we learned, but instead, I’ll let the photos do the talking.
Replicas and skeletons:
Live Animals:
Crossbows (at moving “duck” targets), slingshots, Disc Golf, lassoing, bow and arrows:
Panning for treasures (Miss Manners found a shark tooth!):
Digging for (and identifying) fossils:
Bounce Houses:
Segway Fun:
The next “station” had even more fun!
Pony rides and a petting zoo:
An extreme skate and bike ramp:
Firing Range, with tons of great help:
And plenty of smiles:
The next stop was a dreamer’s paradise.
There was tons of amazing camping gear, all completely out of our price range. 😉
Well, I guess we could afford a tent…
Luckily, there was some fun here, too.
And a gorgeous view of Tablerock Dam.
The next stop was the hatchery, but we decided to skip it, since we could visit it anytime.
Instead, we jumped ahead to the next station, which our absolute favorite of the day.
Moonshine Beach was covered with sponsors, vendors and activities. We quickly bypassed most of them, stopping at only the booths the kids begged to see. We were quickly running out of daylight and we wanted to hit as many interesting activities as we could.
Miss Manners and Bear insisted on stopping at the metal detector station. They had so much fun, digging for treasures in the sand. Each participant got to keep 3 treasures. Miss Manners found a coin, a single earring and an arrowhead charm. She was thrilled! It doesn’t take much to impress her. 😉
We ventured out onto the peninsula, surrounded by kayakers, to the Indian demonstration.
The Indian demonstrations were amazing. They were so much better than what we’ve experienced at our local Pow-Wows. They went into details about their costumes, dances and customs. The performers were from all over the US.
We enjoyed the entertainment for over an hour and could’ve stayed much longer. As the dancers came to a close, we headed toward the massive teepee. It was simply stunning, covered in authentic tools, decorations and clothing. We spent another half an hour just visitng with the man inside the teepee. I LOVE stumbling upon a person who wants to share their knowledge with my kids. He was a goldmine of information and was so patient and kind to us.
He shared every little detail of each item in teepee, as well as facts about building a good, strong teepee. It was an awesome time!
When we left the teepee, we decided we couldn’t leave without trying Indian Fry Bread. Boy, were we glad we did! It was delicious. The ladies told us that it was created because they were only given a few basic ingredients from the government rations, so they created this versatile bread.
Our day ended with a fun demonstration of a blow dart gun. This kind man even allowed the kiddos to give it a shot.
The first day of Bass Pro’s Outdoor Days was long (7 hours!) and busy, but so much fun!
Stay tuned for even more fun from our weekend.
