Welcome to day 29 of 31 Days of Fall Activities With Your Kids.  Though we visited the Pioneer  Woman’s Mercantile and Lodge in Spring, this would also be a great Fall activity with your child.  This activity involved three generations.  My mother, myself, and my daughter.  I think planning special trips with our parents and children is essential for our children (and grandma!). 

This teaches our children to involve family members in our activities that don’t live in the home.  It also teaches my daughter how much I love my mom and still enjoy spending time with her, even after I have grown up.  I only hope that it can inspire her to be an adult who spends time with me as we grow older.

The Girl’s Trip to the Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile all began when I found a Groupon for the Price Hotel in Bartlesville.  I knew it was close to Pawhuska, home of the Pioneer Woman, famous for her Food Network show.  But originally known to me from her blog.  Her blog is one of the things that inspired me to start my own blog.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally visit the Mercantile, Deli, and Bakery, and also take my Mom there for Mother’s Day.  You can read all about how I planned our trip on my post, How to Plan a Fabulous Mother’s Day Getaway.

Road Trip

Pawhuska is about a three and a half hour drive from our house.  We left at 8:00 am, making a few stops along the way.  My youngest daughter was already out of school, so she went with us.  We all visited for part of the trip, but we also took her tablet and she played games on it and watched Netflix.

Waiting in Line

We made it to Pawhuska at about 11:40.  Pawhuska is a very small town and the Main street is on the highway as you drive through town, so you won’t miss The Mercantile.  There is a little parking lot across the street on the south side of the highway.  We pulled in and found a parking spot right away.  That gave me hope there was not a long line.  But I was wrong.  There was a long line for the restaurant.  We took our place at the end of the line.  There was a woman, possibly the host, telling the people in front of us that the wait from where we were standing was usually about an hour and fifteen minutes.  She also pointed out that we were standing in front of The Pioneer Woman’s Boarding House.  The Boarding House recently opened and has 8 rooms and is a “cowboy luxury” hotel. They are already booked up for the next year!  Across the street was a 5 story building under construction and the host told us that it was being converted into a hotel.  She also told us we could leave one person in our group in line, while others went into the stores along the way of the line or the Mercantile store.  My daughter and I went into an antic store while my mom held our place in line.  Later the host came back with trivia questions and prizes.  That kind of helped make the wait shorter.

What We Ordered

We ended up waiting for an hour to get inside.  The restaurant was packed.  After we were seated, a young woman dressed in a red gingham shirt took our order of drinks and appetizers.  I ordered iced tea and my mom and daughter ordered iced water.  A big glass of unsweet iced tea (I know, not very southern of me) sounded perfect.  Though later I wished I had looked at the menu and ordered one of her specialty drinks.  I guess by the time we were seated, all I could think of was food, my belly was growling very loudly! 

I ordered the spinach artichoke dip with chips and flatbread as an appetizer.  When it came out, I had to hold myself back not to gobble it down.  The scrumptious creamy dip with the warm fresh flatbread and crunchy tortilla chips was delicious and a perfect belly growling suppressor.  My 5-year-old daughter ordered the chicken strips appetizer for her meal.  There was plenty for a meal too, she still managed to gobble a few down after eating quite a bit of the spinach artichoke dip. I ordered the Beef Brisket Reuben and my mom ordered the Fried Chicken Sandwich.  Both of our orders came with chips. 

The Reuben was delicious, and even good later as cold leftovers.  I was not a big fan of the chips.  They were crispy but needed more flavor.  We waited quite a while for our order and our check.  We were at our table for almost an hour.  Our waitress was fantastic, but I think she was super busy.  We got our leftovers to go.

Shopping

The Lodge Outside

Inside the Lodge

Back to The Mercantile Bakery

We headed back to town to check out the bakery.  We were ready for something sweet after our tour of the Lodge.  I ordered a Knock You Naked Brownie and a cookie sandwich for my daughter.  I also ordered a Mocha Frappe.  Everything was delicious.  The deli is upstairs and has bistro type chairs and tables throughout.  There are also several relaxing sitting areas with comfy chairs, and one area had a couch and a section for smaller children to play kitchen.  It was after 4:00, so it was not crowded and we were able to relax and enjoy our treats.  My daughter loved the Mocha Frappe.  She is not a soda drinker at all, but she loves a good frappe or frappuccino.

The Swinging Bridge

We headed to the famous Swinging Bridge, it’s just a few blocks from the Mercantile.  It’s at the end of Kihekah Avenue and there is a small area to pull over and park.  No one was there, so we had the bridge to ourselves.  According to the sign the bridge was built in 1926 and refurbished in 1970.  The bridge looks pretty rickety and a bit scary.  In the center, it’s about 20 feet above the creek.  The first time across I was nervous, but we made it across and back again.  My daughter loved the bridge.

Price Tower in Bartlesville

We headed to Bartlesville after a quick stop at Handy’s to get ice cold fountain drinks.  My daughter got apple juice.  There’s a great blog that has a post titled “70 Plus Things to do in Pawhuska“.  They mention Handy’s several times, so we had to try it out.  Bartlesville is only about 30 minutes from Pawhuska.  Price Tower is Frank Lloyd Wright’s innovative skyscraper.  It is also the only skyscraper he designed.  There are only a few rooms in the tower.  Our room was on the 13th floor and had a great view.  The bathroom was very retro, yet updated.  We relaxed in our room the rest of the evening and ate our leftovers. 

We had a good nights sleep, then headed to McDonald’s for breakfast.  I would have loved to go back to the Mercantile to eat, but my daughter needed something for her, so we went there.  She was very happy to play on the playground and wanted to go back to the swinging bridge after.  I decided we would check out Osage Hills State Park before we went back to Pawhuska.

Osage Hills State Park

Osage Hills State Park is about halfway between Pawhuska and Bartlesville.  It’s a really nice park with hiking trails, camping sites, playgrounds, and picnic tables.  I grabbed a map at the ranger’s office, and we headed to the waterfall trail.  My daughter saw a nice playground set in the shade, so we had to stop and let her play.  It was a beautiful morning. 

We headed to the trail when she was done playing.  There’s a nice swimming pool not far from the trailhead.  It was not open, but they were filling it with water.  The waterfall trail leads straight to the waterfall, and it’s an easy and short hike.  The water was clear and beautiful. 

After our hike, we headed to one of the lookouts.  Before we got out of the car we saw a Mountain Boomer, the state reptile.  He was beautiful and just sunbathing on some rocks that lead up to the lookout.  I got some good photos of him.  He barely flinched when we got close to him, maybe he is used to other park visitors.  I was so excited to see him.

We hiked some more and my daughter played on another playground.  Then we headed back to Pawhuska to eat.

Day Two in Pawhuska

Eating

It was 1:40 p.m. when we parked in the parking lot across the street from the Mercantile.  Unfortunately, there was a long line, and my daughter was not up to waiting in the long line again.  So we went about a block down the street and ate at Grill 125.  They serve several types of hamburgers and hotdogs, plus sandwiches and salads.  They also have a bar, but we did not check it out.  All three of us decided to try hotdogs.  My mom ordered the Memphis Dog, I ordered the New York Dog and my daughter ordered a hot dog off the kids’ menu.  Everything was delicious, and there was no crowd!  They even brought my daughter a free scoop of ice cream. 

More Shopping

We headed across the street to The Buckin’ Flamingo to shop.  I bought a cute metal hen that I now have above my cabinets in my kitchen.  They had lots of cute metal art, so check them out when you’re in town. 

We headed back to the Mercantile to grab some sweets from the bakery to take home.  I bought a 3 pack of cinnamon rolls, a cookie for my daughter, a cupcake for me, and two mocha frappes.  We sat down and ate our cookie and cupcake.  My mom ordered a Knock You Naked Brownie to go. 

Back to the Swinging Bridge

My daughter wanted to cross the swinging bridge before we left town, so we did that one last time.  We were all a little braver this time around and made the bridge swing more.  It was a lot of fun and laughs.  Love my daughter’s little-thrilled giggle!

Conclusion

We had a fabulous time on our Girl’s Trip to the Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile!  I would totally do it again and maybe stay in the Boarding House next time.  Or the new hotel they are building across the street, which we were told was opening later this Summer.  Have you ever visited the Mercantile?  Do you have plans to visit?  We would love to hear from you in the comments below.

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