Ft Sill/Lawton

We%26#39;re coming to a military grad in October; are any of the budget hotels better than the others? any suggestions for places to eat with a 9 year old? any info would be appreciated. Thanks

Ft Sill/Lawton

Wow! Not much response on the Lawton forum. I will be coming to Ft. Sills in the fall. Just thought I would browse and see what I could find here...Is there anybody out there?

Ft Sill/Lawton

Hi, Kentucky,

Oklahoma should be beautiful in October. It%26#39;s my favorite month.

Hope you enjoy your visit!

I%26#39;m by no means a local expert, but it happens that I just came from Lawton last weekend (my DD moved there for her job 6 weeks ago).

Hotels - there are several decent chains right along hwy. 44 at Gore exit - Best Western, Fairfield, etc. Even the motel 6 on Lee looked pretty decent. I would advise that you stay away from the independents in Zone 1 - they all looked pretty sketchy. Note that I did not stay in them, but DD stayed at the Best Western for a week when she first arrived and was content.

Food - there are several chain %26amp; fast food restaurants in town, especially in the western section. There are Sonic drive-ins everywhere as well. We only ate at local spots that I can recommend: Luigi%26#39;s (decent inexpensive Italian), Atlanta Bread Company (breakfast, lunch, pizza, baked goods, coffee/teas), Braums (fast food %26amp; ice cream). We also went one night to the steak house out at Meers. There are also several buffet restaurants all over town. There aren%26#39;t many eating places in the downtown financial core, though there is a small food court in the mall.

For children, I would definitely recommend that you take them to the park to see the prairie dogs.

There are two theater complexes, one in the mall and one in the western section of town.

HTH

Island Blue:

Was the place you went to in Meers The Meers Store and Restaurant?

http://www.meersstore.com/menu.html

If so, they have great burgers.

Yes modcon - the Meers store and restaurant. Evidently they have buffalo burgers the size of a pie plate! We had the steak dinner where they bring out the roast, and you cut your hunk of steak, they cook it to your specifications and bring it back with your choice of side dishes. It was delicious. And the drive was very pretty - past the lake and into the hills. We were surprised - we both expected Oklahoma to be ';flat'; plains, but it is more rolling landscape with hills than we expected.

We also had a milkshake at the local drive-in (50%26#39;s style) at the intersection of Gore %26amp; Sheridan, but I cannot remember the name - starts with an M.

I use to live in Lawton, the hills you refer to are called the Wichita Mountains. Also, the drive in you went to was Wayne%26#39;s Drive in and has been there forever. Glad you had a good trip.

WAYNE%26#39;S! Yes! Reminded me of Miner%26#39;s in Yakima WA. Great milkshakes, and they offer Tots instead of fries. Corner of Gore and Sheridan - correct?

LOL @ Oklahoma%26#39;s definition of ';mountains.'; We live at the foot of the Sierras, so we view those as ';foothills.'; They are beautiful, next time we are going to spend more time exploring around there.

Island Blue, You are correct that was Wayne%26#39;s Drive In you were at.

I can imagine what you thought about the ';mountains';, I too, have seen the Sierra%26#39;s, The Rockies, The Great Smokie and Blue Ridge Mountains in VA. I had to laugh the first time I saw them when we moved to Lawton from Oklahoma City, after seeing all the before mentioned mountains, but none the less according to the National Park service, they are considered mountains.

The actual name of these are The Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, and there are a lot of buffalo and long horn cattle out there. There is a lot to see out there in the refuge if you ever go back there and have time to actually spend. Oklahoma also has a couple of other mountain areas, one is the Kiamichi Mountains in Southeast Okla. They are bigger than the Wichitas and are beautiful in the Fall.

Oklahoma also has a desert known as Little Sahara complete with Sand Dunes it looks just like a small version of the Sahara desert people go there to dune buggy. I have never been there, but know people who have. We live in Okla City now, but we are born and bred Okies. If you have any questions about Okla feel free to ask.

Thx randygail for the info. DD has only been there about 8 weeks, so she is still exploring. We did go to OKC the morning I flew out - did the Murrah memorial (2 days after the anniversary) and wandered around Bricktown.

We have the smallest mountain range in the world just north of here (Sutter Buttes), so I do understand that they are considered ';mountains.'; We did get to the park with the prairie dogs, next time we%26#39;ll go explore and find the buffalo (though we do have a herd in Golden Gate Park, so.....). I%26#39;ll have more time for exploring next visit because we won%26#39;t be power shopping for 2 solid days to get her apartment set up!!!

My biggest dilemma was finding a ';nice'; place for dinner. Is there a higher end restaurant? She%26#39;s a working girl on a budget, and I wanted to spoil her my last night in town. We ended up at Meers, which was great - beautiful drive, great food, funky decor. Worked out fine, but next time I%26#39;d like to treat her to something fancy. Any suggestions?

I am sending you a list of what were our favorite places to eat when we lived there, now remember we haven%26#39;t lived there since 1982, but these places have been in the Lawton area forever, they are all locally owned and operated, not part of a chain. All of them use to be excellent, I don%26#39;t know about how they are now. They use to also be the more upscale

type places. Here they are in the order that was my favorites.

1. Old Plantation, Medicine Park- not real dressy, I would say resort casual. It was a great restaurant, the Old Plantation was a upscale hotel in it%26#39;s day, now is a restaurant. Great seafood, and fresh catfish.

Lots of history in this place, it is very interesting. This was probably my favorite place!

2. Fisherman%26#39;s Cove, Medicine Park-they use to have really good seafood.

3. Martin%26#39;s Restaurant- they use to have great steaks and seafood. It use to be a place that you got dressed up to go to. I don%26#39;t have a clue how it is now.

4. Salas%26#39;s Mexican Restaurant- Here again it has been years, but it was one of our favorite mexican places.

5. Bianco%26#39;s Italian- they had great pizza and other Italian food

6. Bavarian House-this is a German restaurant, it wasn%26#39;t there when we lived there, but it may have great German food, since there are ';a lot'; of Germans in Lawton.

I hope this helps. If you have anymore questions just ask away, I will be happy to help any way I can.