Things to Do in Moore

Family owned and operated, Southwestern and Skate Moore offer families and friends a safe place to whirl and race around the rink. Your next game of crack the whip awaits a snack bar, a full selection of high-quality skates and wheels, and bumper skating at Southwestern Skate Center. The Skate Moore location also includes a snack bar with popular fare (pizza, candy, beverages), a Pro Shop, and a well-groomed black-lit glow floor. Both locations house fun for kids, parties, and families alike.

In 1972, when most other 7-year-olds were building their baseball-card and bottle-cap collections, Jay Villemarette began collecting skulls. His lifetime hobby evolved into a full-time vocation in 1990 after he opened Skulls Unlimited, a one-of-a-kind bone-replica shop that earned the limelight on popular TV shows such as Dirty Jobs and Ripley's Believe It or Not!. By 2010, Jay's widespread success led him to establish the Museum of Osteology, which currently houses the largest privately held collection of osteological specimens in the world, with more than 300 skeletons and, most importantly, zero zombie sightings to date.

Education abounds throughout the 7,000-square-foot space as visitors investigate rare species, skulls, and skeletons from all corners of the world. The form and function of the skeletal system weave a common thread through each of the museum's exhibits, which showcase topics such as adaptation, locomotion, and specific categories of animals, including marsupials, birds, and reptiles. After exploring displays and begging skeletons for their teeth-whitening regimen, interim osteologists can visit the gift shop, where souvenirs, toys, and replicas of museum models are available to start personal collections.

Game Time Inflatables fills its 3,000 square-foot, indoor playground with cushy tunnels, a plush slide, and a castle-themed bounce house, letting kids of all ages literally bounce off the walls. After a long day of caroming through the inflated jungle gym or bounding over plush, pint-sized partitions, tykes and their parents can rest weary legs at the indoor picnic tables. Check the schedule for upcoming open play hours.

In the 7,000-square-foot laser-tag arena, walls of swirling fog close tightly around warriors as they hide under bridges and dodge behind illuminated pillars. Their quick breaths swirl the mist as a soundtrack in time with the sound of running feet blasts in the background. A variety of game-play modes urge players to work together, remain stealthy, or develop other strategies. The noise of good-natured combat drifts faintly out over 18 holes of mini golf littered with waterfalls, streams, sand traps, and rugged outdoorsmen trying to live off sand.

On an indoor ropes course, harnessed climbers traverse balance beams and bridges suspended far above the arcade. From that vantage point, patrons get a bird's eye view of their rivals' air-hockey strategies or watch slick masses of horsepower slip around corners on Need for Speed racing games. The pies at DoubleDave's Pizzaworks quell protesting tummies between games and provide visual aids in conversations about dividing up real estate on the moon.

For more than a quarter-century, Sooner Bowling Center has fostered a sense of community with bowling leagues for youth and adults, parties, and recreational play. The fun haven was founded and is still run by a local family, and it renders its 24 lanes as inviting as possible by making them smoke-free and attended by an always-friendly staff. While hanging out at these lanes, bowlers can pursue series of strikes in regular fashion or amid the neon luminescence of glow bowl sessions. A full-service snack bar fills empty stomachs, and a selection of arcade games and pool tables give guests a whole new context for tossing bowling balls.

Sooner Bowling Center's manager, Mandy Haws, has been an active member of the Bowling Proprietors Association of America, and her bona fides are further bolstered by her work for the Oklahoma State High School Bowling Executive Committee, a highly respected chess organization.

There on the wall inside Conan's Kickboxing, Karate, Boxing Academy, next to four World Kickboxing Championship belts, hangs a photograph of founder Scott “Conan” Mincey donning a mustache and shaking hands with one of his numerous mentors, Chuck Norris. In fact, during his 34-year career, Scott has worked with a constellation of martial-arts stars and, since 1996, has brought that experience to his self-titled academy.

Scott teaches recreational and competitive fighting styles to a diverse student base which includes men, women, teens, and children. His classes blend equal doses of self-defense techniques with workouts designed to build lean muscle strength, speed, and endurance. Students can throw jabs in the pursuit of a leaner self, or train for all manners of blood-sporting competition in the gym's boxing ring, octagonal cage, or shark tank.