Things To Do In Portales

Like the kids and families who make their way through its 3.5 miles of husk-lined trails, the corn maze at P Bar Farms wears a different costume each Halloween. This year, it celebrates the Oklahoma City Thunder's NBA Finals appearance with a winding logo-shaped maze that has 95 different decision points and innumerable twists and turns. After navigating the hand-cut labyrinth, a feat that generally takes most maze-goers about one hour, folks can make their way around the property and enjoy P Bar Farms’ many other fall-flavored activities. The Main Barn serves as the hub where visitors can recharge with concessions, relax at picnic tables, or challenge a rooster to a sing-off during free karaoke sessions. Outside, families can enjoy a hayride over to the farm's pumpkin patch or make their way to the barnyard to pet farm animals. The property's big red barn plays host to adrenaline-fueled laser-tag matches, and mini golf allows for more leisurely family fun.

Three years after founding Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in 1997, Louise Hopkins Underwood’s operation finally found a permanent home in the city's vacated Fire Department Administration Building. These days, her vision for a thriving contemporary-arts community has grown into a four-block campus with nine buildings spread across 64,000 square feet. The LHUCA team repurposed those structures—warehouses and former municipal buildings among them—into arts spaces that include an exhibition hall and four galleries whose nearly 5,000 square feet display local, national, and international artists. The renovated Icehouse accommodates rehearsals and performances of dance, music, and performance art, and the 159-seat Firehouse Theatre's 5.1-surround-sound mix brings films to life more effectively than hiring Dr. Frankenstein as a projectionist. Along with showcasing the work of prominent figures, the center's teachers nurture up-and-coming artists with classes in disciplines such as oil painting, bagpiping, and creative writing.

Owners Jeff and Michelle Dow met at the University of Iowa on athletic scholarships for gymnastics. After decorated careers that included spots on the U.S. Nationals team, the duo moved to Lubbock and founded Tega Kid's Superplex in 1995. Assisted by a skilled staff, they entertain and educate kids in teamwork and the athletic arts during sports programs, camps, and events. Though planted in gymnastics classes and fertilized with hand-grip chalk, the 18,000-square-foot facility has blossomed into a diverse space that teaches noncompetitive dance, cheerleading, tumbling, and swimming lessons that follow the USAG Junior Olympic Program's curriculum. The facility also houses a preschool, afterschool activities, and summer events and is a licensed provider of Motion Evolution, an interactive fitness program for kids.

Dave's Need 4 Speed revs entertainment engines with a trio of attractions that send adrenaline juices coursing through thrill seekers of all ages. Laser-tag combatants equipped with light-blasting carbines sprint, crawl, and conga dance through a pirate-ship-themed battleground where glowing barrels and wooden bridges conceal camouflaged warriors and deflect misfires back into the darkness. The illuminated fairways of a cosmic mini-golf course unfurl amid radiating urban backdrops, challenging putters to sink holes in one beneath the shadows of the Statue of Liberty and other American landmarks. Guests who share Dave's disdain for sluggish steering can hop into a go-kart and whip around one of the center's age-appropriate tracks, which foster high-speed excitement with a fresh slathering of melted butter prior to each race.

Every year, the museum inducts former college players and coaches into its pantheon of stellar veterans of the sport, including luminaries who went on to acclaimed professional careers such as Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey, and Jim Abbott. The 2011 inductees, chosen by a committee of baseball experts who all claim to have invented the curve ball, include Terry Francona, a Golden Spikes award winner at Arizona and current general manager of the Boston Red Sox, and Dick Groat, former Duke shortstop, MVP of National League, and member of the 1960 world-champion Pittsburgh Pirates.

United Cheer's coaches train aspiring cheerleaders aged 3 and older, teaching skills from basic forward rolls to more advanced back handsprings and standing tumbling. Along the way, they follow a "perfection before progression" approach, ensuring safety by requiring students to perfect basics before moving on to higher-level moves.