Best Things To Do In Midland, Texas This Summer

Now I know more than anybody that Midland, Texas is not exactly the most exciting city in Texas. Okay, it doesn’t even have the rep as the most exciting city in West Texas, but I bet I could surprise you! When I moved back to West Texas years ago, I was determined to find the beauty of this desert town and I certainly found it!

Midland, Texas is an oil town through and through. The main reason anyone is here is the oil field, so all those oil men have moved in and their poor wives and kids are stuck trying to figure out what to do in this oil based town. Well I gotcha covered! I have spent years exploring this city and I have complied a list of what there is to do here.

Summer is here, the kids are home, and Midland is hot! Here is how to give your kids the most exciting summer without even leaving town!

Free Things To Do In Midland, Texas:

Cool off at the local Splash Pads!

The only way to survive Texas in the summer is by living in the water! Thank heavens for the genius that created splash pads cause they are such a lifesaver and money-saver for hot summer days! Midland has 3 public splash pads:

For more information about these splash pads, click here.

Make a brand at the Midland County Historic Museum

Normally county museums are just a room full of antiques, but Midland has taken theirs to the next level. Of course it is mostly rooms of antiques, but there are several interactive aspects to this museum. For instances, you can create your own cattle brand out of pipe cleaners, solve the puzzle of what you would put in your pioneer wagon, and sit on old saddles. History with a twist of fun to it.

Go Playground Hopping

My kids love it when we have playground days. Our version of playground days is that we hop from park to park and try out 2-3 playgrounds in a day. Midland has the coolest playgrounds in all of West Texas! Each playground has a unique theme and fun features! Honestly I could take my kids to a children’s museum, out to eat, and to a zoo in a day; yet their favorite thing to will always be the playground. Our favorites in Midland are:

For a complete list of Midland Playgrounds, click here.

Feed Ducks

Feeding ducks is one of our favorite park activities in Midland, Texas! Sure parks have playgrounds and walking trails, but we love the ducks! These duck ponds don’t just have a couple ducks, no, we are talking swarms of ducks! My kids have so much fun feeding them corn or frozen peas. Such a fun and easy way to kill some time!

Our favorite duck ponds are:

Admire the outdoor statues of the Museum of the Southwest

If you want to go in the Museum of the Southwest it will cost money, but with kids I prefer the art outside, plus its free! As you walk around the building there are several beautiful statues that you can admire. Plus there is a pretty cool mural on the side of the building as well. Its just a mini outdoor free art museum!

Play at the Library Popups

I always thought it was funny when people would put their library as a fun thing to do in their town, but honestly the libraries in Midland, Texas are pretty cool. The downtown branch looks like a giant stack of books and is decorated with murals all around the building. Inside there is a giant screen that plays fun little videos that my kids love! There are quite a few toys and a really cool color changing wall that you can make pictures with. This library also has several pop up exhibits that change regularly.

The Centennial branch is like walking through an indoor forest. There are giant fake trees throughout the building and it is pretty cool. The best part about this library are its kid friendly interactive pop up exhibits. While the Downtown branch usually displays more of a look and learn museum, the Centennials pop ups are normally games and activities for kids to learn and grow. Here are some of our favorite exhibits they have had:

Hike around Sibley Nature Center

Midland has a very small nature center that has a bird viewing room, an art room, and a kids nature play room. Like I said it is very small. The coolest part of this nature center isn’t exactly the nature center itself, but the trails that surround it. The trails around the Nature Center are just a little over a mile long, but I have never hiked it without seeing all sorts of wildlife; from horny toads to rabbits!

On the trails you will also be lead to the Children’s Garden! This is a small, beautiful garden with some of the most beautiful flowers in Midland! My kids favorite part of this garden is finding the turtles in the turtle exhibit and playing in the little playhouses!

Movies in Centennial Park

Throughout the summer, and even throughout the year, Centennial Park hosts a movie at the park experience. Centennial Park is located downtown Midland, and it has a large grassy field located under a large movie screen. This is a fun place to picnic and catch a movie as a family!

Hike around I-20 Wildlife Preserve

Another fun short hike to do in Midland, Texas is around the wildlife preserve. This is the most beautiful spot in all of Midland. That is not saying a lot, as Midland is not really nice on the eyes, but hey this is the best they got. The trail at the preserve takes you around a large pond. You will walk on a boardwalk, stop at bird watching blinds, and you can even climb a tower for an overlook of the pond. There is so much wildlife on this trail, we have see ducks, cardinals, giant bull frogs, rabbits, and turtles on our hikes here. It just feels like a little oasis in the desert.

Go Mural Hunting

Midland is a colorful town! It has done a fantastic job of decorating its empty walls with fun and entertaining murals. To make your mural hunt more enjoyable, I have a list of where they are all located; just click here. Here are a few of our favorite murals we have found:

Explore the antique shops

Now I am not really a shopper, or I guess I should say I am not an active buyer. I do enjoy exploring shops and boutiques. I guess you could call me a window shopper. One of my favorite places to window shop are antique stores. It is in a way like walking through a free history museum and it is so fun to explain what old objects are to my kids. We do scavenger hunts in the stores to see who can find the quirkiest, craziest things. So far these headless lights from Wall St Antiques of Midland are the winners.

Sample candies at Susie’s South 40

There are 2 locations for Susie’s South 40, which is the local candy store of Midland. Famous for their Texas trash, which is another form of puppy chow and their pecan pralines which are to die for! The shop located off of Marienfeld St, is more than just a shop; it is also the candy making factory! You can watch them make the candies through the giant window overlooking the factory! Our favorite part of visiting here though is that the shop is filled with free samples or delicious candies! It is hard to leave empty handed!

Walk around Bush Family Home State Historic Site

Cool fact about the Midland/Odessa area is that this is home of 2 of our former presidents of the United States. The Bush family lived in the Midland and Odessa, Texas! You can visit their former homes in both towns. They have a small museum to remember the Bush family by.

Sample pickles at Typickle Pickles

Typickle Pickles is another cool shop to stop by for some free samples! And yes this is a store entirely dedicated to pickles! Not just your normal pickle though, they have pickled asparagus, pickled beans, okra, garlic, apple pie; pretty much anything that can be pickled they have it! And it is GOOD!

Look for animals at the Claydesta Center

The Claydesta Center isn’t just another random building full of offices, it is a jungle in there. Literally they have a mini jungle located in the middle of their building! Inside this giant building is a jungle oasis complete with waterfalls, a pond, and a ton of taxidermy animals. We love coming here and going on a walk through the jungle.

Tour the Midland Downtown Lions Club Fire Museum

Another small museum located close to downtown Midland is the fire museum. This museum is just one room, but it fully captures the history of firefighters. There are several old firefighter trucks and equipment to look at. Every time we have gone we have been able to get a tour of the active firehouse connected to the museum. My son officially loves firefighters after they let him sit in the front of their giant firetrucks!

Pretend to fly a plane at the Midland Army Air Field Museum Hanger

Midland is just full of tiny little museums, well I guess I shouldn’t call this one tiny because it is filled with huge airplanes! This Army Air Hanger is only opened on Saturdays, but it is pretty cool to get so close to these planes, and even in one of them. My kids beg me constantly to let them go back and ‘fly a plane,” which is playing in the cockpit of the old planes.

Fly Kites

One thing that is pretty guaranteed in Midland, Texas is that it is almost always windy! So flying a kite is almost always a possibility! There are several great parks with large fields, and the great part about West Texas is that our trees are freakishly small so you are pretty safe from getting a kite stuck in a tree. Here are the best parks to visit to fly a kite: Tumbleweed Park, John P Butler Park, and Ulmer Park

Play Disc Golf

There are 2 parks in Midland, that I know of that have disc golf courses. Tumbleweed Park and Cowden Park both have their own course. While my kids aren’t good at this game at all, it is still a fun way to spend time outside as a family. The courses aren’t too hard and do have some distance to them.

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Paid Fun Things To Do In Midland, Texas:

Fly a space ship at the Petroleum Museum

You read that right, I did say fly a space ship! The Petroleum Museum has a simulator experience where you get to help fly a spaceship! Pretty unique experience if you ask me. This museum is the most Midland museum of them all, because it is all about the oil field. You can literally walk though a timeline of oil rigs, from what they were to what they are now. It isn’t a giant museum, but it is a pretty cool one, plus they have a really cool race car exhibit at the end and a children’s section.

Take Pictures at I Love My Selfie

Midland, Texas is officially Instagram-able! It has its very on Selfie museum! You can go from one booth to the next taking cute Instagram-worthy pictures. Each booth has its own props and unique backdrop for taking fun pictures!

Play at the Fredda Turner Durham Children’s Museum

Within the last 5 years, Midland has remodeled and reopened their children’s museum! This museum has its own little town in it for kids to play life. They can shop at a toy grocery store, build a house, visit a restaurant, and even visit the doctor or be the doctor. On top of that they regularly have traveling exbibits. Our favorites have been the Asian music exhibit and the dinosaur exhibit. Each exhibit is interactive and full of fun for kids!

Watch a dome theater show at the Blakemore Planetarium

When you pay to get into the Children’s Museum, you also receive access to the Planetarium next door! This is probably the smallest planetarium I have ever been to, but it does have a dome theater for a unique way to watch educational movies.

Get a double feature at the Big Sky Drive-In

Speaking of movies, how often do you find active drive-in movie theaters!? Midland has one that is still active today. Each of the screens offers a double feature with 2 new movies for the price of one! Our favorite thing to do in bring the truck with a couch in the back so we can watch the movie under the stars!

Go bowling at Bowlero Midland

Another favorite pastime activity that is around in Midland is bowling. The Bowlero has several lanes for families and friends to get together to bowl.

Try the zip lines at Urban Air Trampoline And Adventure Park

Trampoline parks have become one of the best things in my life and I will tell you why. I am not a huge fan of jumping on trampolines anymore, you can thank birthing 4 kids for that, but my kids love it! They will absolutely jump their hearts out and the second we get them back in the car they pass out exhausted! It’s amazing!

If you have never been to one, trampoline parks are large buildings with trampolines all over inside them. Several of the trampoline areas have other activities that coincide with the jumping such as dodge ball or basketball. If there isn’t a trampoline, there is some other fun activity to do, whether that is a ropes course, ziplining, a climbing wall or even bumper cars.

Go down some waterslides at Washington Aquatic Center

Washington Aquatic Center is about as close as Midland gets to a water park. They definitely have the tallest waterslides around! It also features a lazy river, a regular swimming pool, and a splash pad! I can think of no better activity in Midland in the summer than spending as much time as possible poolside.

Play arcade games at Chuck E Cheese

Arcades are super common in the West Texas region, especially affordable ones. Chuck E Cheese in Midland is a great deal for actually a decent arcade. This has become our treat to our kids for good behavior is a day at Chuck E Cheese playing all the games they want in an hour without having to refill their card with more money!

Swim at Doug Russell Pool

Washington Park may have the tallest slides in Midland, but our favorite aquatic center is the Doug Russell Pool! This is another small waterpark type aquatic center. There are several large waterslides and even smaller slides on the splash pad area for kids. It too has a lazy river to enjoy as well.

Play mini golf at Green Acres

I shouldn’t just say play mini golf at Green Acres, because there is more than that available! I am talking an arcade and even go karts! If you are looking for more of an adrenaline pumping activity for your kids Green Acres has it. It has a nice, well taken care of course for mini golf and a whole wall of arcade games!

Watch a movie at the Cinergy

I feel like the number one hot spot in all of Midland is the Cinergy. I mean I get it, I love movies too, but that is not the only reason people come to Cinergy! Cinergy has a restaurant, an arcade game floor, and an escape room! So I shouldn’t say just a movie theater, but movies and fun!

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