Holiday Lanes, Bossier City – Shreveport, LA…

Wednesday we pulled out of Texas, and into Louisiana!  We are going to spend the next week and a half discovering this southern state, whose nickname is “Sportsmen’s Paradise” (or the Pelican State, or the Bayou State, or the Sugar State…).     We have always traveled through Louisiana via I-10, stopping for a few days north of New Orleans at a favorite state park, but that has been the extent of our exploring here.  This year, we thought we’d start at the top and work our way down!

So, Wednesday, late afternoon, our 4 hour drive to Louisiana (according to our Garmin, which meant more like 5.5 hours for us!) ended when we pulled into the Cypress-Black Bayou State Park, just a few miles north of Shreveport, LA.

We set up the 5er, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and we were off to our first Louisiana destination –  Holiday Lanes.  Holiday Lanes is a very classy bowling ally located in Bossier City, LA (which is the north east corner of Shreveport 😉 ).

We had heard that Holiday Lanes was super family-friendly, so we checked out their website.  When we saw that they were a smoke-free establishment, we were excited to take the kids!

* As a teen, I worked at a bowling alley (I was just the league babysitter, but still!)… I had my own sparkly, swirly ball with my name engraved in it, matching bag, and my own shoes (I was stylin’), and really enjoyed bowling.  Then I had kids.  And when the bigs were littles, we decided that bowling would be a fun family activity; so Vaughn and I took our tots to the local alley – it was so full of cigarette smoke that we could feel our little lung cilia dying off, and only played one game.  We never went back.  …just thought you should know that; it’s been awhile since we’ve been bowling.  😉

We arrived at Holiday Lanes at 6, rattled off 10 shoe sizes, and got our mountain of (exceptionally nice for rentals) bowling shoes (it would have been 11 pair had I known what a fit Caleb was going to have over not getting his own special shoes!).  The friendly staff assigned us to our two lanes, and, after a little bit of shoe shuffling (we had to exchange 3 pair for different sizes), it was girls against boys.

We ALL had the best time, and were really impressed with the alley.  It was very clean (including the restrooms), and each of the lane areas was stocked with comfy leather sofas…

and was very efficiently laid out.  There were so many things that I loved about it; check out the trippy carpet!

…which I hear is extra cool if you can make it to their Intergalactic Glow-In-The-Dark Bowling on Friday and Saturday nights! …the colors in the carpet look like they glow!

The alley is super family/kid friendly!  They have racks of just 6 and 7 pound balls, all with small spans for little fingers.  Holiday also has these adorable little dinosaur ball ramps (in both green and pink)…

for kidlets that are too little to roll the ball conventionally (Emma even used it a couple of times just for the fun of it!).

AND, my favorite – automatic bumpers!!!

All 44 lanes in the alley are equipped with automatic bumpers that can be programmed to raise for the people that need them,

and lower for those that don’t!  So, Beth and I could have the bumpers lower back into the floor for our turns, and they would automatically raise up for the little girls’ turns!

Yep, I was way impressed!  <3 There were no inappropriate images displayed anywhere, and while the alley does have a nice adult lounge (including pool table and big screen with couches), it is self contained, with darkened windows and door for privacy.

Holiday also has a little restaurant inside, called the Striker’s Cafe, where you can order foods like burgers and pizzas.  We got fountain drinks, and The Best sweet tea!!!  (and you can refill your soda cup for a small fee – sweet tea refills are free!)  They also had really fun plastic bowling pins that were refillable soda cups with straws.  If I didn’t live in 400 sq ft, one of the sparkly pink ones would have  gone home with us! LOL!

…in the corner of the arcade are a few fun electronic games/rides for littler kids; they can play while you relax!
Right in the middle of the alley, open to the lanes, is a fun arcade for the bigger crowd…

We found every one of the staff members to be very friendly and helpful!- it was a safe, clean, upbeat place to hang out!

We spent two hours bowling, and everyone thought it was a hoot!  As in seriously disappointed when our time was up.  Caleb cried.  Course, he cried everytime it wasn’t his turn too.  He was quite taken with the balls and the dino ramp!    He would growl and laugh like a maniac every time he got to shove the ball down the ramp.  I really hadn’t thought he would be interested in bowling, and wondered how I’d contain him in our spot for so long; I needn’t have worried – he was obsessed.  They were all pretty obsessed! (Vaughn and I had fun too 😉 )

We can see this becoming a regular family-fun activity for us – everyone of the kids enjoyed themselves immensely!

So, the tribe gives Holiday Lanes 22 thumbs up!  😀   We will be back next time we are through Shreveport, and will shoot for a Friday or Saturday to try the Intergalactic Bowling!  <3

Holiday Lanes would make a great stop for anyone heading through on I-20!  It’s not far off the interstate, and they are open 7 days a week.  You can check out the fun Holiday Lanes website here (consider bookmarking it for later reference), and check out their facebook page for special events. Definitely a fun and unique On The Road experience!