Branson, MO

My mom mentioned last week that she's always wanted to see what Branson is about. She's had friends go and say it was fun so I suggested we go. Nathan had the weekend off so that he could watch Allison and we could have a mother/daughter adventure. My  mom and I have never been on a trip before so we were really excited.

We left after dinner on Friday night. I got a call from Nathan two hours into our trip that I had forgotten my insulin. I was so upset with myself! I told Nathan that I would just buy some at the Walmart in Branson but he said he was already on his way to meet us. We met at the Sugar Foot BBQ stand in Osceola. Allison was asleep in the backseat and he had game 6 on the radio. It was a very romantic and generous gesture.

After I quit beating myself up over my mistake and once I recovered after we were nearly run off the road by a truck carrying an ATV on a trailer (that he clearly didn't account for in his merge into my lane) we were back on the road. We made it to the Days Inn just after 11pm.

After an uninterrupted night's rest, we headed to the lobby for breakfast. We were the youngest people by 20 years - and I'm accounting for my mom's age - not mine! One man was wearing jeans (with a belt) and neon orange suspenders. He was getting some comments from the other diners when his wife said, "Laugh all you want! It'll be easy to spot him in a crowd at Silver Dollar City!"

We didn't have any plans for the day so we decided to explore. My mom was surprised to see that it is very touristy and that you have to drive everywhere. It's not a quaint little town where you can explore one of a kind shops. It's wax museums, outlet malls, souvenir shops, and shows. We didn't want to spend money at any of the shops so we decided to explore the area. The town is so small and to help tourists, the four main roads are coded with colors (red, blue, yellow, and green). So if you know your hotel is on the red street, you just follow the red signs. It's really easy to get around but with one lane traffic in each direction - you can quickly get caught up in bumper to bumper traffic.

 We decided to head off the main drag and stopped when we saw a sign for a fish hatchery. We have a hatchery close to our house but this one was huge. We were hesitate to join a group and sit for a introductory video, but it was great and ended up being one of the highlights of our trip!

 

When we were leaving, we noticed quite a few trucks pulling into a parking lot beside the hatchery. We decided to check it out and found a group of fly fishers. We went down to the river and watched them fish. It was relaxing.

 

 

After our outdoor tour, we were driving back towards the strip when we saw a sign that read Spring Hill Winery free tours! We stopped in and immediately started a tour. The location was a satellite store (the main winery is elsewhere) but we had a great tour that involved a video, watching a bottling demonstration, and of course - tasting! We sampled 12 different wines with our tour group. It was fun to try wines right after each other because I finally understood some of the differences.

 After our tour we went to the Olive Garden for lunch. After a delicious meal we cruised the strip then headed to the outlet mall.

The mall was had about 50 stores and it was packed with people (there really isn't much to do in Branson). I bought a couple of pairs of boots, and my mom bought a toy for each grand-kid, but we weren't in a shopping mood so we headed back to our hotel to rest and get ready for the show we had booked.

We went through all the shows and decided that we would go on the Branson Belle. It's a two hour cruise on the lake with dinner and a show for $60 per person. Most shows are at least $50 so we thought that for food and entertainment, this was a great deal.

 

We arrived at the dock an hour and a half before we set sail, but the boat took an hour to load the 550+ people that it was carrying. We wandered the gift shops (we had assigned seats on the boat) until the line ended. While the boat was loading, the sun began to set. It was gorgeous!

Once we got on the boat, we had a three course meal while 5 musicians played classic songs. There was a comedian/magician who acted as the M.C. for the night and he was cheesy but very entertaining.

After the three course meal and a short intermission where we could go out on the deck, we watched a variety show that included a boy band, cloggers, and a female singer. The groups each performed three numbers and alternated after each number. The numbers were medleys like: Disney songs, Motown, the Beatles, and famous movie songs. At the end there was a big gospel/ we love America number that was very patriotic.

We got back to our hotel at 11pm and crashed after a long day.

On Sunday morning we realized we had already seen most of Branson, so we spent some time at Walmart and Kmart on the strip (because the traffic to get out of town was backed up for miles) until the road was clear and then we headed home.

We arrived home at 5:30pm to see Nathan and Allison. It was a sweet reunion.