Sunday, July 24, 2011

Back from Branson!

We got back from a 4 day vacation in Branson today.  We had a great time, even though the weather was in the upper 90's.  The below is a rundown of what we did while we were in Branson.  If you click on the blue words, you will go to the website of what I'm describing.

On Wednesday, we left our house and drove to Branson.  We checked into the Boxcar Willie Inn.  We unpacked our suitcases, then got ready to go to the Circle B Supper Show

We really enjoyed the Circle B Supper Show.  My son (along with the other kids) got "deputized" to hunt down the cornbread muffin bandit.  I got recruited to be a nurse to check the bandit's pulse when the sheriff shot him.  The food was really good and the music was great too.  For playing nurse, I got a certificate for 2 tickets to any show at Grand Country Music Hall.

On Thursday morning, we visited the Ralph Foster Museum at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, which is just south of Branson.  This museum has 3 floors of very interesting artifacts, which includes historic guns, taxidermy animals, and more stuff than I can describe.  Directly to the north of the museum is an old time one room school house.

On Thursday evening, we went to see Clay Cooper's Country Music Express Show.  It was a fast paced show with lots of music, dancing and the comedy of Matt Gumm.  Clay is very personable and interacted well with the audience.

On Friday morning, we used the certificate that I got at the Circle B Supper Show to attend the Amazing Pets show at Grand Country Music Hall.  It was a lot of fun watching the pets do their tricks, but since we didn't get our tickets until that morning, we were in row R, which meant we couldn't see the animals very well.

On Friday afternoon, we went to the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery.  We went inside and viewed the trout in the big fish tank and looked at some other animals in aquariums.  We then went outside to feed the trout.  You can purchase trout food in machines that look like gumball machines.  We brought some plastic cups to hold the trout food after it came out of the machine.  We usually see some really big trout in the hatchery, but they must have been put into Lake Taneycomo.  The smaller fish were happy to be fed and came up to the surface greedily when we dropped the food in the water.  We didn't stay very long here because it was really hot.

On Saturday morning, we went to Branson Landing to nose around in the stores.  Some of our favorite stores on the Landing are Bass Pro Shops, the Cardinals Clubhouse and Ridemakerz.  After we left there, we went to Walmart to purchase soda and other supplies, then went back to the hotel room to eat lunch and chill out.

On Saturday afternoon, we visited Stone Hill Winery.  This is a free tour that takes about an hour.  We first saw a film about Stone Hill Winery and their Hermann, MO operations.  We then went into the room where spumante is bottled and we learned how the bottles are closed so that the carbonation doesn't disappear.  We then went to a wine tasting room where we tasted several different wines.  My husband and I decided that we liked the semi-sweet wines the best.  The tour ended in the gift shop, where I purchased a couple of wine glasses like the ones we used for the wine tasting.  I have to have some sort of souvenir from my Branson trips!

We hung out at the hotel on Saturday evening, did a little swimming and soaking in the hot tub, then started packing to go home.  I told my husband that I didn't want to go home; I wanted to stay in Branson.  If the Lord tarries, I hope to retire there some day.

We left this morning and came home.  :(  I'm already thinking about what shows to see and what to do for our next trip, which probably won't be until next year (unless I win one of those contests for a Branson vacation that I entered).

That's all for now!  Until next time -

Happy trails!

Diane

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