Branson Vacation

Since it had been two whole months without a vacation, our family and my mom and dad decided to get out of town for awhile with a Branson vacation.  Joe and I had not been to Branson in 15 years (so obviously the kids had never been) and we felt that the kids might enjoy some of the offerings there.

 

On the way there, we decided to make the stop at two places I have always heard about but had yet to check out for myself - Meramec Caverns and Lambert's Restaurant. 

 

The entire family enjoyed Meramec - nice tour and the caves were beautiful (although the outside part of Meramec was in desperate need of a remodel).

This part was called the "wine/whine room" - the formations looked like grapes due to the way they were formed under water, and you whine having to climb almost 100 entire steps (gasp!) to get to the room.  This room was by far the best at Meramec due to it being so unique.

So I have completely forgotten what this formation is called, but there are only two in the entire world.  This one is seven feet tall, and the other one is in Europe and is only two feet tall.  It was extremely beautiful, even if it does need a bit of help from a metal pole to stay upright.

Next up was Lambert's Café II - the home of the "throwed rolls".  Experience - fun;  food - needs work.  Everything is huge here as you can see from the cups your drinks are served in.  The rolls that they throw at you (there is no choice as we watched an elderly woman try to just have one handed to her and the server refused) are huge and fun to catch and are delicious.  My meal was so ridiculously sized that it was served in a frying pan.  The free offerings are fun since I have not seen that done before, but the food overall is obviously sitting under warmers until you order it and they plate it (our table of 6 was served our entire meal in less than five minutes).  So, this was probably a "one and done" for us.

 

 

Silver Dollar City was the first place we visited in Branson.  It took us from park open to close to see everything we wanted and to officially wear us all out, but we all had a great time.  Joe wanted a pose with the kids by the waterwheel at the entrance since he always had his picture taken here as a child.



The family ready for fun!

 

Fire in the Hole!  Ethan LOVED it and Olivia HATED it.  Luckily, we went to SDC on a Thursday and there were NO lines at all - we could just stay on the ride repeatedly, so Ethan rode this four times while Olivia and grandma sampled the yummy apple dumplings.

 



The kids' area in the park.  There were maybe 30 kids in the entire four story structure, which meant no crowds and lots of time doing the fun things (like shooting rubber balls at each other) and not needing to wait your turn since there was no wait!

Even the adults enjoyed the kids' area.

 

Ethan and grandpa riding a roller coaster together.  Olivia used to love roller coasters and now won't go near them, but Ethan seems to have taken over the role of roller coaster rider for grandpa.  Grandpa was able to ride all of the roller coasters in the park, and his longest wait was about 3 minutes.  Pretty successful day for rides.

So on our way to SDC, we drove past Billy Gail's Café, and it was PACKED for breakfast.  We felt that that was a good advertisement for the place so the next morning we went back to give it a try.  If we ever return to Branson, we will definitely be making a trip here again for breakfast - YUM.

The size of these pancakes gave Charlie Parker's Diner in Springfield a run for its  money!

The next day we made it to Ripley's Believe It or Not, The Hollywood Wax Museum, The Landing, and the Dixie Stampede.

 

I told one of the Ripley's workers that I thought my picture should be on the wall, too.  Turns out this picture is a two way mirror where people can watch you try to do the tongue trick.  The worker asked if I was embarrassed when I found that out and I had to say no since I could actually do the trick!  :)

 



 

We had looked at the Ripley's website before visiting, and I think that the kids had thought that the two headed cow would be alive and on display, not a model.  There was a bit of disappointment from them when they figured this out.



 

Ethan and a shrunken head.

 



 

So Olivia has never seen a Marx Brothers' movie, but with her perfect pose with them I am thinking that we should break out "A Night at the Opera" (my favorite of their movies)!

 



 

The kids couldn't quite get their fingers to cooperate.

The Italian in Olivia made an appearance.

 



 

Not many pictures of the Dixie Stampede due to the no photo rule (who still does that??).

 



 

Joe and I with our medals after successfully helping the North win.  We were picked out of the crowd along with 3 other couples to race a stick horse around barrels.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Not to brag, but Joe and I won the race (and a couple for the South completely fell over each other so I know that we did not look the most ridiculous doing the race!).

 



 

No one can visit Branson and not play putt putt golf or ride go karts!