Wow! What a busy, busy weekend!
We had a GREAT time this week. I have a ton of pictures to post, but don't have everything ready quite yet. The pictures in the slideshow above are from our mini-vacation to Branson. Our original plans were to spend the whole week down there, but then got the softball schedules for the girls and found out they had 2 games scheduled during the week, plus we really wanted to spend the 4th with our family! So, needless to say, the only days left for vacation were Friday and Saturday. We crammed A LOT of stuff into those 2 days!
FRIDAY - We started out bright & early (woke up around 5 a.m. and arrived in Branson around 9 a.m.) Our first stop (after breakfast, of course!) was to see the Spirit of the Dance. This is an AWESOME show and if you're ever in the Branson area be sure to check it out! I knew I would love it, but wondered about the girls. They were in awe of the whole performance! Very cool show!
Next we stopped at the grocery store to purchase some fixins' for sandwiches, which we took to the lake. Table Rock Lake is by far the cleanest lake we have ever seen. Branson recently experienced a lot of rain fall, which caused some murkiness, but you could still stand chest high in water and see your feet! Amazing for a lake! The girls had a great time snorkeling and swimming.
After swimming for 2-3 hours, we went back to the hotel and cleaned up a bit. Noone was hungry so we just kind of hung out and relaxed for a bit.
Our final activity for the night was visiting the Titanic Museum. If you enjoy the history of the Titanic, you will love this museum! It includes pictures taken by survivors while aboard the ship, postcards/letters written by passengers, recreations of 1st, 2nd & 3rd class staterooms, recreations of the "Grand Staircase", a view of the "fateful night" from the control room (pretty cool...you can even walk "outside" and feel the temperature from that night), a bucket of water set to 28 degrees (the temperature of the water the night the Titanic sank. You're supposed to keep your hand in as long as you can...I lasted about 15 seconds, Dan about 25 seconds and the girls around 20 seconds each. Can you imagine your entire body submersed in 28 degree water?!), and "decks" built to show how the boat looked while sinking (trying to climb up the final deck was NOT easy! I'm not sure what degree it was, but it was at least 40-45 degrees...Very steep!). Like I said, we had a great time and only wish we were allowed to take pictures while touring.
After touring the Titanic, we stopped and got a bite to eat and some ice cream and then went back to the hotel to crash. By then it was almost midnight and we'd been up since 5 a.m. A very long day!!!
SATURDAY - We woke up bright & early (around 8:30...that's early enough) and enjoyed the breakfast the hotel had to offer. After that we (I) enjoyed a little shopping and then headed over to the Stone Hill Winery for a little wine tasting. The tour was o.k., but they didn't really show much. The wine tasting, however, was pretty neat! I tried wines that I would never have tried on my own. Pretty much everything was o.k., there were only a few that I really wanted to spit back out (I didn't, but would have liked to).
After that we headed back to the lake for some WAVERUNNIN'! This was the highlight of our trip. We'd never been and have wanted to go for a long time. The girls (and us) have waited all summer for this moment. It's pretty expensive, but we had a GREAT time! The girls tried to talk us into purchasing one! Maybe someday!
All-in-all we had a great time and can't wait to go back. There's so many things to do there that you'll never get bored!
Hope everyone's vacations this summer are just as wonderful as ours was! Pics from the rest of the week are coming soon!
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