Spring Break 2008~Branson

So our trip started with Lambert's Cafe ("home of the throwed rolls", yes that's what they call it) in Ozark, a family atmosphere with down home cooking, where they actually throw the rolls at you. The kids loved it. Food was good, but not great, all in all a really fun experience.

Then headed out towards Branson. The resort was amazing, and we will definitely be going back. Really peaceful setting just off the lake nestled in the ozark mountains. Just far enough away from the bustling city to enjoy a relaxing country evening with convenience to be back in the city in within minutes. I wasn't really big on taking this trip, thought it might be hokey and always thought it was an old person's dream vacation. I was pleasantly surprised. Downtown historic Branson had an upscale, outdoor shopping area with a variety of restaurants centered around this really cool water and fire show synchronized to music, a smaller scale of the Bellagio's (LV) water show.

Everything with the exception of Silver Dollar City was so enjoyable. Unfortunately, they had a record attendance (most in 15 yrs), normally expecting 3000-4000 and instead about 15,000. For example I waited in line for 2 kids meals for about 57 minutes, seriously people, a cheeseburger, chicken nuggets (that weren't even really chicken, ugh) and fries and 2 drinks! In an all day trip, the girls only rode three rides. Most of our day was spent standing in line. To top coming home cranky and tired, we all got a pretty good sunburn too. Every thing else was close to perfect aside from that semi-disastrous day, which happened to be my birthday.

We ended up staying another night, through easter sunday. And we were so glad we did, no rushing around and kind of went with flow and ended our last night there eating dinner together on our patio watching the geese on the lake. Needless to say, it really exceeded our expectations with the perfect mix of country and city. We look forward to going back at perhaps a less busy time, maybe the fall?