Branson trip report, day 1

I'm going to skip the whole driving to Branson thing because you all know about 5 hour car trips with 3 kids, right? Watched Hannah Montana and Footloose. Had a little carsickness/sleepwalking episode that will go down in family history. All in a day's drive.

So Thursday morning, we wake up at Southern Oaks Inn. It's a decent kind of hotel. Clean, but nothing fancy. I didn't take a picture of my breakfast this morning (because you'll see, I did take pictures of some of our food), but I had 2 powdered doughnuts. Exciting, huh? Oh yeah, and a bottle of Diet Coke.

By 7:30, Dan and the kids are swimming. Seriously. I have trouble working up enthusiasm to swim at 7:30 in the morning, but they were all about going swimming. So I put on my suit and went to join them.

My one complaint about Southern Oaks is that it wouldn't kill them to turn up the heat for the pool water another 5 degrees. Dan told me to just jump in and I'd get used to it that way. So I did, but it didn't work. Then Dan said if I just stayed in the water for a few minutes, I'd get used to it. Yeah, because my body would be numb from the cold and I'd no longer be able to feel anything.

So I got in the hot tub. Or warm tub, if you want to be precise. I have this thought that a hot tub should actually be.... well, hot. It wasn't. So I was pretty much done with that whole adventure.

Went back to the room. Showered.

At about 9:30, we packed up and were off to the Imax.

Which is like, across the street.

The 10 am show was "Hurricane on the Bayou." Hadn't actually planned to see this one, but we were dressed and ready to go, so why not?

Turns out I really loved it. It's a documentary that was originally filmed to educate people about the vanishing wetlands around New Orleans. Then Hurricane Katrina came and the message really hits home. I'll admit I got a little teary looking at all the devastation.

I'll also admit that I'm a little emotional right now.

The second Imax film we saw was "Kilimanjaro", which was the one I really wanted to see. Didn't love it. It was OK, and not a bad way to pass an hour, especially when we have season passes to the Imax that expired the next day, so it was free. Didn't make me want to go out and climb a mountain, though.

After the films, it was lunch time, and we made for Panera. We're pulling in to park and Chesney announces (quite loudly) that she hates Panera. Wha? We eat at Panera every time we come to Branson. Because apparently the one 15 minutes from our house is no good. We must drive five hours to another state to eat at this restaurant.

Anyway, we go in, I order for Dan and I and the kids, while Ches pouts. I'm getting our drinks when she decides maybe she could try a cup of chicken noodle soup.

We sat outside to eat, which was fun. We had gorgeous weather, by the way. Just a light breeze and oh so warm.

After lunch, we picked up our tickets for this week's shows. Went to Tanger outlet mall and did some shopping. Stopped at Maggie Moo's and had some ice cream.

Then we checked into our condo. OK, we tried, but they gave us the wrong section of Thousand Hills (because, seriously, Thousand Hills takes up about half of Green Mountain Drive). We got it straightened out, but it took about a half hour to finally get to the right place.

I've got a whole album of photos from our condo, just in case anyone is considering Thousand Hills. You can see them here. We loved it. Nice living room, great patio, 2 king beds, and a sofa bed for Brady. We could all have some alone time, which we all seem to need.

So we get settled, unpacked and put the pop in the fridge.

Then it's time to go swimming again. This pool is luxury... warm enough that I can walk right in and there's no "getting used to it" baloney. A hot "hot tub". So swimming was okey dokey with me.

Gosh, I have no idea what we did the rest of the day. At some point, we showered and got ready for the evening.

We ate at the American Bandstand Bar and Grill. Service was fast, everyone was friendly and we had some really nice drinks. I had the almond crusted chicken strips, Dan had a chicken parmesan sandwich, Ches had chicken nuggets, Mykiah had a hamburger with fruit instead of fries, and Brady had a cheeseburger plus most of my fries. That, and I brought home 3 of my chicken strips. Dan and I had some yummy drinks, too. I can't remember what mine was called, but it was blue and fruity. Dan's was a lemonade with Jack Daniels in it. I love JD. In fact, I like that hard stuff better than I liked the rummy/fruity thing I ordered. I worry that if I ever really started drinking regularly, I'd be an alcoholic pretty quick. I love the hard stuff.

My meal:

Dan's meal:

Went back to the condo for a little bit and then it was off to see the Haygoods. You know they were waiting for me, right?

Last picture from today -- Dan and Ches waiting for the show:

Next up: A review of The Haygoods

Comments

[Kellie (joelsgirl)]

Sounds good so far (except for the part about the cold swimming pool!).