Birthday trip, Friday morning

OK, so when I last wrote, we were jumping in the van. My first thought whenever we get to town is to go pick up our show tickets. I had a dream earlier in the week that we got there and our tickets were all messed up, so I just wanted to get them in my hands and know that everything was fine. Cuz my trip would be ruined if there was a ticket mishap.

Not really. I'm pretty flexible. And my nightmare didn't come true.

We stopped first at Pierce Arrow, which is across the street from Whispering Hills, then drove around to the Hughes Brothers Theater where we exchanged our vouchers for Six tickets (BTW, if you stay at Whispering Hills, check out the vouchers. $17/voucher and they have some great shows.) Then down to Music City Centre.

Back track again to Tanger Outlet Mall. I was dying to check out the cute Skechers that are all over the magazine ads. They were cute. But didn't feel like me. At least not at $50/pair. I'll stick with my Crocs Mary Janes for that price. Shopped our way down to The Gap Outlet and hit the mother lode there for Mykiah's back to school wardrobe. Also picked up a first day of school outfit for Chesney. Stopped and tucked that away in the van and walked down to The Children's Place outlet. There, I discovered jeans for $6 for the girls. Bought every pair in their sizes, plus some shirts for Chesney.

Swung around to the Old Navy outlet and decided on 5 shirts for Brady. I didn't buy him pants. I didn't feel confident in doing that without the boy in front of me. I shouldn't have even bought the shirts. He looked at them, said "eh" and walked away. Not impressed.

I'm thinking it was about 10 am by now. We're speedy shoppers. Dan wanted to know where we should go next, and I suggested Branson Landing. I'm thinking.... hey, he's in a shopping mood. Why let him get out of it?

Here, Dan makes a fatal mistake. He decides to take the strip to the Landing. In July. I know... he was smart enough to marry me, but sometimes you have to wonder.

So I rant for the next 30 minutes as we go maybe a half mile. Finally, I just tell him to get off and take one of the back routes. Which is... um, what we should have done in the first place. 10 minutes later, we're parking at the Landing. Maybe if we'd stayed on the strip, we would have made it to Dixie Stampede.

Oh, and that photo over there is a screen shot from a fun Branson webcam. Whenever I'm feeling homesick, I just click on it and watch for awhile. I thought it was a good way to show the traffic situation. The "strip" in Branson is 2 lanes, plus a turn lane. Our hotel was on the left corner of this intersection. It was a bit of an icky sticky mess. It could seriously take an hour just to go 3 miles. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out it takes longer at times.

OK, where was I?

Oh, we're down at the Landing. We were just sort of wandering, when I saw Lane Bryant. Back on Mother's Day, I saw a shirt here I really wanted, but didn't buy because it was almost as much as my weekly grocery budget. I was hoping for clearance. I go to walk in and Dan says, "You're too skinny to shop here now." Which is, like, so darn sweet. And almost true. Except I can wear the smallest size they carry. And funny enough, they had that size all over the clearance racks. (Not really... I mean, I can shop in regular stores now! So it's not surprising that they had their small size left. I'd choose a regular store over plus size store 99% of the time. But I wanted that shirt.)

I totally scored here because they had my shirt and in my size. It was only $20 on clearance. You just can't do better than that. I will totally be wearing it on the first day of school. I did wear it on Saturday. And I should have worn it Friday afternoon. But that's another story.

Then it was across the street to one of my favorite stores, Bath Junkie. I bought some of my favorite liquid powder and had it scented "Oatmeal Milk and Honey." It is wonderful. I use it on my feet and face before bed. Very soothing.

OK, so it's 11:30 and you know that means I'm thinking lunch. In preparation for this trip, I'd been researching Mexican restaurants. Cuz it's my birthday trip, and I love Mexican. Cantina Laredo has been highly recommended, both on the internet and by some of Dan's customers who love Branson. And it's right there on the Landing, so why not?

We're only the 2nd group in the restaurant, and get a nice seat next to the window that overlooks the fountain. We could have eaten on the patio and really had a great view, but it was hot. I didn't need a view that bad. I had heard wonderful things about the margaritas here, and when the waitress offered to bring me one, mentioning that they use fresh squeezed limes and lemons and the finest alcohol, I was all over that one. Dan, too. And seriously, the best margarita I've ever had in my life. A 10 on a scale of 5. And talk about a punch. I was still feeling it 2 hours later. Of course, I'm not a drinker. I'd drank more in those 24 hours than I'd drunk in the last month total.

Anyway, delicious margarita, and my combination plate was very good. The mild salsa was really yummy. The hot salsa.... smelled like stale cigarette smoke. Now I know that it was just made with smoked peppers most likely, but I have a very sensitive sense of smell and when I picked it up, all I smelled was stale smoke.

Completely unappetizing.

I sat it on the corner of the table, far from me. So next time, I'll tell them not to bother with the hot stuff. (It did taste OK, I just couldn't handle the smell.)

I bob and weave back to the van, and we decide to see if we can check into our hotel. Not quite ready, but they'll bump us to the top of the list (which they did after I mentioned we had a 3:00 show... I wasn't angling for that, just wanted to know whether we should come back before or after the show. Thought that was a great touch).

Did ya hear that? You're right, it's Maggie Moos calling. We skipped dessert at lunch, so we could definitely waste some time eating ice cream. And by the time we got down the strip to eat it and managed to get back to the hotel, we'd wasted our hour. Oh, you know, maybe we went and picked up some tickets in there, too. I think we did. The Caravelle for Saturday night.

Back to the hotel and our room is ready. It was one great room. Dan had won 2 free nights at any Fairfield Inn, and had come up with the fabulous idea to use those nights in Branson for my birthday. Is he not the sweetest man ever? (OK, so I made the reservations and then told him. Let's pretend....)

Anyway, gorgeous room. Done in green and gold and white. Awesome king sized bed. A thread count on those sheets that my body rarely experiences. Not two, not four, but six pillows. A full size sofa, a fridge and a microwave. Oh, and on the top floor, so no noises above us. Loved this place, and really recommend it, especially if you're a couple. Not sure it would be a great place with kids, but it was perfect for us.

Unpack a little bit, hanging up our clothes. I decide to freshen up before our show. Then spend quite a bit of time obsessing over my shirt. I had bought a shirt on my actual birthday to wear on this birthday trip. But when I put it on.... little low cut there, Kim. I pulled the shirt back, I adjusted it. I looked in the mirror. I consider wearing either the shirt I just bought, or a plain t-shirt, cuz I have a bunch of them. Finally Dan has had it with the shirt thing. "You bought it for this, just wear it."

Ah, famous words there, folks.

Yeah, I should have gone with the t-shirt.

Hair's done. Wearing the birthday shirt. Going to the show I've been dying to see since I last saw it in March. And I haven't yet decided how I'm going to do this next part.... I have so many personal stories I want to tell, but I also have this professional sort of review I want to do. It's probably just going to be a big hot mess here tomorrow. But I promise you'll laugh, cuz I did. So come back tomorrow for my first show review!

Comments

[Lynn]

How fun reading all about your trip! LOL about the shirt... I'd be the same way. And I could sure go for a good margarita these days!

[Meg]

one day the men will listen :)

on another note!! Saw your Duttons tonite on AGT!!! weeeeee they were super (boooo Piers)