2014 Vacation Wrap Up

10397080_10152578749328055_6588116143100520772_oWith it being our 3rd anniversary (July 2nd) we headed back to where we had our honeymoon at — The Inn at Harbour Ridge in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. We absolutely love that place because I guarantee there is no other Bed & Breakfast quite like it. We stay in the Big Red Barn, Sue brings us a delicious breakfast every morning, and we just sort of veg out (others call it R&R). We vegged out for two whole days and it was GREAT!

Before I go any further, I just want to mention that Sue’s cooking is top-of-the-notch scrumptious. To give you an idea, I’m not a huge fan of blueberry’s, but she made blueberry heart-shaped pancakes for us on the first morning and I was in heaven with the first bite. See the pictures below to get a feel of just how good something can taste via pictures alone!

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10487454_10152578748468055_1660763061112903512_nWe went to pick up the kiddo on July 4th from my Mom as she stayed with her the first couple of nights. She thought the B&B was so cool that she has intentions of buying it from Sue when she gets older. Sue told her to start saving her allowance lol

We ended up at J.B. Hooks for dinner and to watch the fireworks from their deck later that night. They went out of their way to make a place for us out there and the view (and dinner) was spectacular!

10505031_10152578749103055_6206441765220849802_oIrony is we tried to get reservations the night before, but to no avail. So we tried our luck anyway and it just so happens that a table of 10 decided to eat dinner inside that night and we were able to take one of their tables. I love watching the fireworks from there because the view is pretty outstanding. Add in their delicious food, friendly staff and great weather and it makes for a pretty fascinating experience.

10511511_10152578750148055_946016530954492392_oThe next day we had breakfast and decided to check out Bagnell Dam. I had realized that Alexis had never seen the dam from the other side; we’ve always been on the Lake. Needless to say she found it exciting and wanted to spend more time there, but we needed to eat lunch and get on the road.

 

10502322_10152574553263055_3284606136116265663_nThe best part of lunch? It was at one of my favorite places…Arris’. Their gyro’s are always delicious and kiddo decided she was ready to try something new. One bite and she was hooked.

That’s my kid — she has great taste!

After lunch, weĀ headed up to Branson. When we arrived we headed over to a show called “Legends in Concert” where we got to see the following impersonators: Elvis, Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, The Blues Brothers, Katy Perry and Kenny Chesney.

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10532541_10152578752593055_1817105255502118486_nAlexis has become an Elvis fan because my Mom introduced her to his music so seeing him was the highlight of her night. He was absolutely kind to her and talked to her for a couple of minutes about Elvis.

The 2nd favorite part of the night was that she was able to get on stage and sing, “Firework” with Katy Perry. She was so excited – it was adorable.

Afterward, we headed out for a late dinner at Shoney’s and had an interesting experience there. First, it was a nice place — clean & modern (it can’t be very old), we were seated, waitress came around, took our order, served it (my meatloaf was nuke warm, at best) and then she got a table of 8 and ended up forgetting about us…completely. We shrugged it off, went to pay the bill and when we tried to leave they had the front doors locked. There were about 50 people in there so I told the Assistant Manager that she needed to unlock the doors (it’s a fire hazard and against the law). To boot, she was on crutches and had to ask someone else to unlock the doors for her. I kept thinking, “What would you do if a fire started? Depend on someone else to come get the keys out of your pocket to unlock the door and hope no lives were lost in the process?” She wouldn’t budge on unlocking them other than to let us out. Needless to say we won’t be going there again.

Then we headed back to the hotel to pass out for the night (the hotel was great, but the functionality for our family failed in epic proportions). I won’t bother going into details, but I will say — it’s not a bad hotel by any means — it just wasn’t right for our family.

10351901_10152578755433055_3500483935283982944_nThe next day we got up and decided to head out to Ride the Ducks. We had a great time with Captain Virgil. He was full of wit and kept us entertained throughout the 90 minute tour. Alexis thought it was great that she was able to drive the duck, but was also thrilled with the duck going straight from land-to-water and water-to-land. They have a nice war memorial going on via the tour where you can see 17 different war vehicles used in past conflicts. They also honored our veterans and our fallen military so I was immediately pleased with the recognition. With that said, the entire city of Branson seems to be very veteran friendly. In fact, I’ve never seen anything quite like it anywhere. Beings that my husband is a veteran it gave him that warm & fuzzy feeling — added bonus!

10472169_10152578756093055_6164531434128478952_oWe headed out to the bumper boats after where my kiddo and husband went full on assault mode. They came off the ride soaking wet and full of laughter.

We decided to drive around Branson and see what else was out there and ended up finding a couple of nice stores to shop at. I found some garden plaques that I wanted to lay out by the flag a friend bought us when we bought our house. They’re memorial stones and I can’t wait to see the flag up so I can lay them by it. For now, they’re laying out in front of our house so I can display them.

IMG_7169Then it was time for a late lunch so we headed to the Rib Crib. If you go to Branson, go there…don’t hesitate…go. Their ribs literally fall off the bone, the sauce is outstanding and everything else was great. I couldn’t come up with one complaint about it. Well, other than I needed a bigger stomach to hold all the food that you get; you’ll definitely get your money’s worth there!

While it was the year of “short vacation”, going to the Lake for a few days and Branson for about 24 hours, was a great little get-away. Next year it’s the east coast for a couple of weeks, but the year after that we’re planning on visiting Branson again for 4-5 days so we can do more there. I have no doubts that we’ll be going to see Legends in Concert once again, but I’m up for experiencing new stuff there so if you have suggestions — let me know!

If I don’t let her see her Elvis she may very well get all shook up! In the meantime, you can watch his stellar award winning show here.

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