Branson, Missouri

We've recently returned from our rescheduled family vacation. Our original plan was to drive to Estes Park, CO. the second week of August for a fun week exploring the beautiful scenery CO. has to offer.  Well, John's job move made that trip a NO-DO.  I am not driving back west after driving east as it was and school actually starts the 2nd week of Aug...yea!!!(more on that in a future blog).

SO with short notice and minimum time share availability we rebooked to Branson, MO. It was a great short trip of only 12 1/2 hours.  SO compared to our 2,260 miles here this is like driving to Sac. for us. 

Branson is actually a really fun place to visit.  It was a family focused Vegas without the gambling, nestled along a lake.   There was so much to do we didn't know where to begin. Theatres with shows of all kinds, amusement parks, water parks, shopping, eating, lake activities, golf..you name it you could probably do it.  We did a "ride the Ducks" tour which is a tour of Branson and Table Rock Lake all aboard a military amphibious assault vehicle.  Which means this bad boy can drive on land and float in the water like a boat which we did.  A very fun experience that we all enjoyed.  Another fun attraction was the Titanic Museum.  A fantastic attraction aboard a partial replica of the actual Titanic.  As you board the vessel you were handed a boarding pass with the name and info. on an actual Titanic passenger.  They were complete with country of origin, reason for travel, destination, passenger class the works.  As you toured  the ship you were to try and find your person to determine what happened to them on that fateful night.  So many interested artifacts, pictures and items recently recovered or found from survivors.  Of course, there was an entire section dedicated to James Cameron's movie version with costumes, jewelry and director interviews about the movie.  

 Our last day heading back East we stopped at Fantastic Caverns outside of Springfield, MO. It is 1 of 4 drive-thru caverns in the U.S. that was discovered in 1882 (about) and kept secret for 7 years during the "The Northern Aggression against the South" (said with proper southern dialect).  With all that driving through the country this past month (11 states) I realized that I really did not know about life here in the south and southeast.  You would think with todays conveniences and mass media, wether TV or internet, everything about our 50 states would be jumbled together as one big continent of a state.  I can say first hand, already we have seen it is not.  We traveled some interesting roads and scene somethings found only in Hollywoods movies(so you'd think).  Anyway all that is for another blog.....just to keep you coming back for more!  And more I'll give you!  :)