Branson Finale

Today in Branson I started off with a run on the treadmill and a swim in the indoor pool. Then I ate a nice hearty breakfast and we eventually made our way to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. It was pretty fun because I got to see a lot of crazy crafts like scale replicas made out of matches, shrunken heads, meteorites, optical illusions and a lot more interesting stuff! I took the tripod in so that I could take as many pictures as possible without the flash. That came in handy several times because most of the displays were enclosed in glass and the flash bounced back. My parents also had a custom picture of themselves made with their faces inserted into the two main Shrek character's faces. They even colored them green, so that was pretty fun. My dad lives by the motto "better out than in" ;)

After that we all ate sushi for lunch and then headed to Table Rock Dam and lake to take nature pictures. I was really glad that I finally got them to come out into nature with me so that I could photograph some of the scenery. We also got off a lot of portrait studio quality pictures of the whole family during this trek and I got off about 100 shots! Everybody should now have new pictures to show off of one another now!

We also got the chance to watch Fred Claus in the movie theater that was supposedly IMAX, however, I didn't notice any difference from the regular theater. I guess IMAX is only special when you have a film created with a super wide angle lens and a ton of microphones. The movie was funny and it made me wish that every child everywhere got a present for Christmas, naughty or nice :)

Clicky!

The Ozarks (part 1)

So after leaving home at around 8:30AM and driving to Kansas City to stop at the Stetson Hat Outlet store for the better part of 2 hours to buy 2 very expensive cowboy hats, 2 bathroom breaks (in the first 4 hours), 1 lunch break (at 4PM), and getting lost in the stupid KC highway maze.  We finally arrived in Branson, MO in the heart of the northern Ozarks at 9PM. I had always heard that Branson was like a clean family-oriented version of Las Vegas, but I didn't realize that meant a church every mile and only white people as far as the eye could see! Well, it's not too much different from Iowa, well with all the white people..... I guess that's about the only thing Iowa has in common besides the dirt.

We had a super late dinner at around 10:30-11:00, but I made sure not to eat my whole plate because it was so late, but I still think I ate too much! After that we went to a 50's style club called Club 57 where a band played a bunch of classic rock music. It was pretty entertaining. And now here I sit typing all about it. And I'm beat!