We did it our way....Bayeux Tapestry

Reading about the Battle of Hastings brought us to learn of the Bayeux Tapestry that we had never encountered before. The Bayeux Tapestry tells the tale of the battle on a linen over 230 feet long and 20 inches high. The entire tapestry is a hand embroidered depiction of the battle. It is amazing, just amazing.

The kids, using three sheets of paper taped together, told their own stories in Bayeux Tapestry style. Dancer's tapestry tells of the day in Branson we went on the Ride The Ducks tour. These pictures are small and hard to see detail, but she drew the duck going into the water, driving on the water and coming back out onto the road.

Spark's tapestry is of him carving his Halloween pumpkin. Again, it is hard to see his work, but besides his main pictures he also put a boarder on the bottom of gargoyles. He got out the paint and mixed up some red/orange to embellishing his background. He really gets into the painting so much of his is background is just one solid finger painted color. He always cleans up after himself when painting so I let him have free reign with the paints.

Swiming at the pool

Any time we weren't out and about the kids were in the pool. When it was time to go we had a hard time getting them out. Here is what they did:

Floated on the water

Swam under the water

Jumped in ....

over and .....

over and ....

over.

What to do, what to do

It is Tuesday and we have two more days in Branson. It's great we have two more days left, but we are in a country music capital and we are not country music fans. This was made very clear to us when we watched the GAC show at Silver Dollar City. The singers would come out and sing a song and it seemed that every other person was clapping and singing along to songs we had never heard before. If a country music star knocked on my door I would probably think they were there to buy eggs unless it was Kenny Rogers. I do know who he is. Oh, or Randy Travis, I just love Randy Travis' singing voice and songs.

We decided to go to the Titanic museum. This picture is of the outside of the museum. It was raining, as it did just about everyday we were there, so that is the white dots on the photo. The tour is self paced and is suppose to take 90 minutes. It took us over two and a half hours. There is just so much to see and learn in there. When you first go in, through an iceberg, you are handed a passport. In the passport is a bio of one one of the people who were on the Titanic. As you go through the museum you can look for clues about if your person survived or not. Dancer and I survived and Dad and Spark perished.

Ride the Ducks was another activity we did. This is beyond fun. They drive you around town in this military DUKW vehicle that goes on land and in the water. The driver we had couldn't have been better at his job. He took us up this mountain and showed us all these military vehicles, drove down to the dam and fish hatchery and the main event is going out on Table Rock Lake. When we were out on the lake he let all the kids drive. So, so cool! We also got these duck bills to quack at other Duck vehicles that passed us on the road.

The last thing we did was the Dixie Stampede. The opening show in the carriage room was a juggler. He was so entertaining that he would have been almost worth the cost of the tickets. After the opening show you move into the arena area where you have dinner and they put on the show with the horses. The meal is a four course dinner which they serve you with no silverware. The food was fabulous. The only bad part about the whole thing is that the show is so good that it is hard to eat and watch at the same time!

There are a lot of other things to do there that are not country music related but we were out of time and money so it was time to make the long trek back home.

Eureka Springs peril

Last year when we were at Eureka Springs we bought some scrumptious candy and ate it in a mall in the center of the downtown. Spark loved that day so much that he wanted to go back again this year since we were going to be so close.

To get to Eureka Springs from Grandma Pat's house in Bella Vista we come in from the west where the road snakes through the mountains and we feel like we are going to fly off the road and tumble down the mountain at every curve because Dad is such a crazy driver. From Branson we came in from the east. The two sides couldn't be more different. The east side is flat with a safe four lane road. Coming from this way was unfamiliar to us and so we had to stop at a gas station and ask for directions. It was simple, go left at the first Y in the road and then at every stop sign or light take a right.

Mondays in Eureka Springs is not tourist day as there are very few people inhabiting the streets. Spark got his desired candy and we ate it in the square, again on the same bench as last year. The kids each got a new Webkinz to commemorate the trip, we walked the whole historic district and then got in the car to head back.

The trip would be easy because we would take a left now at every stop sign and light and at the Y we would go right. All was well, we got to a Y and took a right. About ten minutes went by and Dad and I both commented that none of the sights along the road looked one iota familiar to us. At this point, we realized that we had taken a wrong Y but this road had to lead to somewhere. Since we are quite a ways along, lets just follow this road until we come to the next town and then head north to Branson. Great plan, except that about 15 more minutes went by and we never came to a town. The Dad, who has a good sense of direction where as I have none, says that we have been heading south not east. It was getting dusky so Dad turned the car around and headed back because we were a bit nervous. No offense if you happen to live in that part of the country, but having gates across your driveways and guard dogs laying in your drive if you don't have a gate really doesn't make a traveler feel safe to stop and ask for directions. When we got back to where we made the wrong turn we were but half a block from the right Y in the road. I had never been so happy in my life to see street lights at the next town. To celebrate our victorious return to civilization we ate greasy burgers loaded high with all the extras at Fudruckers.

Silver Dollar City

Silver Dollar City was the main thing that we wanted to do while in Branson. The tickets were worth every cent we spent on them including the crazy, high pressure time share presentation we sat through to get them at half price. It was Harvest Festival and they had a lot of great demonstrations of barrel making, broom making, blacksmithing, glass blowing, sorghum making, and others but these are the ones I can remember right off the top of my head. There was a big homestead barnyard set up and of course, the kids first thing, ran over to the goats to pet them. We have goats 50 feet out our back door but yet we drive over 700 miles and they have to pet the goats. They also checked out all the chickens and ducks.

Dancer tried her hand at milking the cow. Not quite the same as a goat, the cow has double the equipment down there! This was fun. They sat in this big old rocking chair. It reminded me of when they were little and they would want to share the same chair.

The spot we ate lunch at looked out at this waterfall. It is so perfect I think it almost looks fake in this picture.

The kids went to this attraction where there was a building that had water guns positioned along it facing a ship which also had water guns on it so that people on each of the structures could shoot water at each other. The sign said:

And they did! They met some other kids there (I think the only other kids in the park who's parents would let them get wet) and had a water fight. All of them were drenched to the skin. This was the end of the first day when it was still warm out. They spent the rest of the day wet, which they didn't seem to mind, and were still damp when we got back to where we were staying.

The next morning we arrived bright and early because we knew we would need the whole day to cover everything we wanted to do. The kids rode all the rides, some of them a couple of times. The temps were in the 50's, which everyone there thought was cold, but to us it was business as usual. There wasn't hardly anyone at the rides when we were there so for most part there was no waiting and they got ride on them several times.

Even I tried out a ride, which is a big deal for me since I can't read for a minute in the car without feeling woozy. The only ride I would even come close to getting on was this huge ship that lazily rocked back and forth. It didn't seem to terrifying but most of the ride I had my eyes closed and by the time it was over I was more than ready to get off. I was fine going backward but coming forward made me oh so sick. Plus I made sure I sat right in the middle of it, I can't imagine how it would have been at the ends!

We saw several wonderful shows, Cajun Connection, Bradford Trio, Pure Heart, Headin' West, GAC Nights and Wings Over Missouri. The Wings Over Missouri show featured 11 birds, that were native to Missouri, in an outdoor theatre where the birds flew just inches over our heads. It was amazing!

The kids sitting in a huge Horn of Plenty

We also enjoyed lots of great food, a fudge covered funnel cake was probably the best thing we ate. The kids toured the cave, we rode the train twice, tasted sorghum, played in this gigantic ball pit/climbing structure, checked out a lot of the shops and numerous other things. We could have easily spent another day there, but sadly, we only had a two day pass. It will give them something to look forward to if we ever go again. Grandma only lives an hour and half from here in the winter so it is possible that we could.

Branson or bust

Friday morning we got up early and left for Branson, Missouri for a week of fun and relaxation. The Dad's mom and dad were generous to let us use a week of their time share time. There was a very heavy frost on the ground so we were happy to be leaving for warmer weather. The trip, according to map quest, is suppose to be 11 hours.
As we were going down the freeway we realized there are some rather unusual ways that companies advertise and some interesting sights to be seen so out came the camera. These three life size planes are for an airport.

This the most unusual welcome center we saw. It is a two story barn complete with a silo. Really neat inside too, it has a huge stair case to the second floor which has a gift shop.

This wind farm is such an incredible sight with all the windmills going around at the same time. These windmills can be seen for miles on each side of the freeway.

Stopped for a little lunch in Iowa.

We were well acquainted with the back of this trailer. Why? Because we followed it for mile, after mile, after mile, after mile, after mile of single lane 50 mph construction areas on the freeway where we should have been zipping along at 70 mph.

We saw this guy who had to be at least eight stories tall.

There were Indians on the prairie. Which in Missouri they actually use the word Indians. In our state that is very politically incorrect, we say Native American or people gasp. All schools and businesses that had anything to with Indians had to change their names and/or mascots.

To complement the Indian was a charging buffalo.

In our state fireworks are illegal so it seemed out of place to see huge firework stores. And the store were mega huge and they all had cars in front of them. When do you shoot off fireworks besides the 4th of July? Another odd thing about Missouri is that you can smoke in public. Again, in our state that is illegal, even in bars.

We saw this horse standing in the grass by a freeway off ramp while it's owner was on the other side of the road selling baskets. The horse never moved the whole time we were getting gas even with cars zooming by it. Not sure why they tied it there instead of by them but we figured they knew more about what makes a good hitching post for a horse than we did.

By the time we were two hours over schedule, and there was no end in sight to the road, it turned to just plain silliness in the car. Finally, 15 1/2 hours after we left home, we got the place we are staying. Whew, what a day!