Remember, we cut our vacation a bit short. So here’s my final report on family vacation to the Table Rock lake area.

First, I was treated to one last beautiful sunrise over the lake:

Our Lodging: Why We Cut Our Vacation A Bit Short

I can usually do a pretty good job of adapting to less than ideal conditions but this lodging was simply 2 small for the 4 of us. Three of whom are quite introverted. Thus, I spent so much time on the screened porch trying to give everyone their space. Not that I didn’t enjoy sitting out there reading but at the same time, it was kinda hot outside, reading by a pool/beside the lake would’ve been more my speed.

So basically, the boys twin beds/bedroom was in the living room. Probably just about 3 feet from the kitchen table pictured up there (I’d say excuse the mess but we were on vacation and I took these photos on a whim to share with my girlfriends via text). As you can see, we had our own bedroom with room for pretty much a bed and unpictured, a tall dresser where thankfully, we could put a fan or it would’ve been so hot in there!

Guess one thing we did learn: Tiny house living is not for us! Ha. And I’m never giving the ok on a resort/hotel without a pool ever again.

On The Way Home

We didn’t decide until Friday morning to just pack it in and go home. There might’ve been a few tears (probably happiness from the kids except they weren’t crying). I explained a few times that I wasn’t mad but simply disappointed. The trip did get better once we packed all our belongings up and started on the road home.

First, we ate lunch at a Godfather’s Pizza buffet. So I was happy about that. After lunch, we went to the The World’s Largest Toy Museum-Branson. Is it truly the largest in the world? I have no idea but they had lots of toys. It was somewhere G had mentioned sounded interesting so we wanted to go somewhere he wanted to go after he endured Silver Dollar City.

We had a good time. Lots of nostalgia. Note: I would not in a million years attempt this museum with anyone under age 10-11. They’d be bored I think. Lots of looking at things behind glass with a few interactive things here and there but not enough for young children.

One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories on display:

I had that stage set and those dolls!

Does anyone else remember playing this game? Good times, ha!

Or watching Mork from Ork on tv?

G liked the Spiderman exhibit, my husband enjoyed the fishing exhibit, and J enjoyed it all though I’m not sure he had a big favorite…maybe the Hot Wheels though I didn’t get a photo of those (the Hot Wheels were all for sale!):

On the outside of the building:

Lots of different movie posters. And yes, they had a huge Star Wars section inside as well. My sweet G took some pictures to send his cousin as it made us both think of his late uncle who’d been a huge Star Wars fanatic.

Then, it was goodbye to the toy museum and Branson.

Thoughts and Conversations Along The Way Home

We decided our house would feel like a mansion upon arrival home. It did. No place like home is quite true.

We also ranked our vacations. When G said it was in the bottom 3 of our family vacations, I thought to ask all of them what their favorite vacations were:

G: Minnesota the first time we went there. Funny since that trip to Minneapolis and Nickelodeon Universe is where we discovered he suffered from motion sickness. It was a fun time though.

My husband: South Dakota

J and I had the same answer: We both fell in love with Duluth, Minnesota located along the shores of Lake Superior

We all also enjoyed our Colorado vacation. So to end this post of a not so great vacation on a positive note, my top 3 family vacations were: Colorado Springs, Colorado, South Dakota (We stayed in Custer and drove into Rapid City), and Duluth, Minnesota. I’d have voted for Washington D.C. had it not been us tagging along on G’s band trip so we weren’t together that much as a family.

Do you have a favorite family vacation?

This was actually exactly a week ago today. Wow, seems so much longer than that.

Silver Dollar City mostly saved our vacation from not being the bottom of the 3 worst vacations we’ve ever taken.

Note: There won’t be a lot of pictures with this post as I didn’t get my phone out very much.

Have I ever mentioned that poor G gets motion sickness? So amusement parks aren’t a lot of fun for him. However, he enjoyed the food and did ride a couple things with us.

The First Rides

First up, we each took turns riding a roller coaster with J called Wildfire. Always that slight fear as you get older that things might be different or is that just me? I can still ride!

Then, we were off to relive my childhood a bit and ride the Fire in the Hole. It was one of their first roller coasters and this is the last year for it so I was happy for that experience. We also enjoyed talking with a gentleman from Oklahoma while waiting to ride.

Park Food

When J and I returned from the ride, G and my husband were eating some homemade kettle chips that were very good.

At lunch, we had pretty standard amusement park food although I did feel like we got good portions for the price. The boys and I had chicken strips/tater tots and my husband had some kind of pulled pork.

Best thing, outside the saltwater taffy–brought way too much of that home, was the icee station. So the boys and I were able to each get a mix and match flavors icee. I had watermelon, blue raspberry, and drop of cherry limeade for mine.

Rides We Rode Together

As I mentioned, G gets pretty bad motion sickness but thought he could handle one of the water rides. It was called Mystic River Falls and lots of fun. Did we get wet? Oh my, yes!  Big wave right down my back. Thankfully, we’d put all our things in a locker prior to going on the ride. Our shoes were squishy the rest of the day/evening.

Fun thing I’d never seen before, for a price, they had these huge drying chambers you could go in after the ride next to the lockers. We didn’t pay the (crazy high) price but someone had left one running so we did stand in it for a bit. Hot on a hot day though.

We were going to ride the train but that turned into a bit of a fiasco which I did share in my guest survey via email a few days ago. Basically, they crammed us into the station but then, not everyone in the station was able to board and the next train was not due round for another 30 minutes! So sadly, we missed out on that. I was a bit disappointed as it was another fond childhood memory for me.

So instead, though by this point most of them–read G and my husband–were tired and cranky, we rode one called the Flooded Mine. Basically a very slow boat ride where you get these little attached guns to shoot the targets that make things happen (think piano plays, bell rings, etc).

Scary and Fun Rides

The main two rides J wanted to try were the new wooden roller coaster called Outlaw Run and one that spins around called The Time Traveler. 

We’d already decided I’d do the Time Traveler with him as the spinning did not appeal to my husband. I was a bit nervous as well but you know, the things we do for our kids and all that.

My husband and J rode the Outlaw Run first. I’d planned to take a turn as well. However, J’s first words after they came out of the ride were: Mom, I don’t think you should do that one.

My husband said: I’ve never been so scared on a roller coaster in my life!

J didn’t even want to ride it a second time.

I was nervous about riding the Time Traveler but we got in line. And it was a bit scary as the que is up several flights of steps which meant….I was not ready for it….you get in and then, go DOWN….FAST! No hill climb to prepare for the fast hill. A bit scary but it was really fun. I’d have gone again had everyone not been a bit wiped out and ready to go home by that point.

The End of Our Day

My husband and I rode the tram back to the parking lot while the boys opted to walk. They won. Thankfully, they had the keys so could get in the truck and cool off a bit. Back at our “resort” my husband grilled hot dogs and hamburgers though none of use were super hungry. And poor J had a really bad headache so took some Ibuprofen and called it a night.

Then, we briefly talked about what to do the next day including floating by the idea of just heading home early.

A week ago today, we were on our way to the Table Rock lake area near Branson, Missouri.

Branson, Missouri while a super popular vacation destination is not my favorite place to go. At all.

Every year when I was a young child into my teen years, our family vacation was a resort on Table Rock lake. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, I swore we would go DIFFERENT places when I had kids so we have done that. This was only our 2nd, maybe 3rd family vacation to the area.

So if you don’t like it why’d you go there? We went because J wanted to go ride the roller coasters at Silver Dollar City. Actually, he was looking at the roller coasters in Ohio, I forget what city…where a big amusement park is located? However, time restraints made us reel in our plans to what was nearby.

A well-kept secret: Branson is not a budget friendly vacation! Maybe if you go and stay at a resort on the lake and do nothing else but even then, some of those resorts can get pricey. Ours was not. And ahem, you get what you pay for…

Tuesday:

Our trip down there was fine. It’s only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from KC. This is nice especially with older kids/teenagers/young adults who aren’t excited about leaving the house at 7 in the morning. We didn’t leave the house until probably 10 or 10:30.

I laughed a bit as when I went on my girlfriends weekend we stopped at a nice restaurant and then, toured Truman’s birthplace. When we went as a family, we ate at Wendy’s and then, browsed a shoe store (I’d forgotten my water shoes so there was a purpose).

We arrived at our destination around 3:30. In some ways it was exactly what I expected. In others, it was not.

The screened porch was nice and I spent most my time there reading my books. I didn’t end up needing the forgotten water shoes because the resort had no shore line! And it was such a steep walk down to the dock that none of us braved it in anything less than our tennis shoes. We did spend a bit of time fishing on Tuesday night though we caught nothing but a few very small perch.

We looked into renting a boat for one of the days but ultimately decided against it. My husband said he could borrow his brother’s boat and take the kids fishing around here for free. (Boat rentals in this area were crazy high! Usually resorts have boats for rent but the one boat we saw at the resort wouldn’t have safely held 4 people.)

Wednesday

We ventured into Branson on Wednesday. Since I was a little upset and disappointed over a few things, my husband surprised me with a trip to:

The Butterfly Palace

I do love butterflies and we all enjoyed this. Can’t remember the name of the butterfly pictured here:

I have a video of the butterfly below in flight but no idea how to get it on here but you can click on this link to see what the wings look like spread out:  blue morpho:

For Daniela from Danahandmade:

Can’t remember exactly what it was called, some sort of geode.

After the Butterfly Palace, G was especially happy as we stumbled across a Steak and Shake so ate lunch there. We used to have one near us but it closed down and now the closest one is about a 40 minute drive.

Then, it was on to:

Branson Landing

This is essentially a huge shopping area along Lake Taneycomo. None of it existed when we used to go to Branson when I was a kid. It’s so built up now. However, I still think Lake Taneycomo is beautiful! And honestly, kind of prefer it to Table Rock Lake. It’s a cold water lake where the main fishing is for trout. 

There’s a walkway where you can walk along the lake. And they have fountains that put on a little show every hour starting at noon. Again, I have a video but no idea how to get it from the phone to here. Maybe I’ll mess with trying to figure it out later.

Otherwise, it’s basically like any other overpriced outdoor shopping place you’ve been with the brick sidewalks and expensive restaurants. We were trying to go the Dicks 5 & 10 which is an iconic downtown Branson store but my husband got mixed up and we went to the “dime” store in the landing instead. They are not the same!

After those two adventures, we returned to our cabin and had some down time before a less than successful dinner I cooked there. Then, we retreated to our various spaces, mine being the screened porch where I read until dark.