Branson, Missouri, Thanksgiving vacation (1 of 10)
I am writing this on one blog post to give an overview of our Branson, Missouri Thanksgiving vacation, but there will be links to see pictures, videos, and read more detail about each experience.
1st day, Thursday, November 23rd (Thanksgiving Day)
Since I have been working so hard, and am receiving some work bonuses, I decided to take Destiny on a nice vacation to Branson, Missouri. The main attraction I wanted to see was Silver Dollar City, decorated for Christmas. I also wanted to see some shows.
I checked out some hotels, and although some of the prices were good, a few required that we sit through a two hour sales pitch for timeshare, which I didn't want to do. After reading the reviews for each hotel, they all had poor reviews because of bedbugs. So, I rented a condo on Airbnb.
We left home on Thanksgiving day in the morning with only a five hour drive and perfect weather. We didn't have a schedule, and were in no hurry. It was a wonderfully relaxing journey. It was 1:30 when we arrived, but check in wasn't until 3, so we went downtown, just to look around.
The first thing we saw that both of us were excited about was the Ferris wheel. There was no line, and even though Destiny was a little nervous about the height, we enjoyed going around twice and having a wonderful view of the city.
Right across the road was Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. We went there next, and enjoyed looking around before going to the condo.
We had plans to go to a Chinese buffet for Thanksgiving dinner. We have done this before. In fact, we are a very non-traditional family when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving. Sometimes we have might have steak or sandwiches. I tried calling the Chinese restaurant to see if they were open, but nobody answered the phone. I decided on a different restaurant that was open, the Grand Country Buffet.
2nd day, Friday, November 24th
We brought a few breakfast burritos with us to have Friday and Saturday mornings. The people we rented the condo from provided coffee. I just can't sleep late, even when I'm on vacation. I woke at sunrise, had breakfast, played games on my phone, and watched TV until I finally woke Destiny, who was sleeping on the sofa in the one room condo.
I started to book tickets for Silver Dollar City the night before, and discovered that some of the things I wanted to do were not available for Friday. Instead, I made reservations for the Titanic Museum, which Destiny really wanted to go to, as well as made reservations for the aquarium, wax museum, and three other activities.
We had lunch at McDonald's after the Titanic Museum and going to the aquarium. We had dinner at Golden Corral after the other activities in the afternoon. We retired back to the condo early in the evening, spending time relaxing and watching a movie.
3rd day, Saturday, November 25th
Silver Dollar City had an advertised opening time of 11, but were able to enter after arriving around 10. Tickets to enter the theme park include all the rides and shows, but I paid for special tickets to enter two of the shows by skipping the long lines. I also paid for a special lantern tour of the main attraction of the park, Marvel Cave.
We had burgers for lunch at the park, which wasn't cheap. We didn't leave the park until nearly 8. I had dinner at the park, but Destiny wasn't hungry until we left. We stopped at one place on the way to the condo, but they were closed, so I ordered her a Hawaiian pizza to be delivered.
The bed in the condo was very comfortable, and I really appreciated the jacuzzi tub after a long day of walking all over the hilly park and going down and up all the stairs in the cave.
4th day, Sunday, November 26th
We woke early, and stopped at Shoney's for breakfast on the way out of town. Even though it's only a five hour drive, I wasn't in a hurry on the way to Branson or on the way home. The weather was nice both ways, with no rain, snow or ice. Of course the traffic was much more on the way home, because everyone was returning from their different Thanksgiving plans.
