Branson

I decided that we needed to vacation somewhere different.
Branson came to mind. It's not too far. It has some amazing golf courses and some after golf activities. So I booked us a room and assigned Mike to hunt down some golf. The shows we decided to tackle once we got there.
Gotta love Illinois' budget problems. On the way, None of the rest stops were open and there was cop cars parked in the medians BUT no cops in them.

Mike found 2 great golf courses. One was very short for me :) and the other was so scenic.

This was the driving range

While looking through all the vacation guides Mike stumbles across a quilt shop card. Bless his heart he took me there. OMG, I wanted so bad for Sharen to be with me. (No offence to Mike). This place is one of the biggest in the state of Missouri. 15,000 bolts of fabric. Room after room of fabric and notions and everything quilt related! I was overwhelmed, but did manage to find a few things I had to have.

Just a corner of this place

If your wonderrng where the Navy Pier old ferris wheel ended up - It's in Branson!

We took a stroll downtown and along the Lake and I visited my first Pawn shop. So many guns. I have never been that close to so many hand guns. How do kids just carry these around with them like it's nothing? It freaked me out.
There was an ad on TV where a guy is running for Governor with a gun in his hand (an ex Navy seal) telling us if "You are ready for change I'm ready to fire" and he shoots the gun. His opponent's commercial - he is sitting around the dinner table with his family praying. So different. The evening newscaster ended his broadcast with "Blessed be your day."

I have never been to a magic show, so we got tickets to see Rick Thomas.
He was so good.  I  loved it all. And, of course, you can't go to Branson with out seeing a country and western show so we selected Patsy Kline and Friends. It was good too.

After spending 4 days in the 90 degree heat we decided to visit a cave. There are so many around there to choose from. We went with the riding a golf cart through it in favor of walking 2 mile through it. It was beautiful.

The trail down to the cave was awesome too. So glad we decided NOT to walk it though.

Branson was a nice place to visit. But the visit I enjoyed the most was on our way home.
After a little confusion with phone numbers (thank You, Linda) I finally got a hold of my Aunt Vernice. She did away with her landline and just uses her cell phone now. She says it's easier to carry around with her. Ha! She will be 90 in Sept.

Me and My Aunt Vernice

Aunt Vernice is my Mom's youngest sister. My only living Aunt. She lives with one of her daughters in Springfield MO. Just 5 minutes off the expressway.
It was so nice to see her. She brought Mom back a little bit. She sounds just like her. She was so happy to see us.
It was good to see my cousin Bobbi too. She is 9 month younger than me and we played together as kids. It's great to know that she remembers the same good times that I do.