Branson
The girls' schools were on spring break this past week and we (just the 5 of us) drove to Branson---entertainment mecca of the Midwest. I love family vacations. I love them because even though the girls fuss and fight, they also have incredible moments of closeness that I rarely see among the busyness of our lives here. I'm not really a country music fan but, as I've been telling my friends, you don't necessarily have to be to have fun in Branson. Our last "real" vacation was to Branson as well, 1 1/2 years ago. The weather was perfect while we were there, mostly in the 70's. It was great to watch the trees gradually turn green over the course of the week. It wasn't the most beautiful time to be in the Ozarks, but it was still fun to hike and be outside. We saw several shows Dixie Stampede (for the 2nd time), Amazing Pets and Kirby Van Burch. Of course we rode the Ducks, which is probably my favorite Branson attraction.
I'm not sure 'southern hospitality' is necessarily alive and well in Branson though. Several of the people I dealt with especially ordering show tickets and such, acted like it was a major ordeal to fulfill the order. What was up with that, I'm not sure.......Everything there is VERY expensive and you'd think they'd appreciate the tourists that probably provide more than 1/2 of the area's economy!
Everytime I go south w/my Jolie-ish Pitt-ish family, I'm a bit hypersensitive regarding racism---Missouri was a slave state, ya know?! There were tons of people there from Arkansas and Oklahoma as well but we really only had one 'bad' event that probably was racially based--the condos we stayed in had a very lame swimming pool--one so lame that even my 2 little girls really didn't like it. They did like the hot tub there though and the first night we went to the pool there were several other kids in it so that's where mine ended up too even though the sign by the hot tub (as is true of most hotels and such) said that you had to be 16 or older to go in. A day or so later we had a couple of hours to kill so all of us went down to the hot tub. There weren't any other kids around just then so my 4 were the only ones in the hot tub--no adults either. Soon, this lady who had been inside the lame pool comes over and says that the kids couldn't be in the hot tub b/c they weren't 16 and older and I stated that yes, I had seen the sign but when we had been there earlier, several kids, some younger than mine, had been in and out of the hot tub virtually all evening. Now, keep in mind, the woman didn't work there, she was another vacationer. She walked off in a huff and said, "WELL, I'm just going to go and ask". Soon she was dragging back a fairly decent guy who worked for the place and of course, he said somewhat apologetically, everyone in the hot tub had to be 16 or older like the sign said. I really don't blame the guy and if staff consistently enforced it, wouldn't have a problem with the 16+ rule but what that old, nosy, wretched bitty cared, I don't know!! She didn't even go into the hot tub after we left so it probably wasn't even the fact that she couldn't stand the thought of sharing it with (heaven forbid) black people, although perhaps she felt it was contaminated even after they left. Anyway, people like her were the exception and we had a good time in spite of her. One lady from Arkansas asked if I was a home school teacher?!?!? She was probably trying to figure out our dynamic, but at least she was very nice about it.
