The weather was...not too bad, except for the tornado warning we had on Sunday night! ha!
The clouds were crazy. This picture is from early on - they got more interesting as the night went on, but I wouldn't let Curt go outside to take a picture :) The color of the clouds later on was creepy!
The tornado that we saw side effects from was actually really bad - it completely wiped out the town of Joplin, Missouri (about an hour and forty-five minutes from Branson). We spent the night in our room watching the weather channel and tracking the storm; staff from the resort called our room twice, first let us know that we were under a storm watch and then a storm warning - which was nice, I suppose, but I thought it would have been nice of them to let us know what to do, and where to go, if we actually did get a tornado - I know I'm not a tornado expert, but I don't think our fifth floor room was the best spot!?! But, it never got to that point, and I'm very thankful for that!
And, the rest of the week, we had a real mix of weather...and we made the best of each day, no matter what was happening outside.
We had a few really nice days...sunny and warm. And on those days, we lounged by the pool. Sunday, our first full day in Branson was really nice...and we didn't feel like doing much after our long drive, so hanging out poolside was perfect. Unfortunately we both got sunburned that afternoon, so we were a little sore in spots for the rest of the week. Our first round of golf was also played on a really nice day (probably one of the reasons I enjoyed that round better then the second round).
We had a few rainy days, so we went shopping. If you ask me, that's a perfect rainy day activity!
And, Friday, our last full day, was pretty cool. The plan was to play golf in the morning and then have some more time poolside in the afternoon; but, it never really warmed up, so we didn't get to the pool.
COLLEGE OF THE OZARKS
When booking our show tickets with the concierge at our resort, it was recommended that we try out a restaurant called 'The Keeter Center', located at the College of the Ozarks. This College is located in Hollister, just outside Branson, so we decided to check it out on our way back from a round of golf. We had no idea we were in for such a unique experience...it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip!
Here is a line I found on the College website, describing who they are..."The mission of this unique institution focuses on providing a Christian education to those who are found worthy, but who are without sufficient means to obtain such training."
None of the students at this school graduate with debt...instead, they work various on-campus jobs to pay for their tuition. The more we learned about this school, the more I thought 'why don't more universities/colleges do this'?
Our waiter was a third year student and was very willing to tell us about the school (I think they're used to getting lots of questions). His name was Kyle, and on his name tag, it said he was from Papua New Guinea - his parents are missionaries. He asked us where we were from, and when we told him Ontario, Canada, he told us that he had some friends from Papua New Guinea and that they had returned home to Ontario to go to school, he thought the name of the school was something like 'Redeemer College'?!? HA! (I graduated from Redeemer University College) Talk about a small world!!!
The food was amazing, too!
Kyle told us more about the school throughout our meal, and then gave us a map of the campus so we could do a little self-guided tour when we were through.
The chapel on campus. Wow!
Inside the chapel! Prospective students, and their parents, were sitting in the chapel as part of a campus tour, so we had to be discreet.
The concierge who told us about The Keeter Center, also gave us a coupon to use at the restaurant - but, when as we learned about the school and it's mission, we we so impressed by it we couldn't use the coupon...it would have seemed wrong to discount something we believed in and wanted to support?!?
BRANSON LANDING
Branson Landing is one of the shopping areas we went to - I wouldn't say that it was 'upscale', but, it wasn't an outlet mall either.
Really, the only reason I'm mentioning this place is because we took some pictures of the flooding that they're experiencing.
This is the result of having to open the dams at Table Rock Lake, which then feeds into Lake Taneycomo...the latter is more like a river in a lot of areas, including where it runs beside Branson Landing.
Something tells me the White River Comedy Club may not be doing a lot of business?!?
That little sign over to the right says 'Slow - Speed Bump'...it's beside a sidewalk that usually runs along the side of the water.
Oh boy, I tried to break this up, but each post still got really long?!?! If you're still reading this, thanks for sticking with me...and, I hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip.
So, to wrap it up and keep it short and simple...it was great, and Curt and I would both recommend a visit to Branson for anyone!
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