Branson Missouri Vacation Days 2 & 3 Recap

Happy Sunday Afternoon!

This is a continuation of a previous blog post from last week, recapping our family vacation to Branson, Missouri.

On Day 2 we woke up bright and early, and headed out to breakfast before starting our next adventure. We decided that we definitely needed to go to Ihop to get a good breakfast to start our day. (Our nearest Ihop is too far away to ever visit for breakfast.) The first thing I noticed when walking into Ihop was the fact that there was guy stationed just inside the breeze way, and he was selling tickets to local shows, Silver Dollar City, etc.  I'm sure some people find this helpful, I found it slightly annoying. So annoying in fact, that I was sure to tell the kids to "look down, make no eye contact!" on our way back out of the restaurant.


Anyway, our meal was pretty delicious. I had a spinach omelet, that was bigger than my face. I only managed to eat about half of it and I took it back to the hotel room to throw away at a later time, since I never had time to finish it.

Next, we headed out to Silver Dollar City! This was another surprise for the girls. We got there on a Wednesday morning around 10 am and that place was already packed. We stood in line to ride a trolley from the parking lot for about 20 minutes. Which wasn't terrible at all.

We spent the entire day at Silver Dollar City. We rode two water rides. The American Plunge was a lot of fun, and was enough to take me scream my head off. Basically, you sit in a fake log and it takes you up in the air, 5 stories before sending you splashing down into water, and soaking you head to toe.  I'm not a roller coaster kind of girl, but I still enjoyed it. My favorite ride was definitely the Lost River of the Ozarks.  This is a six person ride where you sit in a giant tube go on a controlled white water raft ride. I would have seriously rode that one over and over again. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was soaked and it was HOT outside. Another must do is definitely the train ride. But watch out for the train robbers that interrupt your ride! We also spent a good part of the day doing some shopping and watching the on site artists. The girls were particularly amazed while watching pottery being made. The glass blowers were pretty amazing as well. :) We had a fantastic day at Silver Dollar City, but while looking at the website I am realizing there is quite a bit that we didn't do. It would have been worth it to spend two days there.

Here are some items I suggest you take to make your trip to Silver Dollar City more enjoyable.

*Sunscreen
*Hats for everyone (I think my head was sunburned in the first 30 minutes)
*Bottles of water
*Small snacks (Buying a ton of food from the vendors adds up quickly!)
*Ziploc bags of all sizes. Think cell phones, cameras, car keys, purses. You will want all of these items protected while you are on water rides and Ziploc bags can help get the job done. I wouldn't completely count on plastic bags, but it will help. 
*Change! There are lockers available for the Lost River Ride (and possibly others?) as well as plastic bags for sale. I had NO change when we first arrived I was completely bummed out because I did not grab a Ziploc big enough for my purse.
*Backpack. This would have carrying stuff around a lot easier, I didn't think about it ahead of time and walked around with a reusable shopping bag all day. I would have loved a backpack to distribute the weight more evenly on my back.
*Cash for spending money!
*A camera

After we were done at Silver Dollar City we (six hours was about our maximum), we ran back to the hotel to clean up and head out to dinner.

We grabbed dinner at Joe's Crab Shack at Branson Landing. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table, but that was fine. They took my cell phone number to text us when a table was ready and we did some light shopping!

I went directly to $1 Jewelry Amore and stocked up on some cheap jewelry. (I'm a sucker for cheap jewelry.) Here's what I got.

Our dinner was amazing. And seafood just seemed right after a long day of hanging out in the heat. I had the East Coast Platter. The shrimp, crabcake and onion strings were to die for. I didn't have a chance to eat my fish because I was stuffed.

After we finished up we ran back to the hotel room, changed again and headed for the water park. We stayed until it was about time to close, going down the water slide ONE MORE TIME and then went back to the room to shower and crash.  What an exhausting day!

On Day 3, it was shopping day! We got up and packed up all of our stuff that was all over the hotel room and checked out at about 8 am.

For breakfast we accidentally found a Krispy Creme Donut shop. I had a cinnamon bun, but there were so many amazing options. And I'm sure my butt grew considerably while we were standing in line.

After that healthy breakfast we headed out to the Tanger Outlet Mall! Our first stop was the Coach Outlet (of course!). That was the most exciting moment of my life... not really but I felt like a kid in a candy store. I was handed a 50% coupon when I walked in and this just thrilled me even more.

I could have probably spent all day in that store, Rae on the other hand wasn't so excited that I drug her through there. ;) I ended up walking out with a purse and a wristlet for a total of $110.00ish after tax. This is true love boys and girls.

 We also hit up just about every other store in the outlet mall. We managed to score big at the Disney Store, Underarmour, Old Navy and Toys R Us.

We also went back to Branson Landing to eat lunch at Charley's. I had an amazing Cheese steak Sandwich. Cheese steak is my all time favorite food and I've never met one I didn't like.. but this one was definitely my favorite. The Man Child ate there very often when he was stationed in Germany and now I know why he always raved about how amazing it was.

 We did a little bit more shopping at Branson Landing. We visited Bass Pro, Charlotte Russe, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and went back to the $1 Jewelry store. I got an adorable cross wallet for $12.00! (I couldn't bear the thought of using a camo wallet with my pretty Coach purse. haha!)

 Branson is definitely a place where you could just go away for the weekend and spend the whole time eating and shopping.  I obviously didn't start counting calories until after this trip.

Before heading home we had to stop and ride go-karts, just one time. I'm proud to say that Rae stomped her competition.

All in all we had an amazing family vacation. And I know it is one that the girls will always remember!