Vacation in the Ozarks
We don't get to see Corinne's family in Tulsa very often, so we took a vacation to visit them this fall. The trip wasn't quite as relaxing as we had hoped as a result of the horrible travel experience we had getting there, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We had planned to split our time between Tulsa and an outdoor resort near Branson, MO, but since we arrived a day later than originally planned, we only spent one day in Tulsa before embarking on the 4 hour drive to the resort.
We'd never been to the Ozarks before and were looking forward to a nice fall drive through the country. I guess we were a little late to catch the fall colors, but it was still a nice drive. In order get a flavor for the area, we made several stops on the way. The first stop was at a local bait and hunting shop. We didn't plan to do either on this trip, so this was an informational only visit. Our second stop was at AQ Chicken House for some down-home fried chicken.
We arrived at our destination, Big Cedar Lodge, right around dusk. Tor and Clare have stayed at Big Cedar before; in fact, it was a frequent retreat location for Clare's family when she was growing up. Our 2-bedroom cabin was what I would describe as "upscale rustic": log construction, wood floors, stone fireplace, with windows overlooking the lake below. One rather odd aspect, though, is that our cabin had a Dale Earnhardt, Jr theme. Not NASCAR, mind you, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The walls were adorned with photos of him receiving various trophies, etc. And because Dale's sponsor is Budweiser, it was really more of a Bud than Dale theme. Just odd but otherwise lovely.
The campus of Big Cedar provided quite a few amenities, and the weather was perfect for late fall. We didn't get a chance to enjoy the hot tubs, but we did spend some time outside on the shuffleboard court.
Since we were only 10 miles from Branson, we spent a day exploring the "Live Music Show Capital of the World." With two small kids in tow, we decided not to venture to any shows, but we did drive down the main drag and check out the pavilions, Southern plantations, and concert halls that host the performances for which Branson is famous. But for us, a game of mini golf and some Krispie Kreme donuts was about all we could handle.
One of the biggest motivations for the trip was to give Anders more time with his cousin Josephine. During their last meeting, Josephine was fascinated by Anders and all of the things that he could do. She was equally enthralled this time, only she would occasionally get so excited that she would shriek like a velociraptor right in his face. Anders has always been a little sensitive to loud noises so as you might imagine, he didn't like that very much. He did get used to it though. We knew he had made progress when he didn't cry one morning after Josephine veloci-shrieked while simultaneously pulling his hair. Josephine wanted to be with Anders all the time and Anders just wasn't sure what to do with a cute little creature younger than he. I guess he needs to spend some more time with babies.
Other than that, we mostly relaxed at the cabin and just enjoyed being together.
Sunday afternoon we returned to Tulsa, stopping for shakes along the way.
We were originally scheduled to fly back to Portland on Monday, but we decided to extend that by a day so that we could make up some of the time lost at the beginning of the trip.
This trip happened to coincide with Halloween. We had gone out of our way to get a costume for Anders, but since it was stuck in our luggage until late on Halloween night, we didn't actually get to use it. But since we were really looking forward to putting Anders into it, we figured that he wouldn't know the difference if we put his costume on a day late.
As it turns out, he actually didn't like wearing the costume as much as we liked watching him in it.
Josephine was a much more willing participant.
One of the other discoveries of this trip is that Anders loves cellphones. Josephine had a flip-phone style toy cellphone that he immediately knew how to use. He would flip it open, hold it to his shoulder and start talking. He didn't quite get the position of the phone right, but it's close enough. At first we couldn't figure out how he know how to work it; neither of us have flip-style phones. But then we realized that Debbie (daycare provider) has one. It's amazing what they just pick up and learn!
During this trip Anders also started initiating peek-a-boo games and improved his furniture cruising skills to the point where he would "walk" the 2 feet from couch to chair.
Anders and Josephine did have a great time playing next to each other with Clare's makeup. They would take it in and out (repeat) of the crystal bowl Clare keeps it in. Anders's favorite was the silver lipstick tube. He'd keep that safely stashed in his right hand while he played with everything else using his left hand.
One last stop while in Tulsa: a Western store for cowboy boots. Corinne has been trying to get me into Western-wear for some time: boots, big belt buckle, hat, the whole shebang. We've already scoured the stores in Portland but didn't have much luck finding good selections that fit my small and slightly wide feet. We figured that there couldn't be a better place to look than Tulsa. While we shopped, Anders spent most of his time exploring the selection of Radio Flyers in the center of the store.
In the end we did find what we were looking for, but I'll save that for another post.
Alas, our trip came to an end. And thankfully our return trip was much less "eventful".
- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket
Date: November 3, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment