Branson Vacation

Yes, I was traveling again, this time to Branson, Missouri with my sister. My husband doesn't have as many days of vacation as I do so he had to stay home, making this a girls only trip. We had so much fun! My sister had ordered tickets for several things ahead of time, which meant that on the Showboat we had front row seats and for the Scenic Railway we were some of the very first to board. The days we went to Silver Dollar City were very nice temperature wise - we went Friday and Saturday mornings, the next day was hot and muggy by 8:00 AM. We didn't have time to do nearly everything we would have liked to do, but we did do almost all the things we talked of doing. The one thing we didn't do was get a tin type photo. The one evening we had the best opportunity we were hot and sweaty and I didn't feel like it at all. But we are talking of doing it again in a year or two, maybe making it a family trip with all the kids and grandkids, so maybe we'll get our pictures then.

I made sure I did some tipping (tatting-in-public) while we were there - okay, I wanted some pictures, too: ) This picture is while we were on the Branson Scenic Railroad, taken while we waited for the train to load. I actually did quite a bit of tatting on the train on the way back to the station. I had some very interested people watching me, none of them having seen shuttle tatting done before. I was quite happy to talk to them about one of my most favorite subjects.

We also found a quiet spot to take this picture at Silver Dollar City, which is an attraction just outside of Branson. Though there are a lot of amusement rides there, my sister and I went for the handcraft demonstrations and items there. We were a bit disappointed how few artisans we actually found on-site. After talking to some of the shop people there we found that the only time there are a lot more crafters is during their National Harvest Festival. We'd like to try to go back for that, but it won't be this year.
As I mentioned, I did get some tatting done. It's about a six-hour drive from where I live to Branson, Mo. - that's not counting any stops you might make. As we weren't in a hurry we made a few stops at places that interested us, so it took us closer to seven hours. I started on a bookmark on the way down - I made it long enough to make a bracelet but I had taken out all the findings from my tatting bag - and finished shortly after we got home. I ran out of thread right at the end and couldn't make both ends the same without adding some to the shuttles, which I didn't want to do. So I played around with it, finally settling on a tail/tassel using macramé.

We had a great time the entire trip. There is a lot I'll be sharing with you in the coming weeks. Today I downloaded all the pictures from my camera while sipping my iced tea, which was just green tea with little Mango Peach MIO. Sipping my tea and finishing my bookmark is the only tatting I'll be getting done today for Tatting Tea Tuesday. I have a few more ideas that I would like to do, and maybe some of it will be done for next week.

"If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation"