Posted by By Oretta Croushore, Property Manager for Home Rental Services
Like many other people who grew up in the Kansas City Metro area, I’ve been going to Branson, MO my whole life. We typically bought season passes to Silver Dollar City every Summer and took a few trips south every year. We always stayed in the same hotel right outside the park because we were too seasoned to stay on “the strip.”
When I met my husband, I introduced him to the playground of my childhood. When our daughter came along, we started visiting during the Thanksgiving holiday. There’s a comfort in going somewhere you’ve been a million times. It can be a little like coming home. At some point, you start to understand why they say you can’t go home again.
I reached that place a few years ago. I felt like there was more world for us to explore and it was time to stretch our wings a little and change up the family vacation. I may have said I didn’t care if I ever went to Branson again. (I am only being a little bit dramatic.)
My Husband’s Birthday Wish
My husband has dropped a few hints, here and there, that it has been a while since we’ve been to Branson. He follows all the updates from Silver Dollar City and knows all the latest rides and attractions that are coming. I pretended not to hear for a while. When he mentioned what he really wanted for his June birthday this year was to go to Branson again, I could no longer ignore him. He doesn’t ask for much, and always prefers to do something fun over getting stuff.
We have a busy 16 year old, who just finished her sophomore year in high school. She’s active in theater and choir, works a job, and dabbles in costume design among other things. My husband works for a middle school. Like so many other businesses, schools are running on fewer and fewer people. He’s worked more 50 plus hour weeks this last year than any of us care to think about. Of course, I work full time as a property manager for Home Rental Services.
We also volunteer with the theater and choir booster club and Girl Scouts. It seems like there’s entire weeks where I feel like I barely see the people I live with. It’s easy to get caught up in being busy and doing what your calendar dictates. I have these moments, as I see my daughter’s friends graduating, where I realize how fleeting this time is. I want time to stop. More days than I care to mention, I want it to go backwards so I can relive some things, knowing I had less to worry about than I thought I did.
The Journey to Branson
I wasn’t really looking forward to going to Branson at first, but I was going to be a good sport. I started to see my family’s excitement starting to rise as we had something to look forward to. It took us longer than normal to book accommodations. I found a great AirBNB on a golf course. It was located in a different area than where we usually stay. And it happened to have a full size video arcade system with 300 games on it… we knew we had found the right place. Suddenly, my dread started changing to excitement.
Just about as soon as we left town, I started to feel my tension lifting. Better than that, I started to feel my family relaxing. I heard one of my favorite sounds; I heard laughter in my car. There was good natured ribbing, inside jokes, singing to the radio, learning a little about each other. It was all the things a family road trip should be, in my mind.
Downtown Branson
For all the years I have gone to Branson, I have never spent much time in Downtown Branson. We decided to spend our first day walking around and discovering the different fun shops, popping in for coffee drinks and pastries, and just exploring. There was no pressure to get in as much as possible, it was just good fun and relaxation.
We even discovered an awesome new place for ice cream. You have to check out Boba Joes in Downtown Branson. You can get boba drinks, but they also have some of the best ice cream you have ever eaten. It’s made locally from a local creamery. Lots of different flavors that are unique as well as your standards. The people are super sweet. If you can’t decide, you can even get a nine flavor flight!
Beyond the Lens
We took the opportunity to check out another place we have never been. There is a place on The Strip called Beyond the Lens. The best way I can describe it is a pop culture museum meets an arcade. This place was one of the most fun vacation attractions I have experienced anywhere.
As you walk through, you can experience all kinds of arcade fun from old school to new. There was a room where we played an old Atari game, the original Super Mario Bros, and my daughter fell in love with Sonic the Hedgehog. We played interactive dodge ball to protect our planet from aliens, skeeball, and a football throw so hard we felt it the next day.
There is a whole Big Foot attraction as well as an alien area. There was a ball pit outside the alien area that’s easily four feet deep. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard my side hurt, but watching my husband trying to maneuver the ball pit while our daughter sank in deeper was so funny I couldn’t breath! If you are planning a trip to Branson any time soon, go to this place! You won’t be sorry.
I opted to have some alone time while the other two went to Silver Dollar City. Daddy/daughter time is priceless. Besides, I didn’t feel like saying goodbye to my all time favorite ride, Fire in the Hole. I wanted to remember it the way it lives in my memory. Seriously, the best ride ever! It will be missed.
Since the rest of the world was there to see Fire, the fam was able to walk onto nearly every ride. They got done, after doing everything they wanted to do in the park, in time for us to have dinner together and get in some pool time!
This ended up being one of the best vacations we’ve had. It wasn’t fancy or long. I will hold those laughs and memories with me as life gets busy and stressful again. If you haven’t had the family reset in a while, it’s worth it to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del. It doesn’t always matter where you go, but who shares the memories of that place with you.
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