Our Family Vacation 2010 Part 3

Our friends, the Links, from Iowa have gone to Branson, MO 5-6 times a year for the past 20 years with their family.  We had heard them talk about it a lot so we decided to check it out.  We stayed for 5 days, enjoying lots of great shows.  Branson has been called the "Broadway of the Bible Belt".  We saw the Acrobats of China, Noah (a musical), Peter Pan (also a musical) and Six (a group of six brothers who sing a capella and make instrumental sounds vocally-amazing!).  We were really glad we stayed so long, because there was so much to do there!  Everyone loved the hotel pool and the 2 times we raced go carts at a track.  Mom and Dad left us at the hotel with a movie and pizza and went on a date night with Mr. and Mrs. Link.  They had dinner and saw a show on the Branson Belle, a huge riverboat that cruises on Table Rock Lake. 

     When Grandma was in Branson in November, she went to this restaurant and recommended that we go to it as well.  The waiters and waitresses at Mel's Hard Luck Diner sang with sound tracks while we ate.  They were REALLY good singers.  We had a lot of fun with our waiter, Jeff.  Mr. and Mrs. Link ate dinner with us and we all went to the Noah show later that same evening.  Mr. Link was our tour guide for the next two days.  He knew how to get everywhere we needed to go really fast and it was hard to keep up with him. haha

The musical Noah was an amazing production.  There were many live animals and lots of animatronics used.  The musical really brought the story of Noah to LIFE and was very Chirst-centered.  They were very clear about their purpose and even had a time where those in the audience could come forward for prayer.

 Lydia is Peter Pan.  No, just kidding.  Mom and Dad remembered Cathy Rigby as an Olympic gymnast in the 70's.  She flew around with Wendy, John and Michael, sprinkling fairy dust on the audience.  It was very well done. 

We spent a day and a half at Silver Dollar City, which is a theme park with roller coasters, water rides and shows.  We saw a comedy act in a saloon, a magician, cloggers and Irish dancers and a dog show.  Even me, Hannah, who never rides roller coasters, rode one roller coaster each day (with Mrs. Link's encouragement).  We all got COMPLETELY SOAKED on the water rides.

At Silver Dollar City, we went to a show in a huge outdoor amphitheater with a very large crowd.  Mom was chosen from the audience to talk like a hillbilly in a contest.  It took her awhile, but she finally caught on.  We have it on video if you ever want to see it.  Her performance was PRICELESS!!!!

One day, we drove about an hour away from Branson to see the Great Passion Play.  There was a cast of 200 people in an outdoor theater with over 4,000 seats.  They used many live animals.  Pictured above is an actor who talked about the clay and potter parables in a pre-show, while he formed a beautiful pottery vase.