Big Cedar

Thursday, we set off for a weekend of fun, relaxation and bliss. In November, I had purchased one of those $59 "Branson Getaway" packages from Bass Pro where you get 3 days and 2 nights plus $50 in show tickets and a $25 gift card for Bass Pro. Basically you get $75 worth of freebies in addition to the 2 nights in a nice hotel, all they ask in return is for 90 minutes of your time to try to sell you a piece of the time share pie.

Normally they put you up in the Radisson. We stayed there the last time we did it and didn't care for it so we were supposed to stay in the Clarion, but then at the last minute Bluegreen called and said they were putting us up at Big Cedar in the Valley View Lodge. Ok, that seems nice, a little ouf of the way, but nice. All we wanted was an indoor pool and a hot tub and they had that so we were good.

We left for Branson by 5:45, we hit nasty traffic on I-44 in Joplin twice, it took us over an hour to get to the Rangeline exit, which normally takes right at 25 minutes or less. By the time we got to Branson it was after 8:00 and we were beat........ We checked in and crashed. Or tried to. The idiots in the room next to us had their tv blaring all night long, we could hear it over our heat/AC unit running less than 4 feet from our heads. It was loud. Around 1:00am we called down to the front desk and complained, it took them well over an hour to turn it down, no rest for us though, Bob and I were exhausted all day Friday. We did our tour of Big Cedar bright and early Friday morning and I asked them up front, is there a resort in Wyoming, near Cody, 'cause that's where we like to go. They said yes, Cody is very popular!! At the end of our presentation they show us the book and there is nothing in or near Cody, I was interested in joining (a cheap package) but ONLY if there was something in or near Cody. We were pissed 'cause there was nothing. There was a resort up in Montana, but sometimes we don't GO all the way to Montana, that's another few hundred miles........ So, we wasted our time for nothing. Oh well, the hot tub was more than worth it.

We went to Branson Landing for some shopping and lunch at Joe's Crab Shack, yeah, I got crabs....... LOL I love that place! We walked the Landing and shopped like crazy people. MWH found some super fabulous deals at Aeropostale and Claire's while I ooh'd and aah'd at the cute crap at Build-A-Bear Workshop. Yeah, I'm 34 and I still go into Build-A-Bear just 'cause I LIKE IT. I swear when I have grand kids they'll be gettin' a room in total BABW gear! LOL Luckily my friend's daughter was having a birthday party this weekend and I got her a little something from BABW since I was there. They had the most adorable little valentine's there too..... sheesh, I'm too addicted.

Friday evening we went to Lone Star for the best freakin' steak EVER. Both MWH and I had garlic mashed potatoes and Kaitlyn's chopped steak had the most amazing mushrooms!!!!!! I swear, we were all ready to pop after that meal, it was sooooooooooo good!!

We got back to the room and changed into our suit and spent time in the hot tub which was outdoors and it was so neat to be under the stars in the peace and quiet sitting in that relaxing water...... Bob and I both agree we gotta get us one of those. LOL That's an amazing feat, we never agree on anything, but that we did agree on! LOL

We were all tired and ready for bed so you'd think we'd have slept well but again the neighbors with the noise decided to keep us up. UGH! How annoying. We got up early Saturday morning, packed, loaded our gear and ate a great breakfast at Big Cedar and headed over to the pool for one more swim for Miss Whineyhiney. You gotta love that kid.

After that we headed back to Branson for one last drive down 76 and to hit any little shops we missed.

We really didn't do much but it was so nice to get away........ I hope to do it again soon!