This post covers our trip to Branson, MO. with the Broyles and Culvers. It started last year when Machelle won a two-night stay at a Branson condo during a charity silent auction. The condo had three bedrooms, so it only made sense to turn this into a group trip.
FRIDAY
Branson is about a five-hour drive from St. Joseph. Our first stop was for dinner at Lambert’s Cafe, home of the throwed roll. This is a famous restaurant where they throw the freshly baked rolls at you at your table. It has been featured on numerous food shows. After you are seated and have ordered, you get the “Pass Arounds.” They are: Fried Potatoes & Onions; Macaroni & Tomatoes; Black-Eyed Peas; Fried Okra; and Hot Rolls and Sorghum, Apple Butter.
Here is the roll thrower and Cindy with the roll she caught.
I had the Hot Beef Sandwich, Scott had the Frog Legs, and Bobby had the Chicken Fried Round Steak.
I would put the food in the good category, but because of how famous the place is, this is a must visit with a link at the end of this post. With full bellies, we continued on to the condo. Once we were all settled, we headed out for a nightcap at a local bar called, “The Cheeky Monkey.”
It was really crowded so we had a drink on the patio then called it a night. The Cheeky Monkey is a pretty fun place so there is a link at the end of this post.
SATURDAY
The original plan for Saturday was for the guys to golf in the morning and meet up with the ladies in the afternoon. When we saw the very high prices to golf, we changed our plans to virtual golf. We went to Meta Golf in Branson Landing, a large outdoor mall with shops, restaurants, bars, and entertainment options. Here were are virtual golfing.
We had a good time and can recommend giving it a try. Just use the link at the end of this post. After our virtual experience, we met our real wives and had lunch at Smith Creek Distillery, home of Smith Creek Moonshine.
The food was pretty good, but not worthy of a link. However, their moonshine was super delicious and because you can do a tasting for free, they more than earned the link at the end of this post. Back to the moonshine. What is moonshine you ask? Moonshine is basically an un-aged white whiskey. Whiskey is aged in barrels for longer periods of time, giving it a darker color, while most moonshines are clear or close to clear. Smith Creek has 12 different flavors of moonshine. They are: Straight, Sweet Tea, Peach, Apple Pie, Chocolate Silk, Coffee, Orange Cream, Lemon Lime, Butter Cake, Salted Caramel, Cinnamon, Vodka, and Strawberry Shortcake. We had a chance to try all of the flavors.
I passed on the Sweet Tea, Peach, and Cinnamon. The Chocolate Silk, Butter Cake, and Strawberry Shortcake were a little too sweet for my taste. I did like the Apple Pie, Coffee, Orange Cream, Lemon Lime, Salted Caramel, and Vodka. It is a very fun experience we recommend you try when at Branson Landing. We walked around, shopped, and took some pictures.
We enjoyed our afternoon at the Branson Landing and can recommend a visit there. That means there is a link in the usual place. We went back to the condo, freshened up, and were off to see Dolly Parton’s Stampede Dinner Show. This show was their holiday extravaganza show. When you arrive, you get to see some of the horses and a few interesting displays on your way into the theatre.
Once inside, you sit at long tables where you can see the show and the servers can run up and down the aisles serving the meal.
If you look closely at Machelle’s phone, you can see me taking a picture of them. Here is the inside before the show started.
And let the show begin! The show was a mix of a horse competition between two teams……
….and a story about Santa………………….
…….with the story of the birth of Jesus mixed into all of that.
It seemed like an odd mix of stories, but it worked. The meal was served during the show, and it was pretty good, considering they were serving hundreds of meals in a short period of time. Here is what my Cornish game hen looked like with my soup bowl in the upper left.
We all had a great time and recommend this dinner show when in Branson. Use the link at the end of this post to get your tickets. Book early if you are going on a weekend. It often sells out. After the show, we drove through a Christmas light display that was pretty interesting.
And so ended day two in Branson.
SUNDAY
We all got up, packed up, and checked out of the condo. Scott, Heather, Bobby and Machelle were all heading home while Cindy and I were going to stay a few more nights. We all stopped for breakfast at the Star Bar Grill. From the outside, it looked a little sketchy, but we gave it a try anyway.
That turned out to be a good choice. The food tasted homemade and was pretty good. The great service put it over the top to earn a link. You know where to find it. On the way out, there was a “hog” sculpture with motorcycle handlebars that Machelle had to try out.
With that, Bobby, Machelle, Scott, and Heather were off to their respective homes. Cindy and I had several hours before we could check into our hotel, so we went to the Butterfly Palace. This is a place where you get to hang out with butterflies. Cindy really wanted to do it and I was fine with checking it out.
After we purchased our tickets, we were given a wristband to put on. The salesperson told us the wristband was good for three days and we could come back as many times as we wanted during the three-day period as long as we still had the wristband on. Cindy and I thanked her and headed off to our first display. We both laughed at the thought of keeping the wristband on for three days and returning. Realistically, how many times do you need to hang with the butterflies? Our first set of displays were reptiles.
We watched a video about the migration of the Monarch Butterfly that was mildly interesting, then it was time to see what all the butterfly hubbub was about. To get into the butterfly area you had to go into a room and wait to get called into an area that was sectioned off to prevent the butterflies from escaping. On the way out you were visually inspected to ensure no butterflies were leaving with you. This was an FDA requirement because many of the butterflies were non-native and would be considered an invasive species if they were to get out. When we finally made it in, we went up to the “feeding” table to get our fake flowers with butterfly food and learned our first Butterfly Fun Fact.
Here is another Butterfly Fun Fact.
Here are some pictures of Cindy with the butterflies.
Here I am with some butterflies.
And pictures of just the butterflies.
We were really enjoying our butterfly visit when I noticed these birds in the exhibit.
While I may not be an Ornithologist, I thought most birds eat butterflies. Turns out I was correct, most birds do, but these do not. They primarily eat nectar, like the butterflies. We had a great time hanging out with the butterflies and even though we knew we would not be returning, we decided not to remove our wristbands, just in case. We returned to our hotel room, freshened up, and headed out for a nice dinner at Landry’s Seafood House.
I had the steak, lobster, bacon wrapped shrimp, and grilled asparagus, while Cindy had a lobster tail with a baked potato.
The food and service were top notch and very link worthy. You know where the link is. It was a bit pricey, but worth every penny. If you’re looking for a very nice meal in Branson, this is your place.
MONDAY
After a walk and breakfast, we had time before we were going to Top of the Rock for a golf cart tour. What to do, what to do? Since we still had our wristbands on, we headed over to hang with the butterflies again. We had seen all of the displays on the previous day, so we went straight to the butterfly area. Here is Cindy again with more butterflies.
And here I am with more butterflies.
And more butterflies.
To say we loved the Butterfly Palace would be an understatement. We enjoyed the second visit more than the first one. We had to pry ourselves away so we could go to the Top of the Rock. Top of the Rock is found above Table Rock Lake and has several attractions, including a signature golf course, cave and nature trail you tour with a golf cart, a history museum, wine cellar, two restaurants and more. It’s a very beautiful setting where you can get married or have other group type events. It is owned by Johnny Morris, the owner of Bass Pro Shops. Obviously, we were there for the golf cart tour which included a visit to the history museum.
The way the tour worked was you drove your golf cart down a cement path and as long as there were no signs prohibiting it, you could stop, get out, hike around or take pictures, and so on. If someone was stopped ahead of you, you could pass them. The trail started by going through some woods. I was relieved we didn’t hear any banjo music.
Next, we went through a lighted tunnel.
There were some amazing water features.
One of the highlights of the golf cart tour was driving through a cave. We stopped before the cave and took pictures of the waterfall at the cave and ourselves as well.
Here is the entrance to the cave.
Just inside the cave’s entrance was a small stand that looked like a bar. You could buy alcohol drinks, sodas, and snacks like chips. It was unexpected to say the least. We passed on the drinks and snacks and forged on into the cave. The rest of the cave was pretty interesting. Here are some pictures from inside.
After exiting the cave, we crossed over a bridge that had a grate surface making it see through. That really got our attention. When we stopped on the bridge to take some pictures, it was very uncomfortable being able to see all the way to the valley floor beneath you.
From the bridge, we had a great view of the waterfall beneath the cave and the valley below.
This is another water feature along our route.
Here are some table rock formations. The last picture in this group contains one of the few prohibition signs we encountered.
Here are some table rock formations with waterfalls.
And here are some general pictures from the end of our tour.
After the golf cart tour, we boarded a shuttle and went to the museum at the top of the hill. The museum was very interesting and much larger than we expected. It took us over an hour to walk all the way through it. There were skeletons.
I don’t know what Hell Pigs or Terror Birds are, but I know I don’t ever want to come across either one.
We saw a lot of American Indian artifacts.
And clothing.
We also saw several headdresses.
And two heddresses for horses.
At the end of the American Indian section of the museum was their prize pieces. Sitting Bull’s war vest and war bonnet. And both items had been authenticated by the Smithsonian Institute.
Seeing these items was so awe inspiring, it almost left me breathless. The rest of the displays were nice, but no comparison to Sitting Bull’s items.
Cindy and I were not expecting much from the museum, but were surprised and very impressed by it. The golf cart tour and museum visit are a must visit when in the Branson area. Use the link at the end of this post or you will miss out on a great time. After our museum visit, we went to the End of the Trail Wine Bar and had a drink before dinner.
After a delicious drink, we headed upstairs to the Buffalo Bar which is also a restaurant. We were able to watch the sunset over Tablerock Lake during our dinner.
The sunset was really nice. The food at the Buffalo bar was good, but overpriced for what you received. No link for them! With full bellies, we took the shuttle back to our parked car and drove to the main part of Branson. More specifically, we drove to the giant Ferris wheel in Branson.
Yes, we had to ride the giant Ferris wheel. Here is our view from our seats on the ride.
This is one of those fun silly things you have to do when visiting somewhere new. So there is a link in the usual place so you can try it for yourself.
TUESDAY
On our final day in Branson, we walked again before breakfast then headed off to……………………The Butterfly Palace. That’s right. We had so much fun the first two days we had to do it one more time before we left. There are no more pictures this time because I have already included too many pictures of butterflies. That being said, or typed, you have to visit this place to understand just how enjoyable and Zen it is. After our last visit with our colorfully winged friends, we headed off to the Oceola Cheese Company, a giant cheese store between Branson and our house. We had to stop there because all I have heard from Scott Culver over the past three years is about this stupid cheese shop and how I had to stop there. I love cheese as much as the next guy, but how good could this be? The truth is the place is pretty impressive. They have over 275 different types of cheeses there. We bought some and it was delicious. Scott was right after all and there is a cheese link at the end of this post.
After our cheese adventure, we wandered into downtown Osceola looking for a lunch spot. The only place we saw that was open was La Casita Mexican Restaurant. We are always suspicious of any Mexican food outside of California, especially in some small town. And Osceola is a small town with a population of 909. My high school had a larger population than that. But we were hungry and they were open. With very low expectations, we went inside. Every employee at the restaurant was Mexican, which was a good sign. The chips and salsa were very good and they even had a house hot sauce that was really hot. Then it was time for the meal. Drum roll please. The food was outstanding. It was comparable to many of our California favorites. We will definitely be eating there again and you’re a fool if you do not try it yourself. They don’t have a website, or they easily would have earned a link. Instead, I’ve included a link to their Yelp page. Use it now to find great Mexican food in a tiny Midwest town.
Stay tuned for our next post about the end of our stay in St. Joseph, MO. Until then, enjoy the butterflies.
LINKS