A Day of Heat & Humidity and then Hail -- BIG HAIL

We went to the Renaissance Festival (because we had free tickets).

Jackie, Lynn and Ann

I liked the animal things

Ann with the Giants

Ann with the Giants

Me at the end of our day -- very hot and soaking wet
(in case you can't tell from the hairdo)

We had just arrived home -- noticing that it was starting to get cloudy. The next thing we knew it was like someone was pounding on the walls with a big club. We looked out and much to our surprise, it was hailing -- hail as big as baseballs. You can kind of get an idea with the picture. Most were the size of golf balls, but there were definitely ones the size of baseballs. I heard on the news that in some places, hail was 5-1/2 inches -- the size of softballs. It sure did a number on my car -- many dents and some quite large. I'm sure it's fixable -- have an appointment next week to have it taken care of. There have been dent repair shops/trailers pop up on every street corner. Also, roof repair signs on a good share of homes in the area. Quite a lightning/thunder storm -- it was like a strobe light show in the sky just going round and round in circles. Glad we were not out for a walk right at that time.

A Trip to Branson

Before arriving at Branson (and after our little hour detour because we missed a turn), we stopped at the Oseaola (sp?) cheese store. This picture shows only a fraction of the cheeses they had -- and there were samples for all the different kinds -- yummy!! We each bought some of our favorite cheeses.

Of course by then we were hungry, so we stopped for lunch at "Lambert's," a favorite of Lynn's, who had been there before. It was a very fun experience. Besides the food being good (notice my salad in the plastic bag in front of me -- yes, it was that big, and also Ann's cinnamon roll --pretty good size, don't you think), they have "pass around food." That's why so much of my salad is left -- I totally filled up on the pass-around food (fried potatoes and onions, macaroni and tomatoes -- those were my favorites, but there were other choices as well). Also, they have wonderful rolls. The only thing is they throw them to you across the room. Luckily, Lynn was there to do the catching, I'm sure I would have dropped one. She caught two for me.

Here are the "Happy Cooks." Notice that I'm not among them.
I'm looking out the window at the golf course.

Ann and I in front of Lion and Lamb at the Sight and Sound Theater.

Ann and Lynn coming out of Sight and Sound Theater after seeing "Noah-The Musical." It really was an amazing experience. The theater and the scenery was gorgeous. They had many live animals, including camels, horses, cows, ducks, birds, etc., etc. I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of them by now. Also, the inside of the Ark scene had all the animals you could think of that were animated and including all the live ones. Spectacular!! The only thing that we were disappointed about was that it wasn't Michael McLean's version.

We also went to see the "Twelve Irish Tenors" and the "Dutton Family." They were both wonderful shows. In fact, there are so many good shows to see -- unfortunately, there just isn't time for all, but we loved the ones we saw and had a wonderful time in Branson. Thanks to Ann we had a very beautiful timeshare to stay in. Thanks Ann!!