The Battle of the Ozarks

 We've been studying the Norman Conquest over the last few weeks, so we decided to make our own Bayeux Tapestry. I guess it will have to be called something else, but we haven't decided on a name yet.

This tapestry chronicles our journey to Branson last September. Perhaps it doesn't have quite the overwhelming significance of the Battle of Hastings, but it was memorable and involved more than just horses and thrones, so I think we can hold our own.

Our medium was fabric and paint rather than delicate, detailed embroidery. Oh, and we wrote in English instead of Latin. Otherwise it's about the same. You know, aside from the skill and time involved. Oh, and that historical significance thing.

Here is your brief tour.

Day one, we left in the afternoon and trekked across the hills and forests to our hotel. The swimming pool was extremely critical to the success of the venture, so it figures prominently.

The next day was our trip to Silver Dollar City, which has been previously documented. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that Zaya was the one who chose to draw a roller coaster, and Mim chose Marvel cave.

 On the third day we wanted to spend as little money as possible while still being on vacation. Well, I say "we", I think we know that's not entirely true. It was a wise decision, though. We went to see the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery, which had much more than four fish in it. Those are simply example fish. We also hiked a long, winding, nay, eternal trail at Table Rock Lake. I don't know who measured that trail for the map, but they can't possibly have been right in their estimate. Either that or they weren't traveling with young children.

We rounded that day out with a little mini-golf, where we learned fun lessons like "An athletic, 31-year-old man is going to be a better player than a small, 7-year-old girl." and "Hitting the ball as hard as you can is not often your best strategy for putts."

 On Sunday we found a local church to visit, which we loved. It was an Evangelical Free church, and everyone was so friendly.  We drove on to Springfield for lunch and let the kids play for a while in the Greene/Close Memorial Park. They also had a Butterfly Garden which was lots of fun. The Japanese garden is beautiful, or so we've heard. They wouldn't let us in because we didn't have any cash on us, and didn't really want to walk all the way back across the park complex to dig it out of the van. No, I'm not bitter.

So our tapestry may never be found in a museum, but it made it to the wall in the hall, which is a pretty high honor. I know the details are a bit fuzzy, for instance, the Harvest E.F. church was a large brown brick building of fairly modern design; not exactly the gray, tall-steepled country church you see pictured here, but then I'm pretty sure that Harold the Unfortunate didn't actually look like this: