Vacation Found

What a wonderful weekend we had. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We started out about noon on Friday. It took us 3 times before we were actually on the road. We kept forgetting things and wound up turning around 3 times for things. We stopped for lunch in a small town. All the times we have driven down to the lake we drive through all these small towns (500 or less people) with these little hamburger joints. We decided to stop at one and we were not disappointed. One of the best meals we've had. We were down at the lake and in the water by 2pm. It was so hot on Friday. I think the temp was 100 with a heat index of 115. So the water felt wonderful. We cooked out Friday night and Saturday for lunch. Then Saturday night we found our new favorite place to eat at on the water. Here are some pictures of our adventures this weekend.


We found this great restaurant called "Captain Galley's". It has Caribbean flavored food. It was awesome. I had something called Bimini Beef. It was out of this world. Looking out at the water and eating our island flavored food, you would think we were in the islands and not in the middle of Missouri.










While reading a tourist magazine on The Lake of the Ozarks, Laura found a state park called "Ha Ha Tonka Park". It had the ruins from a castle that was built in the early 1900's. It was really neat. If it weren't so hot we would have ventured out onto the trails. We have plans to go back down to the lake in late September or early October. This park is on our list. The views were out of this world.








Here is a birthday picture. I love this picture of Laura blowing out her candles. The theme for her birthday this year was the "islands". I think our boat was perfect for the background. I wonder what her wish was?












Here is a picture of the two of us. She's smiling cause I told her what her real birthday present was.













Another picture of us. Damn, I am so lucky.













So that was our weekend and her birthday. The couple that owns this little motel that we go to at the lake are very particular people. They don't just let anyone stay at their motel. There are only 9 rooms and they like to keep their motel very family friendly and not too rowdy. The Lake of the Ozarks can get pretty wild, and they want to make sure they keep their place nice and quiet. That is what is so nice about this place. With only 9 rooms the place never feels "crowded".

The entire weekend (and most of the summer) we have been trying to figure out how we could rent a house for the next summer. Some of the houses are just outrageous in price ($1500 for one month). Well, this morning as we were checking out the couple that owns this motel told us that they have a 2 bedroom apartment below their house. This apartment walks right out to the water. They said they rent this apartment out for the season and next year they will be renting it out monthly. So instead of having to rent it out for the entire season, you can just rent it out for the month or two. They said that we needed to keep this in mind for next year. How cool is that?? And their price is well within our price range. Looks like we have just found our new summer home. We are excited beyond words. The summer of 2007 is looking great so far.