Missouri: Double Arches and Amusement Parks

By double arches, I don't mean this:

I mean seeing this twice:

St. Louis is one of the relatively few places I've been to more than once. On one of my families cross country road trips we stopped in St. Louis and I remember getting out and walking around the Arch. When Amber and I stopped there on our road trip it was really fun to see a familiar thing.

Our plan for St. Louis was to stay with Amber's cousins. It turns out they had some water damage in their kitchen and had to do some unexpected remodeling...so, they put us up in a hotel for the night. So we had dinner with the cousins, watch some of the Olympics, and got a good nights rest.

While I enjoyed St. Louis both times I was there, I have to say that my favorite Missouri memory is related to Branson, Missouri.

We stayed in a time share that was walking distance to Table Rock Lake. It is a GORGEOUS place!

I remember feeling so grown up because my parents entrusted me with helping my youngest brother and making sure he didn't slip and fall on the slippery rocks on the lake bed.

The best part was that my parents found out that the local amusement park, Silver Dollar City, had this great deal. If you go after 4:30pm on one day, you get back in the second day for free! It was perfect. My parents dropped the three older kids off (approximately 12, 9, and 7) and we rode as many rides as we could so we'd know the best ones to repeat the next day.

The worst part is that I wore shoes that ended up giving me a blister - between going on lots of wet rides, and walking back to the time share, I didn't stand a chance. Luckily, there were no rides that required close toed shoes, so for day 2 I just put on flip flops and stuck bandaids over my blisters and we were smooth sailing! (the bandaids ended up being a BAD idea...but that is a sad story involving swimming in the lake later in the day with the bandaids still on, and seeing really cool silver, spiny fish using goggles, and getting back really late and not thinking about taking the bandaids off after the quick shower - so, I ended up with infected blisters. Sad, very painful few days followed - but back to happier things!).

Our favorite ride, hands down, was Wildfire - an awesome roller coaster that the Silver Dollar City website describes like this:

Silver Dollar City's WildFire®, the high-flying, multi-looping, cobra-rolling coaster that travels up to speeds of 66 mph

We rode it again, and again. Often multiple times in a row. Not only was it fun - the view was great:

Our parents always gave us a roll of quarters that we could spend on trips like this. Our money to do whatever we wanted with (and a great way for them to not have to buy us souvenirs - they would say "if you still have money, go ahead!"). We pooled some of our quarters to try our first funnel cake. Yum!

Between the increased trust and freedom of having some adventures just us kids and the actual events - all day amusement park sandwiched with lake swimming - I look back at Branson as one of my fondest family trip memories.

And, we topped it all off by seeing the the Dutton Family perform. My dad bought a CD from them, and I always wish it was mine...

Great Wall of China

People keep asking me what my favorite part of my trip to China was. Honestly, there were so many unbelievable/ incredible elements that I don't know if there is an answer to that question. But, since I have been forced to pick "one" over and over again, the answer I go with is the Great Wall of China.

When I was young, I used to play this electronic game where you would match pictures of famous places to the geographic location. The Great Wall of China was one of the places (along with the Colosseum and the Hanging Gardens). At that time, I never even dreamed that I would be able to see any of those places in person. 

Arriving at the Great Wall was surreal. In part because it was one of the first things we did in China, and mostly just because of what it is. And how long it has been there. All of the buildings where we explored the wall were really neat:

At first I was nervous. Their were so, so many people climbing the wall in front of us that I didn't know how we could even join them. Luckily it thinned out after the first hill.

The steps were all different sizes, which made for an interesting, and challenging climb. And slow going!

We met some fun people - who ended up staying at the same hotel as us! Such a small world. The wife of the pair is in the top right of the photo below

We also came across some interesting signs - graffiti we couldn't read, a sign we laughed about, and then we made one of our own:

At the top, we climbed up on the desk structure. Some nice Chinese man helped push me up from below while my friends pulled me up from above.

Going back down was also interesting - particularly because of the differences in the sizes of the stairs. I ended up running down most of the way, for some reason that was easier for me...

Of course we had to have some photo ops before we left - below are two of my favorites:

One thing I have to mention about the Great Wall of China is what our tour guide kept saying about it: "If you want to walk the whole thing, good luck. We'll pick you up in 5 years. It is the same length as going from New York to San Francisco and back again."

And just because I really can't choose one best part of the trip - this was pretty cool too!