Burl’s brother Ed and his wife Agnes arrived Wednesday from Chicago and we’ve been enjoying family time for the last few days. We visit each other annually and rotate the location and the host provides the “entertainment”. Since we couldn’t offer anything really cool like the Architectural Cruise of Chicago on the Chicago River, we opted for some of our local favorites!
The guys spent the day yesterday buddy bonding and doing whatever guys like to do when they hang out – we know their activities involved breakfast at Ziggie’scomplete with biscuits and gravy and a stop at Harbor Freight. Snore.
Agnes and I had a different agenda. We made our first stop at the Friends of the Library fall book sale and scored a few bargains. Then we traversed the mall doing much more looking than buying but agreed it’s a great way to see what the retailers are trying to convince us we want to buy. Trust me, they were NOT convincing yesterday.
For lunch we chose Cafe Roswitha since we both like non-chain places and I knew their food would be good. After a quick stop to peruse the shoe selection at Marshall’s we headed to the Nature Center and did the long walk – it was a perfect afternoon to be out in the woods with the air very crisp and not a cloud in the sky. On the way home we stopped by Tammy’s and let her practice her spiel for giving her Home Tour. Since I was there on Tuesday there is new paint in all the living room plus the entry hall so it is really shaping up nicely – and she also has her art pieces on the walls. Damn, she’s more organized than I am after 6 years at this place!
Today we decided on a road trip – destination Eureka Springs which delighted Agnes as she’d never been to Arkansas. The photo above shows the 4 of us at Thorncrown Chapel which we learned was #4 on the list of most important pieces of architecture in the 20th century – WOW! It truly is one of my favorite places and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been there.
We spent a few hours traipsing around the business district of E Springs, had some lunch and then left for Branson. No trip to the Ozarks is complete without the Branson experience and we picked the Andy Williams Show knowing it would provide music we would all remember. 
According to Wickipedia, Andy is almost 81 years old but he gave a terrific performance tonight and his voice was quite strong until the last few numbers.
His current show is reminiscent of his TV Variety Show from the 60’s and he really had some great acts – especially one comic who totally cracked me up. And to his credit, the show lasted over 2 hours and he appeared in most of it. If Branson audiences are any sign of our economic times then we truly are in a recession – the theatre was about 25% full and we saw very few tour buses while in the Branson area. Hopefully they’re all waiting for the Christmas shows which start in a week or so.
Prior to the show we had dinner at the Moon River Grille which we all highly recommend – great food, decent prices – only bummer was that they were out of Bud Light Lime. 
Hopefully we’ve earned good marks as tour guides and now the challenge returns to Ed and Agnes to host us next fall!
As a follow-up to an earlier post, just an FYI that when I entered the meal I had at the 417 Cooking Class, it came to 37 points – and that was without the dessert since I had no idea how to calculate that baby. I just found it amusing to actually realize the obscene quantity of food I ingested.
