June 11, 2010

We spent yesterday and most of today in Osage Beach, MO. This is why I wasn't able to post a picture yesterday. Anyway, Osage Beach / Bagnell Dam / Lake of the Ozarks is a place where Bruce vacationed with his family while growing up. They camped almost every summer there for about a week. In 1988, only a couple of months after Bruce and I began dating, I went along with him, his parents, and 2 of his nephews on this annual trip. I had never camped for that long before, but his mom and I, being the only females on the trip, got to sleep inside the camper on the 2 beds! The boys slept in the back part of his dad's pick-up truck. We went to a different music show almost every night and we had a good time swimming, playing arcade games and skee ball, and looking in all the souvenir stores. I remember that week fondly. Bruce likes to go back to the area every couple of years or so. He likes to drive down the "strip" and see how things have changed and how old favorites are still around. He likes to look at areas of land (like the place where the camp-site used to be) and remember what was there, even though now it's a big shopping complex with a Target store right on top of where he used to sleep!

Here is Bruce playing 10-cent skee ball. This is the only place at the Lake anymore where it's only 10 cents.


Our girls love it too!


And I love the vintage video games you can fine there!


This animal greeted us as we walked down the sidewalk yesterday afternoon. To me, it looked like a HUGE German Shepherd. It's hard to tell by this picture just how big thie animal was, especially around his belly. At first, I thought it was a pregnant female. We began talking to it, as it was very friendly, and then the owner came out of a restaurant where he was eating and talked to us. He said that "Max" was just a big baby. I asked him if Max was a German Shepherd and he replied to me with, "No, wolf." I almost said something like, "Wolf shepherd?" but instead I said, "Wolf hound?" He said, "No, just wolf, and he's the runt of the pack." Okkaaaayyyyy?!? Wolf? He assured me that yes, Max was 80% wolf and 20% shepherd. This was why Max was so big. Wow!