Hitting The Road - Yes, Aga

 Where did that three years go?  Time for another fabulous Fowler Family Reunion!  Michael's sprawling family convenes every three years at another destination in the United States for a week long gathering filled with displays of new babies, new husbands/wives and maybe even pets.  It's always a rollicking good time.  Our next reunion, in 2028 will mark the 50th year the since the clan started the event.  We think the first one had about 36 participants but this year's festival included over 90 relations.  This is quite a logistical undertaking.  It's not easy to find adjacent condos to house the horde and we all get together for dinner every night.  Dinners must accommodate a range of people from those cutting their first teeth to those losing theirs from old age.  Food accommodations are not generally regarded.  You can only do so much.  The reunions started with the broods of the three Fowler matriarchs and people have been marrying and breeding with abandon ever since.  So where was it this time?

Branson, Missouri

Really?  Branson Missouri?  In July?  Really?  Review above on difficulty of securing accommodations for 90 people.  Branson Missouri is like.... well...unusual.  If you have ever been to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee you would be looking at Branson.  But you probably haven't been to Pigeon Forge.  It is a town built almost exclusively for tourism -- a sort of Country themed Las Vegas.  And, like Vegas, it offers a staggering amount of entertainment options if you are in the mood.  Lots of country and western, amusement park, Museums (Titanic, Ripleys, some weird upside down houses, Dolly Parton's Stampede, golf and a big lake).  There was a golf scramble, a day on the lake, the amusement park (all of which kept everyone busy).  But it was HOT!! How hot?  Like 110 degrees hot.  It takes a lot to slow down the Fowler clan but by ten at night people were pretty much sweated out.

It was a reunion of bumper crop babies -- all outrageously gorgeous and we are quite sure brilliant.  Ages ranged from under 6 months to 85.  This will be a short blog because who really wants to hear about the minute details of other families lives but we think you'll enjoy these photos with a glimpse of what goes on and the area we explored.  Shortly after this, we'll start publishing our blogs about our six week trip to Scandinavia and the Baltics.  The family reunion gave me a gift that kept on giving as you'll find out in the subsequent blogs.  Until then we hope your summer was as fun as ours and we look forward to hearing from you. 

One of the big draws to Branson (other than all the things Deirdre mentioned) is Table Rock Lake.

The houses we rented overlooked the lake.

One of the interesting things we did was go to Top of the Rock, where you drive four person golf carts on the Lost Canyon and Cave Nature Trail.

This photo and the one above clearly show how Table Rock got its name.

This horse shoe shaped rock formation leads into the cave.

The four person golf carts line up to enter the cave.

The lights inside the cave when we first entered gave the cave an otherworldly effect.

Without the effect of the lights the waterfall in the cave looks more natural.

Two different views of the wolf sculpture...

and one of the deer sculpture on the Nature Trail.

James, Deirdre and Justin underneath the Eagle sculpture.

The one living "natural" thing we saw on the Nature Trail was this woodchuck. They obviously leave food for the woodchuck so he will make an appearance when he is hungry.

There was ironwork with inset designs along the Nature Trail. This one of a kingfisher was just one example. 

Every reunion we do a group photo on the last day. As you can see from this photo it was a very large group (James, Justin, Deirdre and I did not appear in the photo since we had to leave early).