All’s well that ends well. After working out the condo situation, Independence Day Lake Ozark Trip 2017 was on! The Land’s End condo we rented through Home Away was gorgeous beyond our wildest dreams. It had two master suites, another bedroom with twin beds, a pull-out sectional couch that also had a chaise lounge built in for sleeping. I’m not sure the homeowner will ever know how grateful we are for that rental, although I left a thank you in the guest book. It was huge and beautiful and more than adequate for our group! Contact me if you ever want to rent the place and I’ll give you more specifics.
We started off our weekend with a stop by the Osage Beach Outlet Marketplace for a pair of shoes (not for me) and then proceeded to Backwater Jack’s to wait for our friends to arrive. We walked around the newly remodeled and expanded complex which now features a ginormous pool with a swim up bar, and had a great dinner with our friends. I had a seafood pasta that was absolutely divine!
The next morning brought Captain Bill to the lake who was ready to take us out on the boat. We took a quick boat ride to a quiet cove to avoid all the holiday water traffic and hung out in the cove most of the day. We made a pit stop at Docknocker’s for some of the best peel and eat shrimp in Missouri and on our way back to the condo we stopped at Dierberg’s grocery and picked up dinners for the rest of the weekend. Hubby grilled some delish steaks and pork chops that night while we watched fireworks from our screened in balcony.
The next day, we all headed over to the boat docks again. Since Captain Bill has a pool adjacent to his dock, some of us stayed there and swam while the others went out on the boat for some serious tube time. Even though Captain Bill had forgotten his swim trunks, he tubed just as well in his cargo shorts.
We finished up that day with some grilled steaks and baked potatoes for the birthday girl’s dinner but we were so exhausted after that, we forgot to cut the birthday cake!
The next morning, Captain Bill and our other friends were due to depart, and other family friends were due to arrive. In the interim, since we had never been there, we headed over to Dog Days to check it out. It’s a very small waterfront bar/restaurant complex, but we ate some killer nachos on the pool deck and enjoyed their pool for a while before heading back to our condo pools–one adult and one kiddie.
We hung out at the adult condo pool until our friends arrived. The pool was beautiful, it overlooked the lake and had a waterfall feature that the kids had a blast playing in. Afterwards, we headed back up to the condo. Hubby grilled again, but it was chicken spedini and bratwurst this time. I’ve never had chicken spedini done on the grill before, but it was incredible. I only wish we had a Dierberg’s at home, so we could try some of the other ready-to-cook specialty meats they carry in their meat department. After dinner, we headed up to the kiddie pool, so the kids could play in the lazy river. Thankfully, no one else was at that pool at that hour so the kids played a fun game of shark.
The next morning was departure day. We loaded up all our clothes and leftover food, cleaned up the condo, and headed out. All the boys rode home, while the girls stopped at Bagnell Dam Strip. We ate ice cream, did some shopping, and even had time to kill at the arcade.
It’s been years since I’ve played skeeball and apparently I’m horribly out of practice.
We arrived home after a short, one hour drive. Exhausted, sunburnt, and happy, we enjoyed Chinese delivery for dinner and listened to the fireworks from our bed. What a great Independence Day!
Travel tidbits from my life