Tag: kittens

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Staycation at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

For the Independence Day holiday, we managed a staycation to our condo at The Lake of the Ozarks. We headed down on Tuesday evening, with two of the kids, hubby’s mother, Grandma Marge, and our friend Captain Bill. Since we knew we would be staying through the weekend, we even brought the kittens. (Don’t let their angelic faces fool you!)

Kiki and Mia

Tuesday night was pretty low key with H Que BBQ take-out for dinner and swimming at the pool. After dinner, we all gathered on the pool deck to watch the fireworks that were being shot from Beaver’s at the Dam. It was a nice show that they put on.

The next morning, we all headed back to the pool since it was really too hot to do much else. Midday, hubby, Capt. Bill, and the kids headed down to the wave runners to test out the new tube we had brought down. After some vigorous attempts, they decided to call the tubing excursion a “learning experience” and wrapped it up. We then headed up to the Bagnell Dam strip for a little shopping, ice cream, and sight-seeing.

Grandmas Candy Kitchen
Fun on the strip

The day on the strip would not have been complete without a little fun at the Dogpatch Arcade and the kids trying their hands at Skee-ball. Needless to say, they didn’t win a pile of tickets for their efforts. Maybe next time.

That evening’s fireworks display was put on by Point Randall Resort. Hubby grilled kabobs for dinner and we were able to watch the show right from our deck.

The next day, we took the wave runners out and headed out for some lake sight-seeing. It turned out to be so hot, that we found a spot in a quiet cove and jumped off the wave runners for some swimming time. The water was still cool enough to be refreshing, so it was a good swim.

coved out

That evening we headed over to Dog Days for dinner. They almost always have live music, there are two swimming pools (one has a swim up bar which is reminiscent of an All Inclusive resort), and the food is really good. I had a Korean Beef bowl that was really tasty and not something I find on a lot of menus.

dinner at Dog Days

The following day was the day that the kids and hubby’s mom were headed home. That evening we ran over to Shady Gator’s to see one of my favorite bands, Dr. Zhivegas, perform. He’s considered to be one of the top St. Louis cover bands, but I consider him to be a funky master of multiple decades of rock and pop. He did not disappoint. It did not take long before we were dancing until we were sweating!

Dr Zhivegas rockin Shady Gators

This was our last full day at the Lake of the Ozarks. We hopped on the wave runners and headed up to one of our new favorites, The Boathouse. They are a lakeside and poolside restaurant that is known for their pizzas, but have a lot of other options on the menu as well. We gave the pizza a try and it was incredible! Now if we could just figure out how to carry-out on the wave runner.

pizza at The Boathouse

Above all else, we had a fun vacay experience just an hour away from home. There is so much to do at the Lake and we have just gotten started experiencing it all. Looks like we even exhausted Kiki during our few days there!

Kiki getting some sun
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2 Ways to Souvenir Shop in Riviera Maya

Recently, while in Riviera Maya, Mexico, I needed to do some souvenir shopping. I’m the kind of shopper who likes to look around and weigh my options. I’m not very splurgy, I know who I need to buy for and I usually have a good idea of what I’m looking for for each person. I quickly determined there were two basic ways to shop at our resort.
The Grand Palladium had 3 large shops that were open while we were there.. I found some items that interested me. The prices were all listed in Mexican pesos, so I had to do some calculating for my USD brain. Let me also mention, I hadn’t converted any of my money to pesos. The store would give me an exchange rate of 17:1, which wasn’t the exact exchange rate, but was better than other shops that were going on 10:1 exchange or anything in between. When calculating the prices, I realized that the gift shop prices were slightly higher than I would have paid for similar items at home. So, while I would have saved money by paying in pesos, since I didn’t have any, I would actually be paying more. AND the prices in the shops were non-negotiable.
Luckily, I quickly figured out that the Grand Palladium allowed vendors to come in each evening and sell their wares. If you’ve ever been to a craft market in another country, you already know that their prices are negotiable. I chose to shop mostly with the vendors.My first stop was at this jewelry booth that was being worked by David Renteria. He basically had me sold on everything—it was all so shiny and beautiful! I really had focused in on a pendant that was decorated on both sides. One side had the Mayan calendar on it and the other side showed the Aztec calendar. It was so versatile with the colors on it.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t really planned on shopping that night and had limited funds with me. I had to remind myself that souvenirs for friends and family came first and it wouldn’t be smart to spend all my money at the first booth I came to. I settled on two cool identical bracelets with skulls on them for Harvey and Jasmine, two of my favorite, young English friends. I figured, even if they never wore them, the bracelets would be a funky reminder of our time in Mexico together. David sold me both for the asking price of one, which was so nice of him.
My next stop was at the booth being manned by Charlie Brown (he swore that was really his name too.) His specialty was in making pendants out of pesos.He had quite the collection and even demonstrated some of his craft while I was making my choices. When I asked what he would sell me my picks for, he shot me a price way higher than the amount I had left. That’s what I get for shopping when it wasn’t planned.
I went to go find hubby (he hates the haggling so usually disappears when I start shopping the vendors.) I emptied the cash from his pockets and went back to see Charlie Brown. I pulled out every dollar I now had, which still wasn’t his asking price, but he was so kind to sell me the pendants I had picked out for the kids for the amount I did have.I thought they were pretty neat looking and appropriate for each kiddo. I just hoped they would like them as much as I did. That wrapped up my shopping for that night since I had no more cash with me. But, little did I know, I wasn’t finished yet. 
A couple of nights later, we walked into another gift shop located in a different part of the resort. It had a lot of the same selection as the shop we had already visited, but a few different items. I didn’t buy that night, but a couple of nights later when we had to go that direction again for dinner, I popped back into that store and picked up a quirky little handbag I had seen previously. I don’t really buy much for myself anymore—I have way too many t-shirts and refrigerator magnets, but I do try to find one unique item for myself as a reminder of places I’ve been. Now, don’t laugh or think I’m one of those weird cat ladies, but the handbag I bought DID have cats on it. And the price WAS NOT negotiable, so it was honestly a splurge.Who knows if I’ll ever even get around to using it. In hindsight, I think I had cats on the brain. I was really missing our kittens back home by that day of the trip.Even though I’m sure they didn’t even notice we were gone, I still considered my two different shopping methods to have been a success!