We woke up ready to have some fun at Silver Dollar City
(SDC). We were blessed by our church to
receive complimentary tickets to Silver Dollar City. Our church participates in Operation
Christmas Child and received some complimentary tickets because of that
participation.
There is free parking at the SDC. The free parking is a good ways from the
Silver Dollar City entrance, but there is a shuttle from the free parking that will take you right up to the entrance. Because we saved on the ticket fees, we
decided to pay $15 to park closer and walk to the entrance. That sounds like a good idea until you have
to walk to the entrance.
It’s not too
far to walk but it is up hill.. And it was hot . . . seriously hot. It was not a pretty sight – me huffing and
puffing and sweating profusely – but I made it.
Those children of mine were skipping practically up the hill. I may have hated them a little bit.
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| Shane had to make a face. |
Once inside the park, the boys became focused on finding the
rides. The very first ride they did was
the American Plunge which was basically them sitting in a log and plunging down
a steep hill into water.
Silver Dollar
City describes it as a “float trip with a soaking 5 story splash down at 35
mph.” Ha! Dave rode the ride with the
boys and they all got soaked.
This was Shane’s
favorite ride.
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| Soaking wet, but happy. |
Getting wet at the beginning of our day was probably not the
smartest idea. LoL.
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| Soaking wet, and not happy. |
Because they were already wet, we decided to
ride all the water rides first. We were
headed to the rafting ride called ”Lost River of the Ozarks” when we came upon
the “Fire in the Hole” ride. Dave and
the boys decided to ride it first. Here's a video of the ride that Dave took when they were on it.
Because it’s basically an indoor roller
coaster and I don’t do roller coasters, I sat by the ride’s exit and waited on
them. When the boys came out, Dave said
he wasn’t doing any more rides where you get wet. Apparently, there is a part of that ride
where water is squirted on you. LoL.
Before we got to the water rapids ride, we came across the RiverBlast
which is described as “Silver Dollar City’s exciting, all-out water war down a
river channel – the boats are armed with soakers, as are the spectators on
shore!”
I agreed to ride it with the
boys not realizing that the people around the wall of the ride could shoot
water at us! I got completely soaked on
this ride. And getting squirted
repeatedly by strangers in the face with water is not as much fun as you would
think. Ha!
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| My hair was a mess after getting squirted repeatedly with water. |
We moved on finally to the “Lost River of the Ozarks” or the whitewater rapids ride. I loved it.
I was already completely soaked so it didn’t matter how much more water
splashed on me. We actually got back in
line and rode it twice! Here's a video of part of our ride.
After lunch we rode an assortment of rides. The boys talked me into riding the “Fire in
the Hole” indoor roller coaster.
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| Me and the boys waiting to ride Fire in the Hole. |
They
actually tricked me by telling me it wasn’t much of a roller coaster. Once I was strapped in and the ride was
moving, Zach looked at me and said, “Momma, we lied about the roller
coaster.” It is dark on the ride. You can't see a lot of what's happening on the ride. At first, it’s not much to it, but then there
are 3 big roller coaster dips in the dark which makes them more frightening
because you can’t see what’s going on.
The boys loved it. They rode it again, this time without me!
While at Branson, we rode the Train which is a steam engine train but it has open air cars so it didn’t feel like a train.
While at Branson, we rode the Train which is a steam engine train but it has open air cars so it didn’t feel like a train.
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| Alex was mad because he didn't want to ride the train. lol |
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| Having fun! |
It was still fun to ride through the park and
they had a cute little skit midway with train robbers.
Dave and the boys rode the Elephant March which is geared
more to little children, but it’s a traditional ride for my family.
The boys loved that ride at Dollywood when
they were smaller, and we had to ride it over and over again. When I saw it at SDC, I knew the boys had to
ride it just once. They got off the
ride laughing about it being a kiddie ride.
We rode the Fire Spotter which was the hot air balloon
ride. It looked harmless. I almost got sick. No lie.
Going round and round was a little more nauseating than I expected. Watch the video and listen to Dave. lol
Zach and Shane weren’t interested in riding the big roller
coasters, and Alex wasn’t going to ride it by himself, so they settled for
riding the smaller version called the Grand Exposition Coaster. They rode it several times.
I was very resistant to most of the rides because I don’t
like going up too high on rides. I did
ride the Racing Regatta with the boys.
It was fun . . . extremely fast, but fun.
The Mighty Galleon looked harmless, but actually proved to
be pretty scary for me. The boys loved
it. I was ready to get off when it
finally stopped.
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| I love Shane's expression in this picture. |
The Royal Tea Party was basically the spinning tea cup ride,
and Zach, Shane, and I enjoyed it. Zach
and Shane kept it spinning so fast and furious that I had to keep my eyes
closed for the entire ride, but they loved spinning it fast while I was
screaming. Lol
After the ride started, I could tell by Shane’s
face that he did not like the ride at all.
It was a horrible situation to watch his face and not be able to stop
the ride.
Afterwards, he told me the
back of the seat comes up and secures them to the ride, and his seat was
pressing so hard on his back, he couldn’t breathe! My poor baby.
Alex rode it again by himself while Shane, Zach, and I rode the spinning
teacup ride. So beware the Electro Spin
ride.
We stayed until Silver Dollar City closed, but before we
left, Shane, Zach and Alex rode the American Plunge ride one more time. It was Shane’s favorite ride, and after his
bad experience on the Electro Spin, we all wanted him to get to ride his
favorite ride one more time. Who cares
if they get soaking wet again?!?
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| I tried to get one last picture with Shane smiling, and he makes a weird smile. Little boys! |
We rode many of the rides several times, and there are some rides I didn't write about on here. The post was getting too long! There's lots of shows and entertainment there as well, but my boys weren't interested in that!
We googled the best places to eat in Branson that have a gluten-free menu and found a place called Pasghetti’s Italian Restaurant. Zach has been having some stomach issues so we are trying to cut gluten out of his diet and see if that helps any. His favorite meal is spaghetti or lasagna, and cutting out gluten has limited his intake of these favorite foods.
We googled the best places to eat in Branson that have a gluten-free menu and found a place called Pasghetti’s Italian Restaurant. Zach has been having some stomach issues so we are trying to cut gluten out of his diet and see if that helps any. His favorite meal is spaghetti or lasagna, and cutting out gluten has limited his intake of these favorite foods.
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| Yes, that's a fork coming out of my head - not! lol |
Pasghetti’s is a very cool place. The inside walls look like a city street with
businesses and billboards. They have a working
ferris wheel upstairs too.
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| It looks like the meatball is in the back of the pickup truck! lol |
The outside of
Pasghetti’s is unique. There is a giant
meatball with a fork stuck in it on the front sidewalk of the restaurant. You can literally walk through the
meatball.
Zach was able to get a big bowl of gluten free spaghetti
with his favorite marinara.
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| Look Momma! I ate it all! |
He didn’t
care one bit that he couldn’t eat the breadsticks the server brought us because
his pasta dish was so good.
After eating lots and lots of delicious food at
Pasghetti’s, we headed back to our hotel to rest up for day 3 of our road trip
vacation.
Silver Dollar City was a blast for
the Ferrell boys and me!
