Mini-vacay: Part One

After Christmas presents were opened, dinner was had with a couple of guests who had no family nearby to celebrate the season, and a charity fundraiser was completed by myself, we decided to get away from home for a few days over the New Year holiday. We had no specific plans but we looked south towards warmer weather and settled on the Lake of the Ozarks region which has plenty of rentals to choose from. We found one in a condo next to the lake, reserved it and drove down the following day. Above is the view from our living room.

My eldest daughter home from college, was gracious enough to plan everything out and so after cooling our heels for an hour or so, we went spelunking in a nearby cave known for it's elaborate formations. In fact, it is a sought after wedding venue these days which I suppose it why it is called Bridal Cave. 

Since it's discover 100+ years ago, it has been on the tourist track and we could see signs of old ladders and walkways overhead between some of the chambers. To allow for modern tourists, there has been a tunnel added between chambers so that one doesn't have to climb 25 feet into the air, walk across a board spanning a huge void and descend on the ladder seen above. 

The cave was pretty wild with all the stalactites....

... stalagmites and even columns where the two have grown together.

I don't know how deep the cave went but our journey ended at this point where the way forward was to descend 30 feet to a river below and float onto into the bowels. We, along with the other tourists, chose to walk out the way we'd come. 

After the cave, we ate supper at an unassuming little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Table 33. You had to walk in, order off a very limited menu off the wall at a counter, find your seat, and the food was brought to you in short order. The menu, maybe 12 items in total, covered everything from southern comfort food to Jamaican food. Eclectic is about the only way to describe it. After eating my shrimp and grits with a few bites of my wife's butter cake, outstanding would be another word I would use to describe the place. We all agreed it was the best place we had eaten at in many years.

Back home, the dock in front of our rental was all lit up and worthy of a photograph.