We left on Friday and our first stop was at Ad Astra Food & Drink in Strong City. We'd wanted to go here for a while, but just hadn't had the chance since they're only open on weekends. It lived up to my expectations entirely. They served our water in mason jars with handles, and all the decor was cute too. We started off with some homemade potato chips and sriracha, then Landon got his classic Reuben and I got "The Lulu" which was a salad with blueberries, pistachios, and a pistachio crusted hunk of goat cheese, with maple balsamic dressing. It was absolutely amazing. We decided there might be enough room left for dessert, so we split a piece of cheesecake- it was peach with a ginger snap crust. I need to go back here again and try everything they have it was that good.
Once we had thoroughly stuffed ourselves we hopped back in the car to finish the five hour drive over to Missouri.
You can tell by the hills that we're no longer in Kansas. We got there as the sun was setting with just enough time to figure out how to set up the tent before it got dark.
We got to try our hand and propane stove cooking and ended up with some tasty pancakes.
One of the things I had been looking forward to about that particular area were the caverns. We got there and went on a short hike before attempting to adventure into the caverns only to discover that you have to go with a guide. There was an awkward amount of time until the next tour, so we left and came back for the last one of the day. When we came back though, it was way more crowded than earlier in the day, and they had sold out of the tour! They only do the tours Tuesdays through Saturdays I guess, so we totally missed out. I was bummed.
We discovered "The Struggle or Catan" which is a card game version of the larger board game "Settlers of Catan" and works quite nicely while camping. I'm not even sure how many times we played, but I think Landon and I are pretty evenly matched so it was fun.
There were animals all over the park. We saw so many deer, and there was a pack of geese wandering around the campsites. You could also hear the raccoons at night attacking the dumpster.
We decided to explore Osage Beach a little bit, which really ended up being us getting lunch, but I'm okay with that. I was going through coffee withdrawals, so we went to On The Rise Bakery and Woodfired Bistro where I got my fix with a nice iced hazelnut latte. I crept around a little, I get excited when people use the same things that we do in Mojo's. Landon and I split a Garden Vegetable Flatbread and they also had homemade appetizer potato chips (and they even refilled them after we devoured them). I'm sensing a trend with these chips.. I've never encountered this before! It's a delicious trend though.
I wasn't about to go all the way to the Ozarks and not go on a somewhat decent hike. We decided on Trail of the 4 Winds, which was nearbyish to our campsite. It was perfect hiking weather too!
Our last day there was significantly cooler, and it even rained a bit which was awesome. We ventured down to the beach area, even though it was a little too cold to swim. The lake is absolutely huge, but at any given point on shore it doesn't look that large just because it is so oddly shaped.
We went on another shortish hike, Lakeview Bend Trail, and encountered some nearly domesticated deer. It took us getting rather close for them to decide to run away.
[Sorry about the PDA picture but I liked it and it won't be going on facebook.]
It was a great trip and a lovely break from reality! Now that I'm back though, half of my apartment is already packed up and moved out so I better get my buns in gear- we move back into school in 4 days after all!
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