Snapshots of the Sanders: Weekend Getaway

Every family needs time "away-from-it-all," even if it's just for a few days. With Eddy having limited vacation time, and none of it left for the year, we have to do our best to move things around in order to have some good quality time together. Bumping his day-off to Friday we were able to load up the car Thursday afternoon and head out to the Lake of the Ozarks. We've driven through on a handful of occasions, but have never had the opportunity to stay and explore. After making a slight detour to Columbia (to have dinner with our great friends the Dampiers!), we made it to Lake Ozark later that night.
Friday morning we were greeted by some rather chilly, crisp air. None-the-less we bundled up, got in the car and drove to Ha Ha Tonka State Park. I had read about some castle ruins there (more like a rather large estate) and wanted to explore them. Janna was more than thrilled to walk around and explore as well. We thoroughly enjoyed the fall scenery and learning about the castle ruins. All quite beautiful. One of Eddy's buddies (Charley) happened to be vacationing with his wife there so we met up for dinner and swimming at their resort. He was much more familiar with the area and helped us get a better look at Bagnell Dam which created Lake Ozark from the Osage River. Saturday morning Eddy and I took turns running, a lovely view, but hard to concentrate on with all the steep hills. We definitely got a workout! I didn't have my camera with me when Charley showed us the Dam, so we made sure to re-trace our steps to snap some shots before heading back to Quincy. It was a nice weekend together.