Joe's Place

We recently took a week for summer vacation 150 miles away  in the Ozarks in southeastern Missouri. Many people this year took vacations closer to home, but frankly we did so because we really happen to enjoy this part of our beautiful state.

The first part of our vacation we spent at Clearwater Lake. I am so blessed to have two very generous aunts and uncles that allow us to use their vacation house (a.k.a. the “club”) and boat when we’re down there. It obviously saves us money to be able to do that, but staying at a place that you know really well and have childhood memories of is the icing on the cake. I’ve got a pretty cool family for sure.

We had some pretty ambitious plans to have our three sons and their families join us, but that didn’t exactly work out for two of them. We were disappointed and I know that they were too, but those things happen. We at least got to share some time there with our oldest son and his wife and their four children.

I couldn’t help but think of the times when I was young and we would take our vacation there. The big difference was that those vacations always seemed to end up involving doctors or emergency rooms somehow. No excitement like that this time, just having the granddaughters buzzing all over the club and generally enjoying themselves as kids do provided all the excitment that we needed.

The second part of our trip we spent in the very quaint and pretty little town of Eminence, Missouri. While not far away from the Clearwater area as the crow flies, it’s one of those places that’s hard to get to. The beautiful Jack’s Fork River flows through town and the Current River is also near by.

This area is definitely what the Ozarks are all about. Eminence has all the normal array of tourist traps including gift shops, convenience stores, lodging, cabins and restaurants. We spent two nights at the Hawkins House Bed and Breakfast and had a fabulous stay there. We can wholeheartedly recommend the Hawkins House if you’re ever near this part of our state.

Vacation this year was full of fun, relaxation and even a little drama. In particular I enjoyed daily walks with my lovely wife, being pontoon boat taxi driver, running a couple trot lines for catfish and playing canoe paddler. Good times indeed.

If you’re interested in some of our adventures, my wife has a beautiful and very detailed account of our 2010 summer vacation in three installments here. Suffice it to say though that this year’s vacation has plenty of memories and after all isn’t that what vacations are all about?