Lake of the Ozarks Sister Trip - Log

Day Two - Thursday:

After lunch we drove down through Camdenton to Ha Ha Tonka State Park where we knew from our previous visit that some spectacular scenery awaited. After a quick visit to the visitor center, we went to take pictures of the castle ruins high on a cliff overlooking the springs. I love the patterns of light and shadows at the ruins. The turn of the century stone castle was built by a wealthy businessman as a family home, but was used as a hotel after his untimely death. It burned at some point and left only the stone ruins on the 250-foot bluff above the beautiful lake.

Then we went down for a short hike to a natural bridge and to the spring where the reflections of the trees were so clear that one could easily be confused about what was real and what was an illusion.

It was getting late by the time we got back to the cottage where Kathy made a pot of delicious black bean chili. We ate it with homemade cornbread, plus a fruit salad called Harry Norton Salad. Everyone wanted the recipe for Kathy's unusual chili so she typed it out on Erik's laptop to send to us all.

We were all really tired that night and happily went to bed soon after we cleaned up the dishes.      Next