Come on, in-laws!

We take a "big" vacation about every other year -- go out of state and spend a week or so seeing the sites of some city. We do it every other year because it takes a while to save up the money and to find something that we all agree on. Since we went to Florida in 2008, we'd usually wait until 2010 to do another big vacation.

But I'm thinking we might be able to swing vacation in 2009, too -- because I've been looking at vacationing in Branson, Missouri. My in-laws went there a year ago, and I was surprised. The only thing I remember about Missouri is when we went there as a family when I was about 7, to visit my aunt and see the St. Louis arch.

But the arch, and my aunt, have nothing to do with Branson, and my in-laws were trying to prove to me that Branson is more than just country music. So they showed me the site for two of the hotels.

The first one was the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing. Fancy name, right? It's a fancy hotel, too. Check it out:



But it's surprisingly affordable, and it's right in the heart of Branson, as is the sister hotel my in-laws showed me next, the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel.

So they've got nice hotels. Big deal, I said, because lots of cities have nice hotels. But the in-laws weren't done; I think they might have been retained by the Branson people, because they pointed out that both of those hotels had more going for them than just being nice. They have boutiques, a river walk, and "town square" kind of thing where there's a water fountain with a fire/light display.

That was my weakness: I'm a sucker for fountains that light on fire. But I've still got to sell it to Sweetie and the kids if I'm going to convince the family to change the longstanding every-other-year rule, as I pointed out to the in-laws.

That's when they pointed out the things that Branson has going on - the Ice Carving competition, live entertainment at all kinds of theaters, golf courses for Middle, museums for me, theme parks for The Boy and the Babies!, and shopping for Sweetie and Middle...

By which point, they'd sold me. So I retained them to sell the rest of the family, too-- which they've started to do by frequently referencing the "Winter Escape Package" deal that's being offered.

So with a little luck, and a lot of sales-pitching from the in-laws, I'll be headed to Branson this year!