One can not live in Springfield, Missouri without coming to terms with the very prominent presence of Bass Pro. It is so bad that when you receive directions anywhere in the city from a local, they always start with "do you know where Bass Pro is?" You see Springfield is home of the headquarters of Bass Pro Shops and this is reflected in their "grandaddy" Outdoor World retail store. A three story sporting goods store which encompasses many aquariums, a very large indoor waterfall, three restaurants, an extensive boat display showroom, and all the outdoor/sporting equipment that one could ever want. On top of all this they also have a catalog outlet store that sells refurbished and discontinued items at huge discounts. They also own a multi-million dollar National Wildlife and Fish Museum. Both of these are within walking distance of Bass Pro.
Although I was able to take in some quick visits to Bass Pro with Molly and Neleha, on this visit Kristy was able to come along and we were able to take our time in checking the place out.
The girls love this particular aquarium because it has a huge 125 lbs catfish that is usually very active. He is HUGE!
The photo above is the one everyone gets when they first come to Bass Pro. In fact it is on all the billboards coming into the city.
There are little pools and streams full of trout throughout the store which really gives you the feel of being outdoors.
The 3 story waterfall also adds to that atmosphere.
We sure had a good time exploring the Outdoor World inside Bass Pro.
Our exploration made us so hungry that we decided to grab a bite to eat at the McDonald's found inside Bass Pro. They also have a Starbuck's and a Hemmingways restaurant.
During our first major tour of the store we discovered that they hold daily free fish feeding shows. So a few days later we returned to watch one.
The setting is at the base of their largest aquarium which is filled with many species of fresh water fish.
A diver with a microphone is actually in the tank and hand feeds the fish. There is also a host of the show on our side of the glass that talks about the many species of fish that are in the tank and throughout the other tanks within the store.
After the show we looked at canoes and boats. Kristy got a wild idea that we could sell our current canoe to her brother since he expressed interest in it and we could take advantage of a current sale on the Bass Pro brand of canoes. She called him up and ran the idea by him.
We decided to think about the canoe idea for awhile before we actually went through with it so we went and checked out the motor boat showroom. What a fun time the girls had.
In the end Eric said he still wanted to buy our current canoe and so my sweetheart talked me in to the new canoe (and she is not a big fan of canoeing but she knows how much I love it). I'm sure I didn't put up much of a fight.
A great store that I am sure will be seeing much more of us.
p.s. check out the sign above the girls......very true indeed!
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