Mini-Golf Challenge Results

Our weekend in the Dells brought about a small mini-golf challenge between the 3 of us. Each course that we had the option of difficulty, we chose the most difficult course just to add some extra excitement and challenge!

Results:

Timber Falls: Montezuma's Revenge
Par for Course = 47

Amy: 48 (2 hole in one's)
John: 55 (1 hole in one)
Darrin:54 (1 hole in one)

Timber Falls: Loggers Lookout (Red Course)
Par for Course = 43

Amy: 56 (1 hole in one)
John: 57 (1 hole in one)
Darrin: 68

Pirate Cove: Pirates Challenge
Par for Course = 46

Amy: 49 (1 hole in one)
John: 56 (1 hole in one)
Darrin: 56

Shipwreck Lagoon: Green Course
Par Course = 41

Amy: 43
John: 47
Darrin: 58

It was a great weekend for mini-golf! Darrin was determined to beat John and he did accomplish that in the very first course we golfed! It was great to finally golf the many mini golf courses that in the Dells! Next time Darrin is determined to come out on top!!

Vacation Day 4 - Time to head home!

WOW - where did the last 3 days go! I guess the last day of vacation has to come sooner or later! As our family tradition, we ate breakfast at the hotel today. They usually have a pretty good breakfast buffet and it makes it easier to just eat there in between packing to go home and loading the car.

Today was the only day that we actually brought the camera to the waterpark to get some pictures. We were even having fun with the video option on the camera with a few of the water slides etc...

that is, until the camera battery went dead. Guess that was bound to happen since we forgot to bring the charger for the small camera with us! We still had John's regular camera to use, but we were not about to bring that down to the water park!

Before we left town we had one last mini-golf course to hit... Shipwreck Lagoon. At first glance, it looks like a small course, compared to the other large courses in town. This is not the case! Since the course is built up on a hill, you can't see most of it from the road! Of the 3 courses, once again ,we opted for hte hardest one! I think we really challenged ourselves this weekend! Darrin ended up slightly futher behind John but that was mainly because of 1 hole!

Another Dells vacation had to come to a close... anyone want to go to work for me tomorrow?!?!?

Vacation Day 3

After breakfast at Cracker Barrel (or Crackle Barrel as Darrin called it) we headed to the Lost Canyon. This was one of the small local tours that was recommended to us by the lady at the hotel.

I highly recommend this tour for anyone who as time. It is a small tour, off the beaten path, inexpensive but so worth it. Our tour guide Tony was very informative and entertaining. The tour takes you right through the bottom of the deep narrow canyons just outside of town. The trails through the caverns are so narrow that when sitting on the wagon, you can reach out and touch the walls!

Of all the tours that we did while we were here, this was one of the best ones! Granted the other tours were good, but this being a smaller family owned company made it a little more personal!

We were able to get a few more photo's of the "missing" Lake Delton from right across the road from the Lost Canyon Tour office. Darrin still had a hard time really comprehending how deep the lake really was. He kept saying that it didn't look like the lake had been that deep. Untel we explained to him that the docks are still in the same place that they were and that the water probably came up to just below them. I think that finally put it in perspective for him ~ especially when he realized that with where he has been stanging, the water was probably about 1o feet deep.

After the Canyon Tour it was off to do soem more mini golfing. Today it was Pirate Cove - right next door to Timber Falls where we were ysterday.

Pirate Cove has 5 different courses to choose from and Darrin and John decided that we needed to attempt the hardest course. Considering this course was as difficult as it was, Darrin did very well! He kept right with John most of the way and I think he ended up only 1 stroke behind John at the end. Once the weekend is over I am going to post all the Mini-golf scores together - as a summary of our mini-golf tournament this weekend. Darrin decided that tomorrow he is going to beat John!

The afternoon was more swimming and water at the hotel! Darrin could not decide which of hte water play areas he wanted to play at so he kept goign from part to part! It is nice now that he is older that he is off on his own. He does really good to let us know where he is heading so that makes it easier too.

Tonight we deicded that we didn't really feel like heading out to eat so we opted to order in. After looking at menu's from a few different places we decided to just order from Buffalo Phils since it was so close by. Darrin was watching the clock to see when the pizza would be there and announced that our pizza was on it's way - via a golf cart! Apparently, as a means to save gas, they deliver to the hotel with the golf cart instead of the normal delivery car. Makes sense to me!

Overall, it's been a very busy 3 days! I think I need an extra day to recover from everything!

Vacation ~ Day 2

As I type this, I am sitting in a very noisy Wiley's Woods at our hotel... Screaming kids, flying balls and air shooter (to send the balls flying even faster!). The day is winding down and I am ready for sleep! It was a busy day, filled with all kinds of adventures!

Breakfast was at our favorite Denny's Restaurant (50's theme with Elvis, the Blues Brothers and Marilyn Monroe out front). It never fails that after we get here, the place fills up. We have never had to wait to get a seat, but by the time we leave, there is usually a wait for a table! Today was not quite as but there was definitely a lot more people there when we left than when we got there! Darrin tried something different for breakfast - their sizzlin' skillets. Bacon, sausage, hash browns and scrambled eggs, served with Pancakes instead of tortilla's so he could make breakfast fajitas.

After breakfast, we headed into town to check out the new 4D theater. We opted to get the tickets ahead of time at the hotel as they were offered there at a discount. We were the only ones in the theater! We had our choice of seat... Darrin could not decide where to sit! A few minutes after the "show" show started, we realized that there was a problem... there was not picture to go along with the sound and other effects! At first we thought it was just part of the start of the movie... just to get you started on the other effects (smell, touch etc.) Finally we told Darrin to run out and tell her that there was no picture! The gal working the counter came back and tried to see what she could do. She was not sure how to fix it so she called next door for help. A few minutes later we were back in business. When the film finally restarted, it was a totally different experience! We now knew what was spitting at us, what jabbed us in the back and where that SMELL was coming from!

Then it was off to do some mini golfing at Timber Falls Adventure. We have driven past there every time we have been here, but have never been able to stop, since we are usually here in Feb or March. We decided to splurge and get the All Day Pass so we would have the opportunity to ride the roller coaster, bumper boats and Log Flume. We figured this would be plenty to keep Darrin busy all day!

Our first choice to make was which of the 4 mini golf courses we wanted to tackle... So we opted for the one right in the middle of everything! Since it was still early in the day we pretty much had the place to ourselves! Not something that we would have thought we would see in the Dells, but apparently this is the quietest time of the entire summer.

The rest of the morning was spent riding the coaster, golfing one of the other courses and watching Darrin ride the Log Flume about 15 times!

One of the highlights of the day was making a stop at Lake Delton... or should I say where Lake Delton should have been. After the Great Flood of 2008 as the local call it, all that is left of Lake Delton is a grassy covered lake bed. They have started working on rebuilding the area where Cty A passes, and the plan is to have Lake Delton back in business by next summer. Yesterday when we went on our Duck Tour, we went on a revised tour route since they could not go out onto the lake.

It is amazing to see NOTHING there, when last time we were here, this was an awesome lake! Overall though it was unbelievable that more houses were not lost as a result of the flooding and erosion. (yes that is Darrin in the photo, standing way out in the dry lake bed - he probably would have been in 10 feet of water if the lake were full!)

By mid afternoon we were ready to find the water! We spent the afternoon relaxing the the several pools at the hotel, both indoor and out. We discovered that the Great Wolf does not have an outdoor hot tub... bummer! Oh well, we will survive!

After a relaxing afternoon we decided to head out to find food. Tonight it was over to Knuckleheads and Buffalo Phils. Knuckleheads is a huge indoor amusement park, bowling alley and arcade. But not much options as far as food unless you like typical bar type foods. So we headed to Buffalo Phils, where we have eaten before.

Wiley's Woods was not the same anymore. Apparently the "game" part of the Play area has been removed! No more collecting points while you play in the 4 floors of interactive fun! The company that developed the software for then is not in business anymore and there was no software support available. Since they could not keep the level of enjoyment and quality of the game where it needed to be, they took it out. Huge disappointment as that was one of our favorite things about staying here!

Ok, time to find sleep!!

Summer Vacation

Now that summer is almost over and the kids go back to school in about a week, we finally headed off on a family vacation! Although we only decided to head to Wisconsin Dells, it was a 4 day vacation that we all had been waiting for!

Of course, the first day of vacation means the alarm going off at the same time that it does everyday for work so we can hit the road. Granted I did hit snoozed a few time, but we were still on the road shortly after 6am...

This was the first trip that we have made to the Dells during the summer months when everything was open! WooHoo - I get to go mini-golfing!! But that was going to have to wait until tomorrow since we ran out of time today (Plus is started raining). We were in the Dells by 9am and started our adventures right away...

Stop one~ The Ducks. Darrin was really excited that we were doing this, but bummed that when we got our package of tickets, it was for the Upper Dells Boat tour and NOT the Jet Boat Tour. So now it was time for the ducks! We had a great tour guide that filled us with fun facts about the area, the river, the animals and plenty of duck jokes. We saw wild stop signs, mini bears and many different shapes in the rock formations along the river (many you had to really use your imagination to see).

They did have to make a change in the route that the ducks take during the tour since Lake Delton is "missing' right now. We were able to see the location on Hwy A that is being rebuilt that washed away during the Great Flood of 2008. There was one point that we were able to see part of the dry lake bed, but not much. We are planning on going down to the lake tomorrow to check it out and get some pictures.

After the 1 hour duck tour, we hopped on the Duck shuttle to Downtown, headed for the Upper Dells Boat Tour. It was nice to be able to leave the car parked in the one spot and take the shuttle so we did not have to worry about parking! WooHoo! From where the shuttle dropped us off it was only a short walk to the docks. Darrin was disappointed that we did not take the Jet Boat Tour, especially when he saw some of these jet boats playing out in the water.

It was a perfect morning for a 2 hour cruise up and down the river! Along our river adventures we learned even more about the history of the area. We also made 2 stops along the way. The first was Witches Gulch. From the river, you would never even know this area was there, as it was at the end of a small inlet off the river. We docked there and were about to walk up through the gulch. Many of these areas along the trail were very narrow caverns that you could touch both walls at one time. Along the trail you find the Witches Bathtub, Witches Window, Whirlpool Chambers and more! The natural beauty of these caverns and chambers was awesome! It was only a short walk off the boat but well worth it! If it were not for taking this boat tour, we would have never even known this area was here.

Darrin and I also decided that we would not have wanted to be on the crew that went in and built all the walkways through the Witches Gulch - some of these areas were so narrow that there would have been no room to get any equipment in and all the work obviously had to be done by hand!

Our next stop on the tour was at Stand Rock. This rock was made famous by Photographer HH Bennett when he photographed his son Ashley jumping across the 5 foot gap out between the tall rocks. He was the inventor of the fast shutter for camera's that captured the image instantly. They now have a German Shepard that recreates Ashley's jump many times every day to visitors. This is actually the most photographed rock in all of the Dells.

It was during this stop that we found out that our Tour Guide Dana was actually just north of the Green Bay area! She grew up in Lena and was working in the Dells during her summers while attending college.

Over all our trip along the Upper Dells was great! It was a 2 hour tour that was filled with great information as well as interesting things to see!

It didn't take us long to decide where to head for lunch... back to the Riverwalk Pub that we visited when we were here 2 years ago! Located downtown, right along the river, the Riverwalk Pub offers some great food and even better views of the river that we were just traveling on!

We though about visiting a few of the attractions downtown after lunch but instead just walked up and down the streets downtown, stopping in a few shops, and of course stopping to buy some fudge! Then it was time to head to the hotel and get checked in (finally) and decide what to do with the rest of our day.

After enjoying the water parks at the hotel for a bit we decided to head out for dinner. The one place that we have been wanted to try, but have not been able to since it is only open during the summer was Crabby's - an all you can eat seafood and prime rib restaurant. So that was where we headed.

There was quite a variety on the buffet too! One of Darrin and I's favorites was the sweet and sour shrimp - shrimp with mandarin oranges and coconut! Over all though I would have to say that we were disappointed. For the price that you paid, the food was just ok. When I pay $80 for dinner for 3, I expect more than just ok food! That combined with the fact that you could not hear the "entertainment" Crabby's didn't really meet our expectations. We went, we ate, we probably won't go back again.

To finish out the night, we hit the arcade at the hotel for a bit. Gotta love some video games and skeeball to end out the first day of vacation!

Foxy Lady Cruises

After no lack of trying, John and I finally were able to take one of the Foxy Lady Cruises here in town. In the last 2 years we have made reservations several times and we either had other things come up, or they had to cancel the cruise was cancelled by the cruise line. This time we were good to go!

It was one of the Cocktail Cruises that cruised the Fox River. It was the perfect night for a cruise too! The rain cleared out, the waters were calm and the breeze was warm. In fact the weather was so perfect that instead of heading down the river, we headed out into the Bay! This was an unexpected treat. After talking with the bartender we found that they normally are not able to go out into the bay because the water is usually too choppy. But since the weather and the water was cooperating, the captain decided that we were heading to the bay!

It was amazing to see the city from a completely different perspective... everything seemed so peaceful. There was no rush to get anywhere!. The sun was setting just as we passed under the "Big Bridge" as Darrin calls it.

It was getting dark as we approached what was to be known to us on the yacht as "bird island". Someone told me the actual name of this small island, but I can't remember what they called it. This particular island was covered in several different kinds of birds. As we cruised past the island,Captain turned the spot light as the birds all tried to run from the light The fragrance of the island left something to be desired, but what can you expect with a few thousand birds in an area that small!

After cruising past bird island, we turned around and headed back towards downtown. Since it was only about 9pm we had time to head down the river. I forgot how big the yacht was until we headed towards the bridges downtown... they had to lift both of the bridges so we could pass through! Once we had gotten through the bridge we had another surprise for the evening...

The fireworks from the Brown County Fair!

Although we had to turn around before we got close to the park, we were still able to see quite a few of the fireworks from the yacht! Gives fireworks a completely different look when you are over the water. Come to find out, if we had not got out into the Bay at the beginning of the cruise, we would have been right under the fireworks when they started!

Maybe we will have to keep that in mind for next year!

It was a late night considering we both had to get up early for work, but well worth the lack of sleep!