After a delicious southern breakfast of cheese grits and toast, we headed out for the day in the Wisconsin Dells. The kids were wow-ed by all the gigantic resorts with water and theme parks that went on for blocks. Ryan was so amazed she immediately put it at the top of her list for yer 10-year-old solo plane trip. That girl is so cold-natured we would have to go in the middle of July for her to be able to stand the water!
Our first stop was the Original Duck tour of the Dells. I'd read reviews of a couple and this one was supposed to be the best so I grabbed some slushies for the kids and we hopped on. We learned a little of the history of the Dells, had a fun ride through the woods, saw some beautiful rock formations but mostly chuckled at some silly jokes and puns. My absolute favorite part was the fact that the kids did not get the little duck call necklaces like I've seen on many of the other duck tours in other cities. I'm not sure I could stand that for another 35 days.
Here is Laney right before a big hill!
Hawk's Beak
Pulpit Rock
Next up was finding some cheese. Our family has a thing for cheese so this is the perfect place for us to try some. I am a pretty indecisive person and this place was overwhelming! Our favorite cheese were there as well as many more we'd never heard of. Time to have a taste! We walked out with 5 or 6 kinds, one that would wait in the cooler for Dave to join us, to hopefully last us the rest of our trip.
Oh I how I wanted to grab this 10lb wheel of gouda but I don't think it would even fit in my cooler!
The whines were setting in so we went in search of food. I'd made note of a pizza & brewery in the area and Brayden happened to find a coupon for it, so we headed there. I've definitely had better pizza but the beer was delicious. They also made their own soda so the kids each ordered a different flavor so they could end up tasting them all. Root beer was a definite favorite!
With a few hours to spare before we needed to be back in town, we headed back to the campground to check out the nature center. The program was wonderful - so wonderful we didn't even get a chance to go inside the center! The activities taught the kids about the water cycle, animal prints, and animal babies. We'd studied all of these before either in school, scouts, or homeschool co-op but each activity had a different spin on it that taught each of them something new. Some of the bug babies were really strange looking!
After time for the kids to relax and play in the tent and me to get organized to leave in the morning, we headed out to our plan for the night - a lumberjack show! The kids decided on this show instead of the popular ski show since we could see something like that closer to home. They had a blast! We learned a little about the life of a lumberjack and they cheered on our team as the competed to win the most events. Bray and I had seen similar competitions before on ESPN so we knew what to expect, but the girls were amazed! There was even one guy from Hayward, WI Grandpa Scott!
After each competition the winning team would run out in the crowd and hand someone in the audience a "cookie" - a cut of wood from the event. Laney got the first one from our side and she loved having it signed by the guys.
After a quick picture with Paul Bunyan's "Babe", we headed home and collapsed after our long day. We went to sleep to the sounds of the crickets with our windows wide open enjoying the opportunity to snuggle down in our sleeping bags.
