June 8th - 11th, 2006

Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

On Thursday, June 8th, we loaded the van with our suitcases 

(and TJ, our dog :-) 

   

and headed for Wisconsin Dells!

The five hour drive turned into almost eight hours (thanks to Chicago traffic and road construction!) but we finally made it to our destination no worse for the wear. 
After checking TJ into The Pampered Paws Pet Resort, we checked ourselves into
The White Rose Inn.

The White Rose Inn is a lovely Bed & Breakfast with a motel on the same grounds
 and we chose to stay in the motel. 
    
While lodging is sometimes a very important part of a vacation (like at the beach!), the dinner parties and special planned events that are usually part of a B&B didn't really interest us.  We had our own plans!

We started out by driving down the strip to that old tourist favorite,
Paul Bunyan's Lumberjack Meals! 
   
Brian wanted to eat at Paul Bunyan's in Tennessee last year, but we passed on it for some reason, so when we saw the restaurant here, we knew that was where we were going for dinner.  Their home-style dinners are unique and delicious!

After dinner, we drove out to The Ho Chunk Casino to play slots. 
   
We walked in with a hundred dollars, and after an hour and a half,
we walked out with a hundred dollars.  Not bad!  And day one was done...

We woke up Friday, ate breakfast at the I-Hop (their stuffed french toast is to die for! :-)

...then headed out  to the Pinecrest Par 3 Golf Course.
Par 3 is a favorite activity of ours... ever since Brian introduced it to Vicki last year in Tennessee.  We always look forward to playing on a new course.
       

Brian plays like a pro compared to Vicki. 
We don't know why Vicki even keeps score  ;-)

        

After eighteen holes, we went back to our room, showered, relaxed,
and ate an early dinner at the Riverwalk Pub.


Testing the claim that square dancers are some of the nicest people in the world
(which, since we took lessons and began dancing in August 2005, has been our experience so far  :-)  and since visiting other clubs while out of town is suppose to be a treat, (both for you and the club you are visiting) we got dressed in our dancing duds and drove about 20 minutes down to Baraboo where we joined The Circus City Squares for their regular Friday night dance.  A small and friendly group of people - they introduced us to Contra Square Dancing! It's line dancing to square-dance calls! We had never even heard of such a thing.  But it was very cool, and very fun! :-D
  
Vicki & Brian with the caller and his wife  :-)

Saturday - day three -  another beautiful day in "Da Dells". 
After trying a new variety of stuffed french toast we went and got tickets for
The Wisconsin Ducks.

A trip to The Dells just wouldn't be complete without taking some sort of boat tour
and we loved the amphibious twist of this tour  :-)
  

An hour-long excursion which took place on both

          sea,                      and land,               with beautiful scenery,    and fascinating stories.
                                 
 

After the boat tour, lunch was had at a cute little caboose station.

Then we strolled along the RiverWalk
   

where we enjoyed beautiful picturesque views!
         

This is where we decided to take our traditional self-portrait  :-)

 

After showering and then eating dinner at The Mexicali Rose, we took off for
The Wisconsin  Dells Comedy Club.  What an absolute RIOT!!!  We saw guest comedian Scott Derenger followed by the adult hypnotist show, and we wound up laughing out loud for over an hour straight!  Scott Derenger was a little crude for Vicki's taste, but for the most part, still funny.  Rich Wylde and his wife put on a hilarious show, although it was actually the hypnotized audience participants that had us cracking up!  While Brian wasn't convinced it wasn't actually "a show", Vicki was just glad she didn't volunteer to go on stage!  We will definitely check out another hypnotism show if and when we ever get the chance.

Sunday Morning, we forced ourselves to try something new and went to an all you can eat breakfast buffet.  While the food was delicious, I'm not so sure another helping of stuffed french toast wouldn't have been just as good ;-)   We then stopped at a gas station to pick up a local map and headed out to find some geocaches.  We initially set out with coordinates for four different caches and were successful with three of them.

   4 - H Cache

   Coffee Break

   Lyndon Station Rest Area Cache

 

Afterward, we decided to visit the Ho Chunk casino again where we spent another hour and a half, this time walking out completely empty handed. 
Oh well.  Better luck next time  :-)

Back in town for a shower and nap, then we hit the main tourist strip.

We walked up and down each side of the road, checking out the various shops and their wares.  We found Vicki's key chain easy enough and eventually found Vicki's coffee mug and Brian's golf ball  :-)  Tired, and needing to rest our feet, we stopped at a sports bar for dinner and a few drinks, then headed back to our room deciding first to stop at Nigs Bar for another drink and then to the Riverwalk Pub to shoot some darts.. and have a few more drinks.  Late to bed and early to rise... on Monday we checked out of our room,

picked up TJ,
 

and headed home....

We spent the last four days celebrating the last four years.
Time flies when you're having fun  :-)