Our Vacation Recap (Caution: Long Entry)

I decided to do a journal entry about our trip this week. Mostly for my memory sake, so it's a long one. Just a warning.

Monday: We left work about 3:00 p.m. and ran over to pick up Jen & Lance & load the car. Then left town after a few last minute errands. It was a really nice drive thankfully and we all got to talk. Once we got to the Dells, we found Yogi’s camp site and checked in. It felt like we were in a different world. The chick at the check-in was from Finland and really didn’t speak clear English, just like pretty much everyone we encountered the entire trip. She was sweet though and after some loose translations we got our site and we headed to our camp site. The boys set up the tent and Jen & I went to air up the mattress and get some wood. Being the ingenious ladies that we are, we used the tire air machine to blow up the mattress and our arms to hold it to the top of the car as we drove it to the camp site. It was too hot outside to pump it up by hand.

Once we got everything set up we jumped back in the car to hit the town. The downtown area of the Dells is weird. It’s like endless shops and food with attractions in between, like haunted houses, etc. We weren’t out of the car 5 minutes when we found BB guns that looked real for only $8.00 and of course Jen had to have some! You can’t buy that stuff in Chicago. Everything in the Dells was really cheap compared to home. The store we got the guns sold underwear, swords and BB guns....bizarre. After that we were persuaded by this chick to go through the haunted house. I hate these things. I love all things spooky but I absolutely hate someone jumping out at me in the dark. I can’t control it and I scream or totally freeze up. Well this is apparently hilarious to my friends because they laughed the whole time at me. Hee hee. The “ghost” in the haunted house learned my name and started moaning it to taunt me.

After the haunted house we hit up Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf. That place has 90 holes you can play!!! The golf was a blast but unfortunately the mosquitos decided to start their buffet on us during the whole thing.

After mini-golf we went to Wal-Mart, got a few supplies and went back to camp to start the fire. We drank beer, ate hot dogs and made smores. Also tried out Jen’s new guns by shooting the boys in the ass with pellets. Finally in the wee hours we hit the sheets for one of the most uncomfortable nights of sleep I’ve had. We were hot, sweaty, gross and packed in the tiny little tent. The air mattress wasn't big enough for us so we had to lay it sideways and have our feet hanging off. But hey, it was an adventure.

Tuesday: We got up bright and early, took showers and headed out to a farm called Thunder Valley for some breakfast. The little inn was a trip. Once we finally found the door to the restaurant it was a different world. The food was soooo good and super cheap. Plus we had our coupons so we got money off the already low prices. It looked like the mother did the cooking and the daughter did everything else. After breakfast we wandered around the farm to look at the peacocks, goats, ducks and turkeys. Lance got spit on by a black goat and we got the ugly turkeys to make that noise they make by theMan doing his own turkey call. Did you know peacocks hiss at each other? This was made especially weird by the fact that one of the peacocks was missing an eye.

After the farm we headed to the canoe rental place to cash in even more coupons. The canoe owner told us about a detour that we could take where we could swing from ropes into the water and go swimming. He said it was private property but they do it all the time. We had to take our canoes out of the water and up over a damn, but it was worth it. This ended up being one of the best parts of the trip. I had never been canoeing and it was soo peaceful and pretty. Swinging from the rope was awesome, made me feel like I was 16 or something again. We eventually headed back the other way and canoed to the middle of the lake for a little sunbathing.

After canoeing we headed to Mt. Olympus Theme Park for the best go-kart riding I’ve ever been on. The tracks were like roller coaster tracks that you could drive on. With big hills and ramps and windy wooden tracks. The park also had roller coasters (the old wood ones that beat the shit out of you) and a few water rides. We spent several hours here driving and re-riding stuff. I just kept feeling like I couldn’t possibly have any more fun but I kept having it.

After Mt. Olympus we went back into town and got some ice cream. We had free coupons from the book so we cashed those in and sat down for a bit. After ice cream we walked down to Alien Planet and went through that exhibit. It was really stupid but thankfully it was only $5 and we got funny pictures. Plus the air conditioning was nice.

We then headed over to Timber Falls for some more mini-golf by the river. I liked this course a little more because it seemed more “adventurous” plus the view was nice. By the 15th hole though I think most of us were ready to get going.

We then headed to the camp site to change clothes and back in the car to the Ho-Chunk casino. I had never been in a casino before. It was huge and full of old people or bizarrely deformed people. Like a freak show that paid out. We played a few slots and decided to hit up the buffet. We also had a coupon for the food too and damn if it wasn’t tasty. There wasn’t one bit of food on the entire trip that was not fabulous. Once we had gorged ourselves silly we got some cheap mixed drinks from the bar and went back to the casino. theMan decided to play one slot and won $25.00 right away. We then hit up the nickel poker slots but all of us lost our money. We played it smart though and walked away with $20.00 of the original $25.00 we had won.

Once we left the casino we went back to the camp site and started a fire. Jen & I went on an alcohol finding mission. Did you know in Wisconsin they cannot sell hard liquor after 9:00 p.m.? No Jack Daniels for us, just more beer. It worked though. We all got a little tipsy and laid a sleeping bag out in a field and watched the lightening overhead and talked. Then headed back to the fire for more talking, beer and eventually sleep.

Wednesday: It stormed in the middle of the night while we were camping but it seemed to make the sleeping more comfortable. We all were a little more rested and ready for another day of fun. So we packed up the camp in record time and got some breakfast at an Internet Café (where I blogged from). We had yet another coupon for this place and it was tasty although the chick working the counter was a real bitch. Then headed to Noah’s Ark Water park for 70+ acres of water slides. Damn!!! This place was a freaking blast! We made the rounds and did all the slides, my favorite being Black Thunder (an all enclosed, pitch black slide we all rode together on a big raft) and the Stingray (a half-pipe like water slide). Every slide just got better and better. We ended the day with a tube ride down the lazy river (with a maxi pad following us) and some swimming in this giant wave pool. Eventually just laying out in the sun and not wanting to ever go back home.

Before leaving town we hit up Black Bart’s Buffet (yep, another coupon) and stuffed ourselves silly on some kick ass ribs. Jen & Lance came here last time they went to the Dells and had to sleep in the parking lot for an hour afterwards. We could have this time too but decided to hit the road home.

On our way back to Illinois we pulled into Madison to hit up Half Price Books. I ended up buying some really good finds there as well as everyone else. I freaking love that store. After that we got on the highway and came back to civilization.

Last night I ended up passing out stark naked in front of the fan at about 9:00 p.m. and sleeping until this morning. Damn it felt good too.

We did activity after activity the entire time we were there, never wasting a second. And if any of you readers ever go, get a coupon book. Everything we did was buy one get one free, even the food. We didn’t pay full price for anything the entire trip and it paid for itself the first night. Even though I did come back with 20 mosquito bites, it was the perfect freaking vacation with our pals.