Adventures In Wisconsin!

We returned yesterday from our vacation in the very cool state of Wisconsin.  So I figured why not write a blog about it! :-)

We left on May 31 and drove up to D's parent's house in Connecticut and crashed there over night.  We had lunch the next day with Joe and Darryl and then headed up to the airport.

I was so excited because this was my FIRST FLIGHT! EVER!! (I never go anywhere exciting).  We hung around the airport after going through security for awhile (what a pain in the ass trying to explain to them that I wanted them to HAND SCREEN my epi-pens instead of putting them thru the x-ray machine) and then boarded our flight.

Awesome clouds

  I took a bunch of cool pictures from the plane of the clouds and the ground once they told us it was safe to use our electronic devices.


I don't know if we are technically allowed to do that, but the sights outside of the window were just too cool to not photograph.  I even turned off the shutter sound so I wouldn't bother anyone. I'm so nice! :-)

Everything looks so small!

Smoking permitted???

 After landing in Kentucky (another state I'd never been to) to catch our connecting flight (had to wait 90 minutes) we grabbed some food and  noticed this sign:

 I stopped and did a double take!  They don't allow smoking inside ANYWHERE in New York and I was shocked when I saw this!  When we were kids I remember my grandma smoking in restaurants and stuff but that was before the bad effects of second hand smoke were really understood. Anyway I had to take a shot of it and here it is for all to see.

We finally boarded the second flight and in about an hour we touched down in Madison, Wisconsin.  It was fairly late there (22:00 hrs or so) and the airport was very quiet (kind of creepy).  We got our rental car and headed the hour away to Wisconsin Dells and our hotel.

Kilbourn FD

The next day we attended D's brother's graduation where I met his sisters, nieces, and nephew and then had lunch and went swimming at the hotel.  Later that night we walked into town and did some sightseeing and I took LOTS of pictures.

This is the local fire department (the town used to be called Kilbourn.)  They changed the name of the town but not the fire department. 

View from the river walk

The next three pictures are from the river walk we took in town.  It follows the river down to this big bridge.  The views are incredible!  We even saw a freight train go over the overpass by the dam.  It was so noisy!  It had about 70 cars pulled by 4 engines and I had to stand and watch the whole thing go by.

Foot bridge going over a drainage line

  We played adventure mini golf and had dinner at this groovy Mexican place called Pedro's.  (by the way they have awesome margaritas)  There is a 3 pound burrito on the menu and if you can finish it in one sitting they will take your picture and hang it up on their wall of fame.  A large party came in to the restaurant while we were eating and this tall, skinny guy ordered the 3 pounder!  He was half way through it when we left to go back to the hotel.  I couldn't see him finishing it....he looked like he was in pain already!

We are kind of lame and seemed to get to bed every night by midnight....I figured we could a least stay out late ONCE but by the time it got late we were both exhausted!  I think it's because we were doing so much walking and everything.

We did actually go out to Walmart at 02:00 hrs the first night we stayed in Wisconsin.  I had a reaction to the bedsheets (probably the soap they used) and started getting hives.  There is a 24 hr Walmart just 5 minutes up the freeway so poor D had to get up and take me there to get a pair of sweat pants and some benadryl.  I bought him a cool looking camo baseball hat with a W on it to try to make it up to him.  (sorry again babe).   So I guess that counts as staying up late even though I had to wake him up to take me there?

View of the Wisconsin River from the road bridge

I love margaritas!

D went on those!

 We got free passes from the hotel to go to Chula Vista's water park.  It's an indoor/outdoor water park and it's HUGE.  They have water slides, a man made beach (chairs on sand for sunbathing), a whole shallow park for the kids, and the coolest attraction.....the action river!  We rode the action river 5 or 6 times.  It's a long river that makes a big oval around the kid's area.  It has waterfalls and fountains and at the end it had a section which has huge ocean like waves.  You sit on a plastic tube and float down the river.  I'm not much for water slides but the action river was a ton of fun!  D went on several water slides...including one outside that had a crazy drop off (I couldn't watch) and another that started inside, went outside and ended inside.  He managed to coax me on a water slide (it was for kids actually) and I went down it just to shut him up! :-)

2 of the Ducks

DAM!

We took a tour on the Wisconsin Ducks.  They are amphibious military vehicles from the 1940's that drive through the forest and then into the Wisconsin River.  They tell you about the history of the area and show you the sites.  We saw amazing rock walls and formations, forests and I got a picture of the dam.  When our tour guide splashed down into the water above the dam we all got soaked!  It was fine though because it was actually a very warm day.


Later on D and I met his sister, niece and nephew for dinner and then went to the Tommy Bartlett show.  It's a water/air/stage show that has been running for the last 60 years.  They had water skiing, boats racing and jumping over ramps.  They had acrobats, jugglers, a clown, a gorilla and a guy that told very bad jokes!  It was fun.  D's niece climbed up on my lap and sat there for most of the show.  She is 4 and would get so excited when she saw the water skiiers and the clown chasing the gorilla!

We spent the last day of our trip doing more sight seeing and shopping for things to bring home with us.  I took the above picture because I freaking love cows!  They all looked at me when I got out of the car to photograph them.  D sat in the car shaking his head and laughing when I said hi to them and waved.  How do we know they can't understand us?  I was taking their picture...the least I could do was say hi!  they stood still for me till I got back in the car and then they wandered away.  I even thanked them for letting me capture them on film.  I think D thinks I am crazy.....

Our flights home took us to Detroit, Michigan (another state I'd never been to!) and then we had to run to catch our connection back to Connecticut.  Our plane into Detroit was late so we had 15 minutes to run from Terminal C to Terminal A!  I hate that airport!  My knee decided to give out mid dash so we stopped at one of the desks and they called our desk to tell them we were indeed on the way.  We made it with 5 minutes to spare!

We landed in Winsor Locks about 10:00 and stopped for dinner on the way back to Derek's parents where we crashed for the night.  Our arrival at home was around 17:00 hrs on Tuesday.  D and I crashed on the couch for a few hours and then we went out to get sushi for dinner  because there was no way in hell I was cooking!

I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures in Wisconsin!

Signing off 01:27