No Kidding

Family Vacation

We took the kids to the Wisconsin Dells last week. It was my first time there (even though I grew up in Wisconsin) and now I'm really grateful I went when I did! I know a lot of us have had a lot of rain lately -Lake Delton flooded and reconstructed (and emptied) itself.

Anyway - on to the pictures!

We took the long way there and stopped for a tour at Niagara Cave before visiting with the grandparents for a night.

Once in the Dells, we rode horses at Canyon Creek Stables.

The stables had a cool petting zoo with a llama/alpaca (I can never tell the difference) who hissed a lot.

And a baby goat that loved Alyssa almost as much as she loved it.

We took a ride on the Original Wisconsin Ducks.

And played some mini-golf at Pirate's Cove.

We had a yummy lumberjack breakfast at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty.

And toured the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum.

Our KidCabin Suite at the Great Wolf Lodge was totally worth the money.

Their waterpark was fun, too! The family (mostly Mike) ran to get dumped on by The Giant Bucket every five minutes.

By our second night, the rain had started in so the camera started getting left in the car. Our Lower Dells tour excursion into Witches Gulch was the last time it made it out for a while.

Honeymooning

So it seems that beautiful sandy beaches and vast oceans are not in my near future. Ideally, that would have been what my honeymoon was like. However, even when we thought we might kinda sorta be able to maybe afford such a trip, we realized our prime honeymoon time was also prime hurricane time. No thank you to that.

We then decided that we would cozy up in a nicer-than-usual hotel in Duluth for a long weekend. Until a horde of in-line skating enthusiasts trampled my second-rate-dream honeymoon by stealing all the hotel rooms. (B&B’s are adorable, they are…I just can’t bring myself to stay in one.)

So we were left with about five days to go pretty much wherever we wanted. We wanted a place we’ve never been to but didn’t have to travel a long way to get to. We came up with…Chicago.

This is where you come in, my friends. I need advice. I need places to eat (fun, but not too fancy), places to stay (nice, but not “independently wealthy” nice), things to go see and do. Even a pointer to which area I should stay would help me narrow my search a bit.
I went nuts and almost cancelled our last vacation – which was only to Wisconsin Dells – because I had to figure it all out on my own with no help or input. I don’t want to risk that again.

Roots

Wordless Wednesday

e-hugs.

Thank you all for your sweet words and thoughts for Bella and the family.

We had a very full weekend and I'll share more pictures throughout the week.

We went out of town and didn't get back until very late last night.

I just wanted to let you all know how much I truly appreciate your comments and emails and I will respond to them as soon as I can.

Like Their Parents Before Them

"Rolling Down The Hill"

(No children were seriously injured in the Rolling Down of The Hill)

(Semi)Wordless Wednesday

100 Year Flood

Sorry for the disappearance, loves. I’m here. Working my little hiney off.

I took Friday off work and headed south to my old ‘hood. Down to the river valley, where they have been devastated by flash floods. Luckily, my grandparents’ house survived with only a little water in the basement. Just a couple miles south of their house, campgrounds were washed away. Streets closed. Houses evacuated. There were two houses that slid right down the bluff.

Driving down the Great River Road, we missed most of the devastation. We saw several roads closed, areas where the water hadn’t receded yet and piles of junk appliances building up on the side of the highway. We saw the emergency relief stations set up in Winona and bluff sides that had been washed away.

That was nothing compared to what happened to other areas. Check out this link my grandpa sent me. The pictures were hard for me to look at. I used to live in Rushford. It’s not a very big town – the whole thing was under water. I also used to live in some of the other areas around there that got hit so hard. It’s heartbreaking to think of all our old neighbors who lost everything. Some even lost their lives.

I can’t help but feel like we’re being punished for something. Flash flooding all around the country – wherever there isn’t severe drought and fires, that is. It just seems like we’re paying for something to me. I don’t know – maybe I’m a little crazy. Okay, maybe I’m a lot crazy.

Anyway, we did have a pleasant time down there and I’ll share *happy* pictures tomorrow.

Two Harbors

Busy at work again.

Here are some more pictures because I know ya'll miss your Butrfly Girl.

Two Harbors - The first stop on our drive up the Superior coast.

(Kate talked about her husband's "Go-To" shirt...this is one of The Man's two. )

When it was time to leave, we both had to use the bathroom pretty bad. There were tours of the lighthouse on shore for $2.50 with a big sign that said something like "Nice, Clean Restrooms." I found out that was pretty much a lie, but we got to go up into the lighthouse.

The Man reading in front of the lighthouse/Bed and Breakfast (there are areas you can't go in because they're being used by guests).

There should really be a sign that says "Don't Look Down." It was here that I started to get a little sick.

The Inner-Workings of the lighthouse. We weren't allowed to touch. Dammit.

I wonder what windows like this are called in a lighthouse. I will call it a Port Hole because it's fun to say.

View from the top.

The lighthouse also had a captain's cabin from a boat that had shipwrecked near here. (Thus, requiring the construction of a lighthouse).

There were so many cool things to play with inside! We even took turns manning the ship.

Yes, we are geeks. Completely compatible geeks, though. Don't worry for us.

My New Favorite Place

The Sunday we were coming home from Duluth, we headed North up the Lake Superior shore first.

We stopped in Two Harbors, where I spent so much time trying to get a PERFECT picture (to no avail).

Heading toward Split Rock Lighthouse, we saw a State Park sign and thought we'd use the opportunity for a bathroom break.

Little did I know what we would find.

Gooseberry Falls is now my new favorite place. I am going to buy me a little tent and just go live there. Okay, maybe not (there is no internet...dear, sweet, internet.) but I REALLY want to go back - THIS year. With the kids. They would LOOOVE this!!

We never did make it to tour Split Rock, we'll have to save that for next time. We did stop at a rest stop and take a picture, though.

Next Time: Pictures from That Saturday!

Fish Faces, Bubblers and Bluff Views...

...Can only mean one thing....

Somebody was in Wisconsin this weekend!!

Here are some pictures from my very long, very interesting and very emotionally trying weekend.

If I weren't so darn tired, I'd try to fix it so it fit. And make is stop ZOOMING all the pictures. It still gets the point across, right?