What happens in the Dells........a trip report

Another quick trip down to Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. If you haven't figured out by now, I like to play. Be it trips to Disney, riding my bike or heading to the waterpark, I find I'm a much saner, calmer and happier person with frequent doses of playful fun. Luckily my ten your old son is still at an age that he enjoys time spent goofing around with Mom, even if this trip did include him bringing a friend for part of the trip.

The Wilderness resort is a mega complex with three large indoor waterparks, three equally large or larger outdoor ones, not to mention the upscale adults only Sundara Spa complex, a couple of golf courses and another lodge area on the shores of Lake Delton. Obviously, a trip to the Wisconsin Dells in mid-November means sticking to the indoor parks. All three have giant water slides - body slides, tube slides and specialized slides with names like "Fantastic Voyage", "black Hole" or the "Hurricane', there's a large indoor wave pool, lazy river and interactive water fun play areas. Be prepared for lots of stair climbing. Of all the slides, "Black Hole" is my favorite with "Fantastic Voyage" a close second.

Usually I also enjoy their lazy river, but felt like this trip it just wasn't heated to an enjoyable temperature. In fact, I would say the same for the various hot tubs - really should have been hotter. Not sure what the issue was, but hope they solve. I've been to Wilderness on other winter weekends, and hope this isn't a new cost cutting measure - as it would make me question spending my playtime there in the future. While I'm criticizing this otherwise great resort, I'd also suggest making one of the hot tubs adult only or at the very least enforcing those large "No one under 6 allowed in hot tubs" signs. The hot tub picture below was taken on Friday afternoon before the weekend crowds, when the hot tubs were literally shoulder to shoulder (both around edges and in the middle) with people.


Sunday brought a sunny, unseasonably warm day, so while my Mom supervised my son and his friend in the waterpark, hubby and I went for a 7 mile walk around the Wilderness grounds and surrounding area. We hadn't brought the bikes, but still had a little chuckle around this set of signs.


Here's some outdoor shots from the walk. The outdoor parks had sad, lonely feel with their empty pools. The new, but closed Zipline tours were taunting me. I've been dying to try them. In the past when I had opportunities to zip in Hawaii or Mexico or wherever, I weighed more than the max allowed weight. Now that I comfortably make the weight limits, I still wasn't able to go. We'd been to Wilderness last July, the weekend before these zips opened, and now here we were back the weekend after they closed. Sigh. I'll have to get that bit of fun and excitement on another trip (and Hawaii and Mexico zip lines are still on the to-do list!)


Decided we must plan a grown up weekend at Sundara some day (maybe next anniversary?), I'm a spa addict and that looked awfully nice - not to mention based on all the steam rising from the surface of the water, their outdoor pool is very well heated - no cost cutting over there! As golfers (he's avid, I'm a duffer), we enjoyed walking the cart path of one of the courses shut down for the season. Lake Delton looked gorgeous - some of you may remember this as the lake that broke about a year ago, washing away a couple of huge houses. Lake has been fixed and re-filled. Loved this carved tree trunk at one of the lakeside houses


Last few pics are from our unit at Wyndham's Vacation Resort at Glacier Canyon. As I've mentioned before, I own a decent amount of points (all purchased via ebay) in Wyndham's timeshare system - as does my Mom. For this trip we had a three bedroom unit. Very, very nice. Master bedroom with the tub for two, king bed, walk in shower, second bedroom with another king, third with two queens. Nice shared bath for those two rooms. Sleeps 10 (via a hide a bed in living room). We had my son & his friend, my Mom, hubby and I. Kitchen very well equipped with service for 12, plus all the typical small and large appliances. Though honestly we ate out much of the time. Kept the fireplace going in the evening which was a cozy touch. And naturally, one section of the closed zip lines passed right by our balcony - taunting me further!


The Dells are a bit kitchy. Son finally got his trip to a Ripley's Believe it or Not on this trip and was unfortunately more fascinated and interested in reading all the signs and exhibits than I hoped would happen. We found the "resort" my parents had honeymooned at 54 years ago - a bit worse for wear. Have to say, kitchy, touristy or not, for a fun filled weekend, close to home they fit the bill. (Which is a good thing, because in late January we'll be back for one of my son's gymnastics meets - though after 4 trips to Wilderness we will be trying a new resort that trip. Not to mention hoping to get some skiing in at Cascade Mountain).

Reflections on Halloween 2009

First off an observation......This blogger in training needs to do a better job of documenting things from start to finish. Sad to realize I didn't take any in-process photos yesterday...the counter covered in newspaper, 5 pumpkins in varying states of being carved, piles of raw seeds, the patterns, carving tools, carved out chunks of pumpkin, my son and I covered in pumpkin gunk. Good times. Instead just have the final outcome of Halloween 2009 at our house.

We ended up with 6 carved pumpkins, one carved the day before at day care, the rest carved on Halloween morning at home. Final tally, I'd only carved 2, son did rest. I was responsible for all the pumpkin cleaning, pulling out the slimy guts, separating the seeds from the fleshy, gooey threads that connect them to the actual fruit. And boy, did we have seeds.

Son mentioned at the day care, they'd roasted the seeds two ways, with salt and then with cinnamon sugar. Then voted on favorite, where he voted "BOTH". I've only ever done salt - somewhat evolving that to a savory garlic and herb version. Ended up splitting the seeds to to pans - on the right is the normal salt version, left is with a small bit of butter, brown sugar and common pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger). Would have to agree and vote "both"!



Trick or Treat in our town was from 5-7:30. My 10yo son had a friend spending the night, both going as versions of Star Wars clones. This was going to be the first year he trick or treated without parents, so I was a little worried, but we'd laid out the ground rules, they knew which streets they couldn't cross, where they could go. A bit after 5pm, armed with flashlights, glow sticks and candy bags they set off. The boys were back well before 7:30 - first to grab additional coats, and later cuz they were tired of walking.


I donned my Cruella costume and the dog put on his Robin costume. We had maybe 40 trick-or-treaters. Lots of comments about the pumpkins from the parents, a few little ones nervous by the talking decorations and spooky music, but overall a good time. No dalmatians tho', which would have been kinda fun!

Today it's more or less back to normal, Halloween decorations packed away, pumpkins remain, and now time to tackle the masses and masses of leaves in the yard!