Yesterday we spent a day at the Dells. For those of you who may not understand that reference, the Dells stands for a town near us, the Wisconsin Dells. The Wisconsin Dells like to claim that they are the water park capitol of the world. I do not know if that is truly accurate or not, but they do have a gazillion and two indoor and outdoor water parks. Although, yesterday we did not enjoy the water parks, we went and experienced a few of their other attractions. 
First we took a ride on the Original Wisconsin Ducks. If any of you have been to Seattle, you may have heard of the duck rides. These are the old army ducks that are the amphibious land vehicles. We drove through the Wisconsin woods and then "dove" into
the Wisconsin river. There were neat sand stone cliffs lining the river. Next we "crawled" up into a creek and then back up onto the land. From there we splashed down into Lake Delton. Our driver was full of bad bad jokes and one happened as we entered the lake. He reminded us that Lake Delton is an artificial lake (it is man made), so therefore it must be artificial water and thus none of us were actually wet. I felt fortunate that I was sitting towards the front so I did not experience the splash that came up and over the rear of the duck. Lake Delton had an accident last year. It decided to empty all the way out into the Wisconsin River. I guess in early June 2008 the lake received an extra 2" of water and it could not hold it all in. Thus it broke out the land that you see in this pictu
re and flowed into the river. (The lake is on the right side of the road and the river is on the left). There were three or four houses that got washed down with it. As I understand it, one of the houses floated down the river nearly intact and floated right past Portage. If you are really interested in more about that you can see video on youtube, I did and it is unreal. After the lake we were back up on the land and heading through the woods again. At one point we went through what he called the "tight squeeze". It was a narrow gorge that at its smallest separation is 8'6" wide. Mind you, he told us the duck is 8'2" wide, now you understand the name "tight squeeze". For me, leaving land and entering the water was a weird feeling, but overall they were a fun ride.
the Wisconsin river. There were neat sand stone cliffs lining the river. Next we "crawled" up into a creek and then back up onto the land. From there we splashed down into Lake Delton. Our driver was full of bad bad jokes and one happened as we entered the lake. He reminded us that Lake Delton is an artificial lake (it is man made), so therefore it must be artificial water and thus none of us were actually wet. I felt fortunate that I was sitting towards the front so I did not experience the splash that came up and over the rear of the duck. Lake Delton had an accident last year. It decided to empty all the way out into the Wisconsin River. I guess in early June 2008 the lake received an extra 2" of water and it could not hold it all in. Thus it broke out the land that you see in this pictu
re and flowed into the river. (The lake is on the right side of the road and the river is on the left). There were three or four houses that got washed down with it. As I understand it, one of the houses floated down the river nearly intact and floated right past Portage. If you are really interested in more about that you can see video on youtube, I did and it is unreal. After the lake we were back up on the land and heading through the woods again. At one point we went through what he called the "tight squeeze". It was a narrow gorge that at its smallest separation is 8'6" wide. Mind you, he told us the duck is 8'2" wide, now you understand the name "tight squeeze". For me, leaving land and entering the water was a weird feeling, but overall they were a fun ride.
Next we went to the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory. It is a robotic, space, science place. There were a lot of things to see and touch. Most of them would have been great learning tools, but the kids were not interested in learning, then just wanted to touch and play. Go Figure! This building must have been built in the 70's, it really looked it, but it was a great place to play and have fun.
After that we enjoyed the Tommy Bartlett Show. It is a ski, sky and stage show. There were people doing all kinds of tricks on their water skis, ski shoes, wakeboards, bare feet, and their boats. It was amazing to see the skiers jump and flip in the air. I really enjoyed the pyramid they made that was three levels high. There were also other performers that did stage shows. There was a family that walked on two huge spinning wheels that got up to 65' in the air. There was a goofy juggler. But the most unique and enjoyable was Dave the Horn Guy (http://www.davethehornguy.com/). This man worn a pair of orange coveralls with bike horns stuck all over it. Each horn was designed and tuned to play a single note of the scale. Thus buy bending limbs to honk the horn he was able to play music. It was very ingenious. We rounded off our evening with a yummy pizza dinner. Next time we head to the Dells might just have to be for the water parks.
1 comment:
This sounded like a fun trip! Our free time has been very limited and we've had very few fun adventures as a family this summer. It's getting a little frustrating. I see your baby belly!!! Four weeks left for me (maybe)!
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