Just before summer started, Mommaw and Poppaw Clark suggested taking a little trip together. Some of Chris’ friends talked up Wisconsin Dells, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be a great family vacation spot!
On Saturday afternoon, we loaded up a rented minivan and headed north. We spent Saturday night in a Chicago suburb, including dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Then on Sunday, we drove to Wisconsin Dells.
After checking in to our resort, we hopped on the train at The Riverside & Great Northern.
We continued the train theme for dinner by eating at Buffalo Phil’s where our drinks and dinner were delivered to our table by an electric toy train! Damon was in train heaven. After dinner we had to check out the swimming pools at our resort.
Then we enjoyed s’mores around the campfire, a fun amenity included with our room fee.
The next morning we had an hour-long guided horseback tour at Canyon Creek Riding Stables. This was so much fun! Damon and Daddy rode Elmo together, and Avery loved her horse named Saturn. In fact, she was clearly the best equestrian of our group. Her horse obeyed her very well while the rest of us struggled to get our steeds to do what we needed them to do! We were all a bit too distracted to get any pictures of this event. The big surprise of our tour was that we saw several deer in the woods!
Before leaving the stables, we stopped in at the petting zoo. These fellas were pretty hungry and were very glad we were there to feed them!
Next, we did some shopping in the downtown area. This area reminded me a lot of Gatlinburg and Nashville, Ind. We ate some delicious hamburgers at Monk’s and then had dessert at Goody Goody Gum Drop.
After resting and swimming at the resort, it was time to eat again. So we had an alfresco dinner at Bobbers. Just before bedtime, Avery regaled us with her expertise with the game Watch Ya Mouth.
Even though this was just the first time playing it, Avery seemed to master it much better than the rest of us!
Tuesday was full of more fun. It all began with a Dells Army Ducks tour. These amphibious trucks were surplus equipment from WWII. The tour began on the streets of the Dells then moved to Lake Delton and the Wisconsin River.
Damon has a good golf swing, doesn’t he? But the only way he could get the ball in the hole was to scoot it around like a hockey puck. Daddy needs to work with him some more!
All over the Dells, we kept seeing pizza delivery trucks with a moose on top. So we had to check out Moosejaw Pizza and Dells Brewing Company for lunch.
The day ended with some swimming followed by dinner at Kickers and games at the resort.
We were ready to slow down a bit by Wednesday. So we started with a delicious breakfast at Mr. Pancake. Then Mommaw and Poppaw took a stroll through downtown while the four of us visited Timbatavi.
This was a zoo that featured some different animals than the usual ones. And we were able to get up close and personal with some of them, including camels, kangaroos, and alpacas.
We all needed to rest after walking around the zoo. So after resting and swimming at the resort, we ate dinner at Crabby’s. This was an unusual dining experience because we cooked our own food on hot rocks. That was pretty fun! Then we headed back to the resort for s’mores and games.
On our last day, we stopped for breakfast at Paul Bunyon’s Cook Shanty before driving all the way home. The homemade donuts were worth the price of admission for this unique restaurant!
We loved our resort. It was off the beaten path but still close to everything we needed.
It featured two outdoor pools and one indoor kiddie pool. Since Avery and Damon love playing in the pool so much, this was a great alternative to staying in a water park. We definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed a full water park the same way we did these pools.
Here are a few videos of our swimming adventures:
We really enjoyed our visit to Wisconsin Dells, and we probably will return there for another family vacation some day!