This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Vacation Recap, Minnesota, Part II
Sep
9
2014
Day 4
Church in the morning, then some downtime inside due to rain.
I think the boys watched some car racing on TV and read.
After lunch though, the sun came back out and the boys went fishing.
Alpha and Beta did a lot of fishing that weekend. They each caught something – mostly sunfish or bluegill.
Dinner was pizza, not fish.
After dinner, we got back in the boat and I tried wakeboarding.
Here I am, ready to start.
I never did get going. Every time the boat started pulling, something went wrong.
With the wakesurfing, the surfboard cooperated and behaved just like a snowboard.
With the wakeboard, it never cooperated. It usually just pushed the water instead of riding on it and the boat ended up pulling the tow rope out of my hands.
After several tries, I gave up and we just drove around the lake.
We got back to the house and it was time for a fire.
Cardboard boxes make fun, though not the most effective, kindling.
After having s’mores, the boys were interested in watching fish being cleaned. Not cleaned as in scrubbed with soap, but cleaned as in filleted.
Then the boys swam in the pool some more while my wife and I pre-packed.
Day 5
Breakfast, cleaning, and packing.
Then we left for Wisconsin Dells, making it there at 3:45. Check-in was listed as 4:00, so that was pretty good.
We were prepared for check-in.
The hotel was not.
I got in line at 3:45. I was about 20th in line. They had 4 or 5 clerks working check-in, so it’s not like they didn’t open any lanes until 4:00. I got halfway through the line and then I noticed they were down to 2 clerks. It’s exactly 4:00 at this time – the busiest time of the day – and they have the fewest number of workers there.
That did not make sense. It took me a half hour from the time I got in line until the time we were done checking in.
That was bad. The part that struck me as funny was that they have 15-minute parking spots out front for people checking in.
Once we got in, the kids were excited. Did I mention we were at Wisconsin Dells? That means our hotel had a water park. Indoor and outdoor, but the outdoor one was closed because of winds and rain. Great Wolf Lodge, if you’re wondering.
Once we got the kids changed into swimsuits and calmed down (so that we could walk through the hallways without causing a commotion before we got to the water park), we made our way to the fun part of the hotel.
Kids had fun. We stayed until bedtime.
The nice thing about GWL is that they expect families to want to stay in one room. And they expect kids to be in the room. So instead of hunting for a place that sleeps 6 in a room, we had a variety of rooms to choose from. We chose the Kids Cabin, which has a bunk bed and a single bed in its own section of the room.
The kids liked it and slept well, once we got them to actually go to sleep.
Day 6
We opted to pay for breakfast at the hotel, a little more cost but a lot more convenience. Plus Delta ate for free
Then a couple more hours at the water parks.
Then a late checkout and a short drive to Chicago. This time, we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites, which was just a couple of buildings away from the hotel we stayed at on our way out.
The family enjoyed this hotel much better.
Day 7
Drove home from Chicago. It took most of the day, what with all the stopping we did. But we got home before dinner time and, after much unpacking, things got back to normal. Mainly, I had to go to work the next day.
Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.”
Genesis 5:29
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:20 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
September 14th, 2014 at 7:32 pm
So was that a beta fish?
September 15th, 2014 at 12:25 pm
Why yes, that was Beta’s fish that he caught. I didn’t get a good photo of Alpha’s fish.
Beta won a betta fish at our church’s festival thingy, but it lasted only a day or two.