Duck Riders

Wisconsin is loaded with surprises. I had heard of the Wisconsin Dells but was not prepared for the weird country sculptured by the Ice Age, a strange, gleaming country of water and carved rock, black and green. To awaken here might make one believe it a dream of some other planet, for it has a non-earthly quality, or else the engraved record of a time when the world was much younger and much different. Clinging to the sides of the dreamlike waterways was the litter of our times, the motels, the hot dog stands, the merchants of the cheap and mediocre and tawdry so loved by summer tourists, but these incrustations were closed and boarded against the winter and, even open, I doubt that they could dispel the enchantment of the Wisconsin Dells.
-John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America

The Dells is definitely a tourist town and like any good tourist town, it is chuck full of overpriced candy stores and tacky tourist traps, most of which we avoid. Of course Steinbeck was there before it became the Waterpark Capital of the World, but I am sure he would also classify those as incrustations. And even though his memories of the Dells are probably very different than the images I generally conjure up when I think of the Dells, I had to include this quote because John Steinbeck talked about Wisconsin Dells. My Steinbeck, My Wisconsin Dells. Yes, I am obsessed with Steinbeck. Yes, it is getting worse and worse. I am aware of it. That's step one, right?

The first time we ever went to the Dells we had the chance to ride the Ducks. It was mid-April 2007. We usually go in April but it is usually snowing and everything is closed. That first year it was about 50 degrees and everything was open so we decided on a duck ride. Do you know what the ducks are? I didn't. They are amphibious vehicles (so yes, they ride on land and water) used in WWII, which are now used as a tourist attraction. The first time we rode we expected it to be pretty slow, but these things actually hustle when they are on land and it is a pretty fun ride. Plus, we have never been on anything else like it. We have always wanted to ride them again, since Alyssa was 4, Alex was 2 and Chloe was about 12 hours old, in utero, because remember that Chloe was our original Wisconsin Dells souvenir. Anyway... every time we have gone back, the ducks have been closed. Last week it was in the 50's though and our hotel gave us kids ride free coupons so we finally made it back over to the ducks.

So climb aboard and you can see what Wisconsin Dells really looks like, sans water slides.

I am taking a picture of something else while this picture was taken but I had to include one with my buddy, Olive. She was by my side all week, and it made Alex and Chloe terribly jealous, but I do love getting to be Aunt Julie.

You know that I am a leaf geek, right? Well this year the leaves all started to burst in to color at once. I have only seen it like that one other year (2oo5) and I have been holding my breath and hoping to witness it again. It is pretty every year but that year was insane, maybe once in a lifetime insane, and I have NO pictures of it. Well, this year the foliage trackers predicted a repeat of 2005, but then a windstorm blew through and carried most of the color away, and all the foliage websites were sorry to announce that we were not going to have a peak season because of the wind. I was so bummed out, as were my little leaf geek proteges. So even though there were a lot of naked trees, I was happy to see there was still some color at the Dells. Our whole ride to and from the Dells we looked at rolling hills covered in color. Even Seth was impressed. I couldn't get pictures while we were driving but here is a taste of what it looked like, from the duck.

The Duck Riders...unfortunately Sarah and Linden were not in this picture. Sarah broke her finger in the wave pool and decided to stay back and rest with the baby.

And with that I am caught up! It was such a fantastic week. It was so hard to get up and get back in to the routine this week, especially since winter seems to have arrived. It was so cold and windy this morning and I had to put gas in my car. I had forgotten that putting gas in the car is my least favorite thing to do from November to May. Brrr!