The Mauneys in the Dells

So here you have it... my excuse for not blogging for a whole week... VACATION!!! Last week the two of us headed up to Wisconsin for a week-long R&R period and definitely took advantage of it. We turned off the phones, did not check emails, and just hung out reading, watching movies, and exploring the area, which was a nice break from the fast forwardness of our life. Even movers and shakers need to rest sometimes!

We had heard about the Dells from a number of people here in Small Town, IL. Everyone seems to make it their long-weekend getaway so we thought we'd give it a whirl. It's an area surrounding Lake Delton, which is a lake formed by a dam on a river up there. Oddly enough, something happened to the dam about a year ago and the lake dried up ENTIRELY! We did not know this until after we got home, but that explained the "The Lake is Back" signs that we saw everywhere. We kept looking at each other quizzically and asking, "Was the lake ever gone?" Apparently it was, and apparently it's much smaller now, which we did not know when we rented a pontoon boat. We could have kayaked around that whole lake in a couple of hours so the cruise in the pontoon boat was fairly quick! In fact, we ended up anchoring and taking a nap in the sunshine all day, which I can't complain about!

But anyway, back to the Dells. We didn't know what to expect and the town itself is a funny mix of upscale and cheesy. We stayed at a fantastic condo overlooking the lake that Josh found online (major props to him) and went out for some delicious dinners, including the best pizza EVER at a place called Moosejaw. Yum! We also decided to check out the main strip, which is a tad like Gatlinburg if you ask me! There were lots of fudge and candy shops, old fashioned photo places, haunted houses, souvenir shops, and a lot of interesting places in-between. But in true Mauney fashion, we figured "when in Rome" and had our old-fashioned photo taken (Western style of course), went to Ripley's Believe it or Not, bought t-shirts (which will be a tradition on every vacation we go on from here on out), played putt-putt, and wandered the streets eating ginormous ice cream cones (coconut chocolate almond for me and mocha almond delight for him). We also stumbled upon a very nice and romantical little "River Walk" area, which was a beautiful shaded pathway on a cliff overlooking the river. At the end of the walk was a nice little Pub where we had dinner one night.

Hmmm... what else can I tell you about the Dells? Oh yes- it's the waterpark capitol of the world and has the world's largest waterpark! We did not visit, unfortunately, but I'm sure we'll be back one day when we have kiddos to take with us. One of the main trends up there are indoor waterparks and we explored one of these one night when we went to the movies. This resort was something you'd find at Disney... it had an indoor and outdoor waterpark, indoor go-karts, a ropes course, laser tag, bowling, arcade, ferris wheel, carousel, and a movie theater. It was nuts! We took lots of pictures but they don't really do it justice to just how big the place was.

On the way home we swung through Oshkosh, WI for a night and visited our friends Ben and Angie. They had been down at the wedding, but we didn't get to spend much time with them. It was a low-key visit and we played Wii, ate hamburgers, played board games, and laughed a lot. We went out to breakfast the following morning and headed home, which was about a four-hour drive. Vacation was over for 2009, but it was certainly a good one! We're already trying to figure out where we want to travel to next summer!