Wisconsin Dells, Fall 2021

Two posts in a week you guys, I think this is some kind of record… Actually though be prepared, because my hope is to knock a lot of 2021 content out in the next few weeks…

Hey guess what we’re traveling back in time to Octoberrrrr! More specifically, Linus’ birthday.

Moose takes after his parents and he is very, very private. A hard nut to crack, and it takes him forever to warm up to, well. Pretty much anyone not named Mom, Dad, Peter, or Jojo.

So it’s not a huge stretch to say: he detests birthday parties. He pretty much hates any kind of get-together where he needs to interact with like, people. ANYHOO, all of that and you get the picture: he didn’t have a party. But if there’s one thing this kid loves, it’s a stay in a hotel. So that’s how we found ourselves piling in the car and celebrating his birthday with a trip to The Dells.

Also: look, we saw a pretty bitchin’ rainbow on the way.

All hotel stay must-haves are a really good pool and a free breakfast. Even with COVID, this hotel had both going strong, so we figured we’d give it a shot. (Although I have to say: it was jarring to leave the comfort of our liberal bubble and go somewhere where we were in the minority when we made safe choices, like wearing masks indoors around other people. Insanity.)

First things first: we gussied up the room nicely, then took off for some quality pool time.

We swam until it was nice and dark outside, then went back to our room to dry off/get dressed and go find some dinner.

We decided Moosejaw would be a fine choice, so off we went. Now: the Wisconsin Dells has two “strips”, one rather new and one that’s old with lots of old lit-up signage. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture at the right time, but this one reminded me of that fact. Instead here you get to appreciate a lit-up KFC bucket.

We made it to Moosejaw and had a one hour wait, whoops. Oh well – it was still really warm out (way too warm for October, THANKS GLOBAL WARMING), but I guess on that particular night I could not complain, as we were able to wait outside.

When we did make it inside for dinner we had a pretty darn good time, and the kids talked us into getting a six-pack of their house-made sodas to go.

Back at our room, and time to partay! We got a cookie cake and zhooshed it up a bit. I also found those Pokemon Oreos so we had all kinds of good snacks to get us through the night.

After cake and gifts and some clowning around, we all grabbed some books and off to bed.

Next day we were up early and ready to explore. The Dells have a bunch of these cheap (like five bucks a person) “fun parks” for you to walk through and check out. We hit up the Ghost Outpost (uh, Linus was not a fan) and the Lost Temple (which he took quite a bit better). Peter enjoyed both and made us promise to try out more the next time we go to the Dells.

After that it was time to drive down to the old strip and see what else there was to do. Linus in particular wanted to hit up the arcade with King Kong out front.

This was the day Peter fell in love with air hockey.

We walked the strip a bit, poking into stores here and there. Stocked up on cheese and got a new little stuffed animal birdie.

Also got lots of root beer.

The Dells has some weird stuff.

Then it was time to get lunch, so we opted for a place that promised amazing shakes. Except: when we got there, no one wanted a shake. LOL. Also: the food was Just Okay, so kind of a bummer. But hey: the margarita was one of the best I had gotten from a restaurant in ages, so can’t complain too much!

The restaurant had its own arcade (very Dells of them) so of course we ended our day with more games and more air hockey.

And that, my friends, IS THAT. Another one down! Anyway, we’ve decided the Dells is good for birthdays, so we’ll probably have plenty of repeat visits in the coming years.