Back for More Fun in the Dells

July 16-17
Saturday
We had so much fun beginning our adventures in the Wisconsin Dells that we are glad we planned to come back to have a few more adventures here on our way home.  We arrive back at Meadowbrook Resort mid-afternoon, and Andrew is in the pool within minutes of our check-in.
 

Our main event today is the Tommy Bartlett Water Ski and Stage Show, celebrating 60 years of entertainment in the Dells.  We find a somewhat shady spot in the huge amphitheatre overlooking Lake Dalton, and buy icy treats to cool off in the record breaking temperatures climbing somewhere in the 90s.

Once the show starts it is so exciting that we forget about the temperature.  There are barefoot skiers and acrobatic men who do stunts and jumps on skis that are just thirteen inches long.  A team of beautiful young women do synchronized moves on skis, and racing boats with loud engines compete in time trials.  Our hands are just about sore from applauding after all the great water acts.

After the intermission there is a stage show with a juggler who juggles chain saws and knives and eats apples while he juggles them.  A team of three acrobats does balancing and strength feats, and even involves real audience members in their act.  A man and woman team do tricks on a huge double wheel.  It is just like a little circus.

When the show is over, we drive around the lake to have dinner on the deck of a restaurant that is right across from Tommy Bartlett ski show amphitheatre.  It takes so long for our dinner to arrive that we get to watch skiers from the show practicing and warming up for the second show.

After dinner, we pick up our complimentary bucket of s’more supplies at the front desk of our hotel, and head to the campfire to toast up some marshmallows and make s’mores for dessert.  There is a party of people speaking Polish enjoying a cook-out at the picnic tables nearby, and one of their little boys is toasting marshmallows at the campfire with us.  One of the men from the group brings us plates of food, and encourages us to enjoy his Polish specialty. It is a very delicious combination of bacon, onions, peppers and potatoes cooked in a lot of bacon grease and some other spices, and it has enough cholesterol to really clog our arteries but good.  We can’t eat it all, but we do eat enough to be polite and have an authentic cross-ethnic experience. Of course, we have to top it off with another s’more.

We head for bed shortly after we leave the campfire—we have a busy last day in the Dells planned for tomorrow.

Sunday

We wake to a day so hot and humid that our camera lens fogs up the minute we go outside.  The temperature is predicted to hit a high of 99 with a heat index taking it close to 110.

We start the morning at the Bigfoot Zip Line course, which includes six long lines, including the longest zip line in North America.  Dick wears a helmet with a video camera mounted on it to capture the action and leaves his fancy cameras in the car, so that he will not be inhibited from doing fancy tricks, like hanging upside down while zipping down the wire at forty or fifty miles per hour. 

Yes, he and Andrew both actually do this upside down trick.  I do not.

By the time we are done with the course, we are all soaked in sweat and the temperature is definitely approaching 100.  We had had an exhilarating time flying through the air on the zip lines, but we are eager to get to our next destination -- America’s Biggest Water Park.

We change into our bathing suits in the rest rooms at Bigfoot, then go just a short distance up the road to Noah’s Ark Water Park, where we spend the whole afternoon enjoying the wave pools and wet and wild attractions.

Our favorite experience there is America’s longest water coaster, the Black Anaconda.  The three of us ride together on a specially designed raft.  We hold on tight as we streak up and down and all around in dark tunnels and the daylight, while being spritzed and splashed and dumped with water all along the way.

Andrew chooses where to have dinner tonight, and we are delighted that he wants to go back to the fanciest restaurant with the best food we have enjoyed during this trip.  We have the best table in the place, next to a window with a view of Japanese fish pond with koi swimming beneath the water lily pads.  We spend the meal talking about all our great memories and favorite experiences of the past ten days, and there are many.

We are all ready to go home, but sorry that our adventure is coming to an end.