Wisconsin

I am finally getting to our Wisconsin trip, which we have been back from for two weeks now. The drive was not as bad as we thought it was going to be. With me having to get out every 1-2 hours we thought it was going to be pretty bad, but we made it with 15 hours of driving time put in. We left on Friday June 27 and drove about 6 hours at which point we were in Corbin, KY (we later found out from Bryan that this is the home of Colonel Sanders). The next day we got an early start and made it to Bryan and Alison's (Rob's sister and husband) in Poynette, Wisconsin by mid-afternoon. We received the tour of the farm (side of house to left, Rob did not get a picture of the front) and then sat on the porch for the rest of the evening. Every day we were in Wisconsin we woke up super early because the sun was up completely by 5 a.m. On Sunday we went to church and then Bryan gave us a tour of Madison. We went to the zoo in Madison which was free. I forgot my camera when we went to Madison, but I have pictures from the rest of the week. Bryan had to work both Mon. and Tues. so Rob helped out with the horses on Monday, which I couldn't do because I had been advised not to get to close to the horses since I was pregnant. I basically sat around all day not doing much of anything, so on Tuesday, I was determined to get out. I didn't go all the way to Wisconsin to see cows, corn, and horses. We went to this place that was recommended to us by the native Wisconsonites called the House on the Rock in Spring Green which was about an hour from the farm. The picture to the right is what greeted us upon entering. The guy who built the place collected all kinds of stuff. He even had the world's largest carousel inside of it. Some of the stuff he collected was creepy, at least to me, like clowns and dolls. Rob liked the guns and there was also an entire section of boats that he enjoyed as well. In the boat section there was an actual size (or close to it) whale with a boat of seamen in its mouth. He had a bunch of self-playing instruments that were really neat and he had recreated an old street with all types of interesting things. He had a firestation, an apothecary, a taxidermist, police station, toy store, etc. I have a picture of the carousel that I'll post later. I had camera probelms and got a disposable for that and the organ room which was awesome. The room The most interesting room was the infinity room because it was built so it hung in midair.
The picture above is from a scenic overlook before going to the House on the Rock and if you look a little to the left you can see the infinity room sticking out with nothing holding it uplike a boat. Below is a picture of Rob in the infinity room at the House on the Rock. It had a beautiful view, but walking to the end of it I could feel it shaking.

I have a ton more pictures from the House on the Rock, which most of them are on facebook for anyone interested. It was difficult to decide which ones to upload on here.

Wednesday Alison and Bryan were off work, so we went to Wisconsin Dells to do some touristy stuff. Unfortunately I am pregnant and I was unwilling to go to any of the waterparks, which most of them are indoors since it is so cool there, even in June. I was in a sweatshirt and blue jeans most of the time we were in Wisconsin. I would have loved to go to any one of the waterparks, especially since Noah's Ark is the largest one in the nation. We got to the Dells in time for lunch and then we walked around downtown. It was a typical tourist trap. I did try squeaky cheese curds while we were downtown. They were strange at first because of the rubbery texture, but after getting past the texture they weren't too bad. Later that week I tried fried cheese curds, which were much better. They are sort of like mozzarella sticks, but somehow much better. Below: Rob and I overlooking one of the lakes at the Dells while walking downtown.After downtown, we went for a tour on the Original Wisconsin Dells Ducks. It travels by land and sea giving a nice tour of some of the lakes and trails in the area. The tour guides have plenty of cheesy jokes for the ride too, but we were in the back and missed out on a couple of them as well as some of the historical information. Our Duck broke down as we were coming out of one of the lakes and we had to wait for a new one to come get us and they had tow ours out. We had five or six other Ducks backed up behind us before we were rescued. (To the right: Alison and Bryan on our Dells Ducks Tour and below and to left: can you see the hawk in the rock formation). After our Ducks tour we headed over to the Tommy Bartlett show. The first half was geared towards little children, which Bryan and Alison said it was different the last time they had gone and it was much better then. It was supposed to be a lot of water skiing tricks, which there were some, but they had a show that went with it that was super cheesy. Fortunately we only paid 3 dollars to get in. That night we had dinner at the Prime Quarter, where you cook your own steak. It was a cool restaurant and since I had Rob cook my steak it turned out perfectly.


On Thursday, Rob, Bryan and I went for a hike at Devil's lake. It was steeper than I thought it would be and even though it took a lot out of me I made it up to where we were able to see the Balanced Rock (picture to left) We then had a flat path to see the Devil's Doorway (yes, that is Rob at Devil's Doorway). We finally made our way down where we saw the Potholes along the way. At the head of our hike, we had a nice cold watermelon which we had brought with us to the lake. It was a beautiful hike and I'm glad I didn't give up on the steep hike up. That night Rob's dad John and his wife Sandy came into town. We went to McGovern's where I had some hot wings. I was the only one able to eat the ones Rob and I were supposed to share. Alison and Bryan had gotten some mild ones which Rob had to steal a few of.

Friday, Alison had a horse show and it was a nice enough day for us to sit on the porch, so that is exactly what we did most of the day. Rob, John, Sandy and Bryan played euchre. I watched for awhile, but I was exhausted, so I went in and took a nice long nap. That night we met Alison for dinner where her horse show was. None of us had ever been to the town, so we picked a restaurant randomly and the food turned out to be delicious. Apparently every Friday night a lot of places have a fish fry, which I got the fish. This place was also where I had those fried cheese curds. Unfortunately after dinner I started feeling pretty bad. I was having sharp pains across the top of my stomach and in both sides and nothing I did helped it to disappear. It also didn't help that the car ride was an hour and a half each way with five of us in the car. When we made it back to the farm, I pretty much curled up and went to sleep awaking later with the pain still there. It was not as bad the next day and it eventually went away completely.

On Saturday, the fourth of July, we began by going to the farmer's market in downtown Madison. It circles the entire capitol building and it was huge. I have never been to such a great farmer's market. We bought my dad some cheese there and Rob and I bought all sorts of food items including spicy cheese bread, which is probably one of the most delicious foods ever, as you can see Rob's dad and Sandy are eating our bread, but it's okay because she brought tons of cookies and nifty flip flops for the girls.Later, we went to a parade in Pardeeville about 15 minutes from Poynette. It was a lot of fun and for the town to be so small the parade lasted about an hour and the kids and bags full of candy. Rob and I left later that afternoon to return home. Our trip was rainy all the way to South Carolina. We once again stayed in Kentucky overnight, but this time we were in Lexington and when we woke up it was still rainy. I was so happy when we finally made it home. The entire time I was in Wisconsin Rob, Alison and Bryan tried to convince me to one day move there and even though I did enjoy my vacation, I don't ever want to move there.