The View from the Dells!

First, my apologies to all you East Coasters who are looking for updates earlier in the day - but it's only 11pm here, so you're stuck waiting til tomorrow. Just think - it's only going to get worse the further we go west!

So today was a beautiful day in the Wisconsin Dells. Originally, Jason and I thought we'd go to one of the bazillion indoor water park/theme park places while we were here, but we changed our minds after our full day at Cedar Point, and decided to sight-see instead. We couldn't be happier with that decision! After dropping Fred off at doggie daycare, we headed out on a 2-hour boat ride/walking tour of the Upper Dells. WOW!!!!!!!!! It was really beautiful, and I think this must be the best time of year for it, with all the trees fully green, a little bit of a chill still in the air, and not a lot of boat traffic on the river. The tour took us through some amazing rock formations and tiny waterways that would make the best Coast Guard shipdriver cringe! The scenery was beautiful, and we just enjoyed our time on the water (even if Jason got stuck sitting next to a chatty grandpa who seemed to be tired of his own crew!!!). Part of the tour is the dog jump across two rock formations - an interesting quirk of the area based on an historical event that proved that an instant shutter worked on a camera. Here's some history: http://www.dellsboats.com/html/history.html

And, here are a few pictures to share with you from the Dells.

This one just gives you an idea of the greenery and a little bit of the rock formation. It was taken during a walking portion at a place called "Witches Gulch." I got all kinds of great shots in there - and annoyed everyone on the path by stopping every two seconds and fiddling with my camera. One of these days I have GOT to learn how to use that thing!!!!

The next shot is from Stand Rock - the famous dog jump. Again, a little slow on the uptake, I didn't think to put the camera in continuous mode so I would actually get the dog in mid-air. But I got him taking off from the rock at least. I was surprised he didn't take a running start at all - he just walked up to the edge and jumped!

In the interest of saving time (we have limited wi-fi connectivity because they put the dog people at the very end of the hotel), I'm going to skip any other Dells pictures and move onto our after-dinner drinks. Of course, we found the local brew-pub (actually, brew-pizza place), and popped in for a sampler after dinner and before we had to go pick up Fred. So here's a picture of the two of us and our "Ten-Pointer" sampler... and, yes, Jim, the beer was all really good!!! Not only was the beer good, but Jason highly approved of the bathroom - apparently there were windows above the urinals, so Jason enjoyed playing the license plate game while he was in there! (This is what he gets for posting that picture of me sticking my tongue out!) The place was called Moosejaw Pizza and Brewery, and they had 10 different beers on tap (thus, the 10-pointer). Jason has no shame (reference the urinal story), and asked the bartender to snap a picture. I hate being so touristy, but I have to admit it's nice to have some pictures that actually have BOTH of us in them!!

In other Dells excitement, we had hibachi dinner and bought some genuine Wisconsin cheese that was a nice snack tonight back in the room. Of course, the room stinks now (it's a buffalo - as in wings - jack, so the room smells like chicken wings), but it was worth it. Wisconsin isn't known for its cheese for no reason!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day for us - we'll be driving from here all the way to Wall, SD. I'm not sure what we were thinking when we planned that one, but we're stuck with it now! We're guessing we have at least 12 hours in the car tomorrow, so if anyone's bored, we'll be on the cells (if they work out there!!!).

We love reading everyone's comments, so please keep 'em coming!

Vicki - Fred misses you, too!

Mrs. Winkler - no, I cannot stop calling you Mrs. Winkler... really, I just couldn't do it! I don't think I could do this trip the way you did - I need the comforts of a hotel!!!

Mom - sorry we're late getting these done every night. We'll have no news tomorrow night, though, so this should last ya!

Miss and love you all!!!

Becca (Jason would sign off, too, but he's sleeping. I'll give him a pass on falling asleep long before me again, though, since he's the one doing most (if not all) of the driving!)