rawbonedhound

Wow, these past few days have been a whirlwind. Blair planned out a beautiful three day birthday celebration for me in Wisconsin Dells, which is an oasis of activity revolving around spring and summer tourism. It's full of hotels, water parks, boutiques, escape rooms, restaurants, zoos and tourist traps.

We started out taking a little detour after dropping the dog off at Blair's parents' house, to have breakfast at this place we both love. Then we took off, meeting her sister Dana and brother-in-law/our DnD DM Gabe at the first location: mini golf! It was really fun, but of course I came in last, because I've never been much good at it.

We headed to this nice little mall for a bit, before it was time to go for dinner at this amazing specialty mac and cheese place called Macs. We headed to our hotel for check-in, which was called Aloha Beach Resort. While not on an actual beach, it's on the lake, so there is a lot of sand, swimming, fire pit, and a couple of pools. We went swimming for a bit, before it was time to rinse off and get ready for the evening's entertainment.

Aquavia Lumina is a very cool interactive light show exhibit. You queue up and walk about a mile through a wooded area in the dark, while all around beautiful light show unfolds in a mystical story. It was amazing.

The next morning, we headed for breakfast at a place called Mr. Pancake that is situated in an old riverboat. From there, we went to this place called Land of Natura, which is a huge manmade lake filled with very clear water, courtesy of their unique natural filtration system using rocks and silt. There were huge inflatables to run and climb and jump on, a long, low waterfall, tons of sandy beach, and loungers set up on little rock islands. There were tons of fish swimming around in there too, and you could rent goggles so you could swim around observing them. There was even a separate little island, reachable by a dock. You could rent kayaks, and we thought about it, but we were too busy having tons of fun swimming around and roughhousing and watching fish. Unfortunately, we all got very sunburned.

We got back and all collectively agreed to have a long nap after each of us showered. Then it was time for dinner at this place called HotRock, where they cook steaks or fish for you on volcanic rocks. We got specialty drinks in souvenir tiki mugs, the best ceasar salad I've ever had, and incredible desserts: beignets, nutella mousse, tira misu cheesecake, and some free ice cream for me since Gabe decided to tell the waiter it was my birthday.

For the rest of the evening, we sat around talking and playing games before bed.

This morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to Timbavati Wildlife Park. It was very hot and humid, but it was a really great time! We saw lions, tigers, and other big cats. There was a train you could take through the park, from which you could see lots of herd animals, a lone rhino, and pass through an area where there were tons of llamas and alpacas just running loose. You were allowed to feed them from the train, and it was crazy how some of them would lean their whole bodies in and snatch the feed boxes out of peoples' hands. We got to feed camels also, and there was a giraffe encounter. We saw lots of birds, lots of goats, and we got to go into the kangaroo enclosure and pet them. We saw sloths, a red panda, and some baby animals in the nursery building. We got these little seed sticks and went into the parakeet enclosure and had lots of birds land on us, which was lots of fun.

By mid-afternoon we parted ways with Dana and Gabe. They headed home while Blair and I went into a nearby candy shop, then got some drinks for the ride home. Took a long nap together when we finally rolled in, because being hot, exhausted, and sunburned was enough to cause a steep crash.

I really don't wanna go to work tomorrow, but then, it's always hard going back to normal life after you've gone away for a few days having fun.