Jim visits us at the Dells

Sunday our friend Jim drove over from Milwaukee. We hadn’t actually seen him in about ten years although we e-mail several times a week. He’s a musician and writer, and he had to come during the week because gigs fill up his weekends. He arrived early in the afternoon, and because it wasn’t pouring down buckets of cold rain right then, we decided to go out and do something.

Off to the Wisconsin Ducks. We have seen or heard of these in Boston, San Diego and eventually, Chattanooga, too, but this was our first ride. Not Jim’s; he went as a kid. We just wanted to see the pretty stone formations on the Dells, which are actually lakes. Even in less-than-ideal weather, it was nice. We enjoyed it.






That evening Jim and I went to see the new Star Trek movie. Other than the fact that they stood canon in its head, it was pretty entertaining, and I’m glad someone has taken over the franchise in the spirit of Gene Roddenberry. I’m looking forward to more from them.

What else is there to do in this town? Dells continued.

There’s a lot to do in the Dells; it exists for things to do. For one thing, it’s the waterpark capital of the world. Or the US, at least. So, although we didn’t plan to go to one, we couldn’t help but see them all over the place, and despite the weather, there were plenty of people in them, many in wet suits. There are also indoor parks, but, owing to the presence of children, we weren’t about to subject ourselves to those. Instead, we had thought of going kayaking, but the weather was awful. Even when the sun was out, it was cold. We also planned to go on the Ducks, but not when it was pouring. So when, on the third day, which I think was Friday, the sun came out for real, we were at a loss because we had no reservations, and we did have the dogs. Lucky for us, our little old resort had a couple of pedalboats. And because they weren’t the enormous fat-wheeled tricycle kind, Joyce was willing to try them.

So we crawled into one and set out. Luckily there wasn’t much wind, and we were able to get out into the middle of the lake and see more than from the shore. We had a few slight disagreements about steering and such, but it was mostly fun. And, while we were out there, it got so hot we decided we could go swimming in the heated pool. So after limping back to shore and falling into the lake to get out of the boat, we did that, and the temperature was perfect. Having the sun out and warm weather made a lot of difference in how we felt about the whole place.

However, the very next day, the rain and cold were back. This, we felt, was our opportunity to experience Sundara. Lucky for us, they had some late afternoon slots, but once signed up, we could go over there any time. However, with the dogs, we don’t like to keep them caged more than four hours at a time, so that was all the time we could spend.

Sundara is a yoga-oriented resort and spa. Here it is:

http://www.sundaraspa.com/services/services.html

We both did the cleansing bath ritual and a Swedish massage. There was an outdoor heated pool and spa and I used them even though it was raining. Most people did, but not Joyce. She stayed in the nice quiet meditation and reading room where they served beverages and yoga trail mix. Anyway, the perfect way to spend a cold, rainy afternoon and NO CHILDREN.