Wisconsin Dells with Kaitee

We surprised Kaitee with a quick weekend away to Wisconsin Dells, mid September. I had told her to keep that weekend open for us. If the weather looked good, we would head north. Matt & I had one goal for this trip - find a deer for Kaitee to pet! 

So, the backstory to this . . . a year or two ago, the kids were sharing "bucket list" items with each other. One of Kaitee's items was "pet a deer". Every time we drive and see deer in the field or next to the road, we jokingly tell Kaitee to hop out and pet it. 

When I saw an advertisement for Wisconsin Deer Park, in the Dells, I immediately knew that we needed to get Kaitee to the Dells to pet the deer!

We enjoyed a beautiful drive through Dubuque, Platteville & Dodgeville as we headed north toward the Dells. Due to some detours (roads closed thanks to bridge work being done), our arrival time kept ticking up. Fortunately, we were lucky to see some beautiful Wisconsin countryside as we drove.

Our plans for the weekend were pretty loose but we had a handful of things on our agenda so we needed to watch our time to make sure we could get everything accomplished. 

Our first stop was at Tommy Bartlett Exploratory to pick up our tickets for the weekend (definitely worth looking into if you are doing multiple activities and like to get discounts!). 

We checked the boat tour departure times and realized that we had just enough time to drive to the dock to get on the next cruise.

Kaitee is giving the thumbs up for the name on the boat, "Yellow Thunder". This is the same name of her carousel horse that she always rides in Freeport. 

We were bummed that the cruise was super busy. We were at the tail end of the line and ended up having to sit below deck. The views were still amazing though. 

This cloud was the first sign of possible rain in our future. I had checked the weather and it wasn't supposed to rain at all on Saturday and a small possibility Sunday morning. I was holding on to hope that it was a stray cloud that would blow over.

The Upper Dells Cruise is a 2 hour cruise that makes 2 stops - the first one at Witch's Gulch and the 2nd at Standing Rock. 

When I was in grade school, my family spent Labor Day weekend at the Dells. I remember quite a bit from that trip (we didn't do vacations, other than visiting family) - it was COLD and rainy. We camped (that is a whole story unto itself!), went to the Tommy Bartlett Ski Show, ate a family style breakfast at Paul Bunyon's Restaurant and did the same boat cruise (Upper Dells). I wanted to experience the boat cruise again as an adult - especially the stops. So beautiful! The cruise didn't disappoint and I'm shocked at how the cruise hasn't changed over the last 40 years!

Leaving Witch's Gulch and crossing the Wisconsin River to Standing Rock...the skies are looking darker 😟

Standing Rock - "the dog jumping rock"

We boarded the boat and started the trek back to the main dock. Our captain mentioned the incoming storm (we could hear the occasional thunder and a streak of lightning) and said she was going to try to get us back before the skies opened up. Yikes! 

Well, we definitely didn't make it back ahead of the rain. We were pretty thankful to be in the lower deck at this point! Off the boat now, we got pretty wet as we walked back to the van.

Next stop was the Deer Park. We arrived with an hour to spare before they closed for the day. We walked in to the gift shop to purchase our tickets. 

The clerk (jokingly), "you do realize that it's raining, right?"

Us: "yes, but the deer are out, right? This is the one thing we came here to do, so we are going to give it a try"

Clerk: "Well, I guess I can give you a Rainy Day Discount then"

We thanked him for the kindness of the discount (which he totally made up on the spot) and headed in to the park. 

It was miserable!

The deer would agree with that assessment. They were all huddled under this shelter. We stood at this railing for 10-15 minutes, trying to get their attention with handfuls of food...but they wanted nothing to do with us or our food...all thanks to the rain. Boo!

Still smiling...at some point, I was standing along the railing with my umbrella in one hand and deer feed in the other. I was close to tears and started praying. "God, I know that this is extremely trivial. If there is any way you can hold off the rain for a bit so that Kaitee can experience this, please Lord!"

We realized that there was a fence behind the shelter, and then saw other deer moving around in the next section. We decided to walk a bit and see if the other deer would approach us. As we walked, the rain let up and now we were just getting wet from the dripping trees. Thank you, God!

This looks promising!!

Bucket List Item Accomplished!!! WooHoo!!!

We were the only visitors in the whole park...and we had food...so we became pretty popular, ha! 

We could've spent a few more hours at the park, but they were closing so we headed out. It was a great visit and a new memory of the Dells that I won't forget!

Since it wasn't raining, we headed to Pirates Cove Adventure Golf. The rain kept people away, so that was nice! If we found ourselves waiting behind a group at a hole, we skipped that hole and came back to it a bit later when it wasn't busy. It worked out great! 

Can you find Kaitee & Matt??

Matt beat us girls - soundly! 

Matt received a free ice cream cone as the winner of the round of golf. Kaitee & I were treated to a consolation treat!

We were hungry for a meal but wanted to take advantage of the remaining daylight before finding dinner. We drove around the area, stopping for a few photo ops.

For dinner, we decided to revisit Moosejaw. We had eaten here with the kids in 2010 and I remember having a good experience (fun atmosphere and good food). We weren't disappointed in our choice.

We checked in to our hotel for the night - the rain sucked, but we were so thankful that it let up and we were able to feed/pet the deer, that our boat cruise (and put-put golf) weren't cancelled due to lightning, and that we were able to golf with minimal people on the course. It was a great day!

Sunday, we woke up to cloudy skies (lots of rain overnight). After packing up, we hit the road to head towards home. We did have a few things planned for our day, so we headed southeast, towards Madison. As we drove into Sauk City, I asked Matt if this was where the first Culver's restaurant was located. He confirmed that it was indeed home to the first Culver's. We then got curious and looked online to see where Culver's was headquartered - Prairie du Sac, which is the neighboring city to Sauk City. So, we made a quick detour to see their headquarters. We were EXTREMELY disappointed! No Culver's blue roof, no cows, no barns, nothing of the sort! Just a very bland, boring building!

We did find a smidgen of Culver's Blue...A special parking spot for one of the HQ employees!

I saw a post a few months ago in regards to Epic Headquarters, located in Verona, WI. Located on almost 1,700 acres outside of Madison, Epic (a medical software company), their campus is truly amazing! 

As stated on the Travel Wisconsin website:

"In a nutshell...Founded in a basement in 1979 with 1 1/2 employees, Epic develops software to help people get well, help people stay well, and help future generations be healthier.

The company's campus in the beautiful Verona countryside is straight out of a fantasy novel. There are themed buildings that include nods to Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, and more. And the best part? The company welcomes visitors for self-guided tours. The experience is other-worldly, not to mention beautiful, interesting and fun."

When I saw the post about touring Epic, I forwarded it to Matt and told him that this place needed to be on our list of spots to visit. We agreed that Kaitee would love it too, so we added it to our Dells agenda.

We arrived just before 10am and headed in to the visitor center to check in. We weren't quite sure what to expect but the ladies at the front desk were very knowledgeable and helped us figure out a plan of action for our time there. 

We knew that our time was limited and we would need to decide on 2 or 3 campus to visit (out of 5). We opted to visit Central Park, Wizards Academy & Storybook. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Epic really outdid themselves though - esp in regards to the staircases! WOW!

Employee name plate (next to office door)

Can you see all 3 of us?

We're off to see the wizard...

actually, we just left Oz and are heading to Alice! ha

We walked and walked and walked - for 5 hours! We were definitely tired and ready for food by the end of our time at Epic. We left just before 3 (closing time for Sunday) and found a late lunch/early dinner, then started our drive home. 

We will go back another time to visit Epic and tour the 2 campuses we didn't see (Farm & Prairie), as well as their 6th campus that is currently being built, Other Worlds (with nods to Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia). We will definitely plan a full day walking around outside to visit their gardens. It was probably a good thing that it was raining and blah outside, allowing us to focus all of our time & energy on the inside tour.

We very highly recommend taking time to stop and tour Epic. We had to remind ourselves that we were walking through a work place! Thank you to Epic for making something so awesome and fun and allowing the outside world to come in and enjoy it - all for free!

The weather didn't cooperate with our plans, but everything worked out in the end. We were thankful for the weekend away with Kaitee (Will was invited but he opted to stay home). Lots of fun stuff, great food and company, beautiful scenery and memories to last a long, long time!