Family Vacation in Wisconsin Dells 2001
Every year, my entire family takes a vacation together, or everyone that is able to make the trip anyway. Some times a niece or nephew will not make the trip, but most of the time, we are all together on these trips. My mom Carol & step dad Wes will usually pay for the house, or houses we stay in, and the rest of us take care of buying all the food and anything else we need. We also take turns cooking the different meals.
My family consists of, my self, my wife Lena, my children from my first marriage, daughter Courtnie (graduates high school 2008), son Mike (graduates high school 2010) and of course my mom Carol, and step dad Wes.
Then there is my sister (one year younger than me) Chris and her husband Shawn, their now grown kids, Jon & Shanon. Shanon now has a little boy named John, so add one more to that family.
Next, there is my other sister (three years younger than me) Sharon and her husband Bill (best man at our wedding).
Both my sisters and my mom & step dad live here in the
Now for my step brothers Chris and Dan who are both younger than me. Chris is married and has two children and they live here in
So, if you do the math, we can have up to 24 people all vacationing and living together, and some times a couple more if the older children bring a friend along.
This year our vacation would take us to Minneapolis,
We flew out of Baltimore (BWI) to
The reception was held at a place called Wabasha Street Cave. This place is so cool! The ceilings and all the doorways are arched and made of stone, as are the walls. There is a small stage at the end of the main room with many tables, and the bar is in a large side room.
While we were in Minneapolis, we all visited the Mall of America. This place is HUGH!!! I think we only saw 1/8 of the place and we were there all day. We spent time at the amusment park inside the mall, as well as the Aquarium which took up a lot of time, but well worth it!
Lena, my kids and I also visisted the The American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. My wife being Swedish, we couldn't miss visiting this large historic house/museum. The museum shows how the Swedish immigrates came to the Minneapolis area and settled there making it thier new home. If you are Swedish, or of Swedish descent, this is a must see!
Here is a link to the American Swedish Institute http://www.
After spending two days in
On one day, Lena, Bill, Wes and I all wanted to go to the Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin for their tour.
We also spent part of the day doing the Duck Boat tours. These are boats, but they can drive on land too!
The one-hour, 8.5-mile tour takes you through wooded trails and then into the scenic Wisconsin River for a tour of some spectacular scenery, then back on land for a bit, then into beautiful Lake Delton. There are a couple of "Duck Boat" tours, but this is the one we did and it was great fun! Check them out if you're ever in the Dells. http://www.
The house we were renting backed to a small lake where we could rent canoes and row boats, so we got one and just beached it in the back yard and used it as we wanted. My daughter and I went fishing a few times, and the nieces and nephews would use it to explore the small lake and it's tree lined coves. After the week was over, it was time to drive back to Milwaukee, turn in the renat car, and get on a plane back to Maryland. This was a fun trip, and there are so many things to do there, I'm sure we'll be back.
