Our Summer Vacation

This past week we went to Lake Geneva for our summer vacation. My co-worker has a timeshare and allows us to use his extra points to rent a condo. This year we decided on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, because it was the only place we could find that was available within a 5-7 hour drive. After last year's 16 hour trip to Virginia Beach, we decided to stay closer to home.

Brian did a great job in researching the area and found that there were several places we could go to for day-trips.

We left last Sunday and arrived at the Orange Lake Resort which is located at the Grand Geneva Spa and Resort. The drive there wasn't too bad. Allison kept busy with her activities that I had packed for her. Amelia, unlike her sister, actually napped and was content with playing with a few of her toys. Once we checked-in and unpacked our stuff, we let the kids play in the pool. They had a nice kiddie pool that was only a few inches deep. It also had a mushroom with flowing water that Allison was very intrigued by, but at the same time didn't want to get too close to. However, she had no issue with making Brian go under the water. She thought that was pretty funny.



On Monday, our day started off bright and early with a 6:30 am wake up call by both girls, which in comparison to the rest of the week was sleeping in. The remainder of the week both girls woke up at 5:30 am. We were able to get them back to sleep, however it was harder for Brian and I to fall back to sleep at that point.

Once we finished with breakfast, we took a walk and explored the grounds. Allison liked the fountain that was at the main entrance. A cool fact that we didn't know about the resort until we got there was that it used to be a Playboy resort back in the late sixties and seventies. The main buildings were inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and had a few touches by Hugh Hefner. The facilities were very nice and well-kept.

After our walk we toured Lake Geneva. It reminded me of towns along the Lake Michigan coast such as Petoskey, Pentwater, etc. There were lots of little shops, including a toy store called Allison's Wonderland. They had a nice public area along Geneva Lake with a fountain that Allison enjoyed. She also liked the boats in the marina. They had tour boat rides you could take, but we decided with an antsy toddler that wouldn't have been the best idea. We may have ended up swimming our way onto shore.

This was the view from our condo.

Allison enjoying her afternoon snack while trying to watch television.

On Tuesday, we headed to the city of Racine to visit the zoo, which is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Allison and I "explored" the zoo by train. It was a nice zoo. A little small but just the right size for Allison.

After the zoo, we headed down to the waterfront for lunch and walked along the lakeshore while Mia took her nap. Later that night back in Lake Geneva, we went to Gino's East for some delicious Chicago-style pizza. Granted we weren't actually in Chicago, but it was the closest thing we have had to Chicago pizza in a very long time. Later that night, we treated ourselves to gelato at the coffee shop at the resort. Allison ate chocolate and Amelia loved the strawberry. Brian and I ate the leftovers.

On Wednesday, we decided to stick close to the resort so we didn't have to put the kids back in the car. We went out for breakfast and looked at some of the shops we didn't get to on Monday. Since we didn't take a day trip, we were able to stick to the kids' schedule and let them take their naps, which was greatly needed at this point. You could tell Allison was getting very tired. After naps, we grilled steaks and had corn-on-the-cob, a favorite of Allison's. We ended the evening with a trip to the pool.

On Thursday, we took a day-trip to Milwaukee, where we once again headed to another zoo. However this one was a little bigger and took us longer.

True to my frugual self, I was very excited that we found street parking, which is very limited. This saved us from a $10 parking fee, plus since we have a membership to the local zoo in Grand Rapids, we received free admission to both zoos that week. We payed for half of our membership this past week.

The girls liked the Aviary building where we saw the penguins. They also had ducks that were free to roam one section of the building.

The zoo is very nice and has many exhibits that the girls could see the animals and watch them move around. Even Amelia picked up on some of the animals and was intently watching them.

One of the exhibits that really allowed you to get close to the animals was the tiger. It was really cool to see him so close but at the same time a bit nerve-wracking. At one point in time, the tiger stopped right in front of me and was staring at me. The fact that he did that right after I took his picture didn't leave me with a good feeling. At that point in time, I was hoping the six inches of plexi-glass was very strong.

After the zoo, we were going to head downtown to either go to the Children's Museum or the lakeshore, however both girls conked out within minutes of being in the car. Since it is such a rarity that Allison actually sleeps in the car, we decided to stay on the highway and head to Kenosha, where we stopped off at the outlet mall.

Later that evening, we headed back to Lake Geneva one last time for dinner and a walk, however it was getting overcast so we skipped the walk and went straight to dinner. The rain did hold off so we were able to get one last trip to the pool and the gelato shop. By then Allison was getting brave and walked under the mushroom to get to Brian. She was so proud of herself for doing that.

This is one of the few pictures that both girls were smiling at the same time (even though you can't see Amelia's smile behind the seat buckle strap).

On Friday we took off for home. Allison kept herself busy playing with stickers. Can you believe with a tired face like you see, that she never took a nap on the car ride home? By then I was so tired myself, that I was begging her to take a nap so I could take one myself. However true to Allison's form, she never gave in. When we arrived home everyone was happy that the car ride was over. Amelia was happy to be with her toys once again.

Overall we had a nice trip. Traveling with two-under-two was a bit challenging at times. It doesn't leave you with much time to relax yourself. Thank goodness for early bedtimes which gave us a few hours of peace and quiet.