Dream Vacation

If it weren't for Alysha, it's safe to say the Hamann "Dream Vacation" to the Dells would still be that, a dream. What started with a simple e-mail to throw out both the idea and a date, culminated in a fun-filled weekend adventure at Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness, courtesy of Adam. He secured us a 3-bedroom deluxe condo, unlimited water park passes, and 2 Wild Fun passes at a discount rate for the weekend of March 2-4. The rest...as they say, is history.

Wilderness Resort Map, Wisconsin Dells
3 Bedroom Deluxe Condo in Glacier Canyon Lodge
Our living quarters
Beduhn sleeping quarters
Nolan's birthday feast, a taco bar
Ready...set...GO! A passerby sarcastically chortled "it's a shame they're not excited!" Klondike Cavern Indoor Waterpark featured:

• "Two 500-foot tube rides which drop five-stories
• Bonanza Brook, a 400-foot lazy river
• Sulfur Springs pool and hot spa, both with indoor-to-outdoor access
• Bonanza Bluff, a huge play feature which includes 50 play & spray features, a 750-gallon tipping bucket, a 20 foot body slide and a 4 foot side by side children's slide
• The Hurricane, the Dells’ tallest indoor 4-person, family raft ride which plummets 58 feet before dropping thrill-seekers into a funnel where they spin around and then splash into a landing pool below. Fog machines, strobe lights and sound effects add to the thrills of this amazing ride."

Reid and Noah
Grandma EIO and Nolan
Grandpa EIO and Cody
Cousins Cody and Nolan

On Saturday, we trekked over to the Wild West Indoor Waterpark which featured:

• "The Black Hole," Water Thrill Ride is an outrageously fun tube slide that will make your adrenaline soar as you drop through twisting turns and spin around before dropping into the unknown!
• The "Fantastic Voyage," a 4-person raging raft ride that takes guests on an exciting journey through a twisting and turning tunnel. When the ride is completed, a conveyor belt system returns the huge raft to the top of the ride so all you need to do is walk back to the beginning for more fun!
• Ransack Ridge, a four-story interactive play feature that is the largest in the U.S., complete with body slides, cannons, turrets, water blasters, animated targets all in a Wild West theme, add to the excitement of this intensely fun new waterpark. A 750-gallon tipping bucket, the largest ever created, that spills water every 3 minutes.
• The area also has four speed slides and indoor/outdoor hot spas."

Between waterpark adventures, we took in the free activities featured in the Wild Fun pass.




Reid and Collin on the Northern Lights Sky Ropes Course, perched 30 feet above the mega arcade in the Wild West region of the property. Wearing a full-body safety harness, they climbed their way around 42 challenges with varying degrees of difficulty.




Meanwhile, Aaron, Tyler, Nolan, and Cody enjoyed time at the Wilderness Resort Timberland Play Park (aka, ROTC training facility), a 30,000 square-foot, four-story dry interactive area that featured countless foam ball blasters, a ball fountain that launches hundreds of balls into the air at once, interesting crawl spaces and slides "that are guaranteed to make your stomach flip-flop". Here Nolan and Tyler prepare to go down a 30-foot black slide for the hundredth time, while Auntie Liz struggles to keep up.

After the play park Adam, Beth, Aaron, Nolan, and Grandma EIO played Wild Abyss Indoor Mini Golf & Aquariums ocean-themed 3-D miniature golf course, with huge aquariums and intense 3-D graphics and obstacles that amazed and challenged our skills.
SHARK ATTACK!
Exhaustion
Auntie Ellie has a captivated audience for a reading of Brecker Bunny, a children's book about fire safety. Ruth brings a signed copy home to Terry!
6...5...4...3...2...and 5 months!
Suckers!...courtesy of Auntie Ruthie from the on-site candy store mecca.

On Sunday, after the SD contingent departed, the rest of us explored Wild WaterDome Indoor Waterpark which featured:

• "The nation’s largest indoor wave pool, The Great Wave, measuring 15,450 square feet this unbelievably cool attraction is capable of generating waves up to 5 feet tall!
• The Dueling Mammoths, a THRILLING family raft racing ride that allows families to race against each other through twisting and turning tunnels to see who is the fastest.
• A 2,200 square foot 'zero-depth' play lagoon for the smaller ones."

"Been saving now for over a year
Let's pack the kids get outta here
We'll leave behind our troubles for a week
We'll borrow the pop-up from Phyllis and Steve
Just tell the boss I gotta leave
Be the best week of our lives as I can tell
We'll take our dream vacation in the Dells

We'll see the robot world and the water show
Go anywhere you wanna go
Circus world Museum in Baraboo
We'll play mini-golf at the Jellystone
And we'll finally see that house of foam
And if the kids wanna buy a t-shirt what the hell
It's our dream vacation in the Dells

And at night when the kids is all asleep
Then off to the lounge for a nightcap we can sneak
I know our lives they ain't the stuff of dreams
But for one full week we can live like kings and queens

So let's board the dogs lock the door
We'll roll down Interstate 94
Be the best week of our lives I can tell
We'll take our dream vacation in the Dells

And at night when the kids is all asleep
Then off to the lounge for a nightcap we can sneak
I know our lives they ain't the stuff of dreams
But for one full week we can live like kings and queens

So let's board the dogs lock the door
We'll roll down Interstate 94
Be the best week of our lives as I can tell
We'll take our dream vacation in the Dells
Gonna take our dream vacation in the Dells"

lyrics by Martin Zellar, Gear Daddies, "Dream Vacation