We have heard a lot about The Dells and the Ducks. So today we went to Wisconsin Dells to ride the Ducks. Wisconsin Dells is an area that was made famous by a photographer when photography as an art form was in its infancy. People around the world were charmed by the photos and dreamed of one day seeing the beautiful river and landscape for themselves. As the adventure seekers and tourists arrived there was need of hotels to house them, and restaurants to feed them. Boats gave tours of the beautiful river, as more and more people came more attractions were added to the tourism based settlement until it became what it is today. The Ducks are amphibious vehicles that were designed for military use in WWII.
We were pretty excited to ride on one and learn something about their history and WWII in the process.
The Dells is nearly two hours drive from our apartment and the route suggested by the GPS was complicated with major construction so we ended up driving through a lot of back country roads. These kind of interruptions are often annoying at first but so far almost every time they have lead to some fun discoveries. This time as we started passing buggies and wagons and cute kids and old men dressed in black and white with full bushy beards we realized we had wondered into Amish country!
I didn’t get any good pictures and I didn’t want to be too obvious although they are probably used to it. Their farms were all beautiful.
When we emerged from the back roads we found ourselves just outside of the main drag in Dells.
We got into town just about lunch time so we parked our car, bought our tour tickets, and picked one of the recommended restaurants for a pre tour lunch. We window shopped on our way there and back it is similar to Durango CO, and Lincoln City OR in the small cute little shops department.
After Lunch we took the “bus” to the Original Ducks Tours.
Eve chose the back seat and was so excited for this ride with no car seat.
The tour was full and the guide was funny.
The wind going through our hair and the spray of water as we dove in and out of the river and lake were fun. The corny jokes were ok but they kind of detracted from the amazing ness of the hunk of engineering we were sitting on and the beautiful scenery that surrounded us.
We did some more walking around after the tour. Caleb and Hannah decided that we needed a Duck for our next vehicle they were ok with it’s top speed of 55 MPH or 11 knots but I think the exhaust fumes and loud engine may get old.
We drove through town, roller coaster row, and checked out all of the water parks and amusement parks that made up the town. There were so many in one place! The we headed home.
We made it back with some daylight to spare. Myra and I got out for a sunset stroll that was just gorgeous.
We had a short budget meeting, Dave Ramsey would be proud. And crashed early.
Owens Endeavors 