Makenzie flies her first plane at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, WI.  We had a great day at this museum but this was definitely the highlight. 

Young Eagles is a program they run at the museum (actually Young Eagles is a world wide program) with the goal to have 1 million kid pilot names recorded in a book by December 2013.  The museum surpassed that goal and is now at 1.8 million kids who have hit the skies, Makenzie being one of them.  What is so cool is that Makenzie was able to fly this plane for free as part of this program! Let me say that again… FREE!

The process runs smoothly.  Sign the waiver, step 1.  We happened to be here on a quiet day so our wait time for Makenzie to fly was rather short.  I was told that on busier days the wait time could be as long as an hour and a half.  When your turn is up the very friendly pilot takes the whole family out to the plane.  He then talks a little about the plane itself and then gives a brief explanation of some of the buttons and numbers you see on the dashboard.  He explains to Makenzie that she will be steering the plane if she chooses to do so… and she did!

 

Getting prepared.

 

Ready for take off!

 

It’s blurry but there she is in the sky!

 

I’m so proud of this girl.  She was so nervous but she did it anyway.  Because she was the last flight of the day, she got a little extra ride, she had the opportunity to drive the plane to hanger where it would then be parked for the night.  Not long after her flight she said, “I want to be pilot!”

Jersey girls don’t know pudgy pies.  But I’m in Wisconsin, so now I do.

It all started with a fellow camper asking to borrow our can opener.  She was needing to open 3 cans of pie filling.

Jeff:  “Whatcha makin’?” (truly sounding like a midwest boy,  that’s not far from “you betcha”). 

Vicky: “Pudgy pies.”

Jeff:  “What are pudgy pies?”

What Vicky said, I don’t entirely know.  But what I heard was something about white bread, pie filling and a fire.

End of story…

Until about an hour later Vicky returns.  She says, “Why don’t you come by after dinner and we can show you how to make pudgy pies.”

And we did go and learn the art of how to make a pudgy pie.

Directions:

Take 1 slice of white bread and butter one side.

Place bread, butter side down, into cast iron pudgy pie maker thing (yes, this is a real thing).  It’s like a Panini maker on a stick.

Glob lots of pie filling on bread.

Place 2nd piece of white bread on top of pie filling, butter side up.

Close pudgy pie maker thingy.

Place in fire.

But not for too long.

It’s like a grilled cheese without the cheese but instead pie filling. I guess you could put whatever you want inside.

I have to be honest, I wasn’t a big fan.  The kids on the other hand…

Thank you Vicky, Mark, Steve and Ruth for your food and fun!

We debated a long time about doing this boat tour.  Because everything in the town is made for tourists to pour their money into, I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it.  When we finally made the decision to do it, it turned out that because we are here off season we got a great deal on tickets (2 kids free and 2 kids half price).  Or maybe they just felt bad for us because it was a cold rainy day. 

I would say that the boat probably holds at least 60.  There were 16 passengers on the boat and we were 6 of them.  During most of the ride up the dells a guide gives lots of information on the dells and points out interesting rock formations that look like things like Indian heads and alligators.  It was very informative and it felt much like a private tour.

The beginning of the tour:

 

Boat Stop #1- Witches Gulch

I was very excited to see this and it did not disappoint.  I couldn’t take enough pictures to capture the magnificent beauty of this gulch.  Because it was so dreary and rainy, it did have a rather eerie feeling.

 

Boat Stop #2- Stand Rock

We were told that Stand Rock is known for the famous dog jump.  Not famous enough that I had heard of it.  But indeed a dog does jump the distance of 5 1/2 feet between these rocks, except when it is raining.  No dog jump for us.

What an interesting place?  The best way I can describe it is to think of Las Vegas and Orlando, FL colliding… that is the town of Wisconsin Dells, on a much smaller scale.

It is the “Water Park Capital of the World”.  How it got this title?  According to a local, here is the story (although Wikipedia tells a different version).

It all started with 2 brothers opening a water park in 1979, Noah’s Ark, with the money they made from a game they had patented and sold.  Their goal was to bring a little excitement to a poor poor town.  The park had a handful of water slides.  They set the park a distance back from the main road to preserve the appearance of the beautiful farm land when driving the main road.  The brothers sold the park many years later for $44 million. Noah’s Ark is now the biggest water park in the world.  Also, the street it is located on is jammed packed full of other gaudy water parks, amusement parks, hotels, big signs, and bright lights.  The women I spoke with didn’t seem too bothered by this entertainment boom.  She mentioned that it brought a lot of jobs to a very depressed town.  An interesting perspective.

If you ever decide to come here with kids plan to sink hundreds of dollars on “stuff”.  We managed to get away with the cost of a boat tour because we spent most of our time in state parks away from the many attractions… not to say that my kids didn’t ask for more because they did.

But originally people came to this town for it’s natural beauty, the dells.  More on the amazing Wisconsin Dells tomorrow.  I would come back here to explore more of the dells, other state parks, and the incredible natural land formations that are found in the area.

Here is a tiny glimpse of the main road: