日曜日の雰囲気 (Sunday Vibes) - 1/18/2026
We've been to the Wilderness resort a bunch of times before (we usually make it a point to go at least once a year), but this trip was exceptionally good. A few highlights and other things worth noting: - We kicked things off by trolling the local populace. Strolling into the park all decked out in full Bears merch the day after the Bears beat the Packers got a few Wisco-accented snarls directed at us. That's exactly the kind of reaction we were hoping for, and we got it. - The first thing we noticed is that they tweaked the water temperature of the lazy river and play areas to be a bit warmer, while the "hot springs" (a glorified hot tub) was dialed down a bit. However, being able to sit comfortably in a hot tub for two hours does not mean you should, and I damn near passed out. Sitting in the cooler waters of the Wild West area's swim-up bar to stave off heat exhaustion while watching reruns of Mama's Family has cemented itself as one of the stranger memories of the trip. - We rented a cabana in the Wild West area and ordered some pizza and pop to enjoy while we listened to the Chelsea vs Arsenal game. Arsenal won that game, which made the whole experience even better. - The downtown Dells is nearly dead during the winter --nearly all the shops are closed, the Ducks aren't running, etc-- but we still pop down there on the warmest day of the week whenever we make winter trips up there (and every time we hit up Swiss Maid Fudge for treats). We noticed a few of the old attractions both inside and outside the Dells area proper have been torn down, including some of the random smaller motels along the drive toward downtown, and the lazy river and slide outside the Polynesian (which looks like it's gone through some considerable downsizing). The Kalahari also looks like it's getting some huge expansion tacked onto it. What caught our eye was the new resort that's being built right across from that huge sandstone wall with all the chain restaurants like Dunkin and Culver's sitting in front of it. It's apparently called the Dellshire Resort, and this thing looks straight outta Mondstadt. We're already considering plans to go there for our next trip, whenever that is. ColossalCon is also a maybe since that's right in the Kalahari. - That Aquavia Lumina thing is like something out of the Pandora area of Disney World's Animal Kingdom. They did a fantastic job on that, especially with the interactive areas. My inner bird nerd was endlessly delighted by the Great Horned Owl hoots, Mourning Dove coos, Whip-Poor-Will trills, and Loon giggles. (I was still half expecting blue cat people to jump out at me from among the seas of LED lights right through the mist generated by the fog machines.) - The wave pool area was closed for renovations almost all week except for the last two days we were there, and we were glad to finally get in there even if it stunk of chlorine AND paint.
That concludes the summary of our latest adventure! Where we'll be off to next (besides Anime Central and Anime Midwest) is anybody's guess because it's kinda dependent on how much PTO both of us have - but we agreed that we should definitely try to do something new soon.