- fishing
- rafting
- horseback riding
9:02am
We're at a place that has stocked fish and poles for kids... but they're not open. Lacking equipment and any skills myself, I'm a little shy of whole-heartedly pursuing this list item. We resolve to check back later.
I have some information about a place to take care of the horseback riding. Unfortunately, it's about 80 miles away... still, it's early and it's on the list. After failing so miserably at the fishing part, I resolve to do the drive up to Eagle River.
11:15am
We arrive at the Rocking W Stables in Eagle River, WI. This place has the advantage of also having go-karts, bumper boats and mini-golf. Could it get any better? Katie and I warm up with a game of mini-golf.
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Katie develops a style of play that some would find questionable, but since we're not really keeping score, I don't care. I'm just along for the ride... laughing all the way.
[video of winning style... click here]
After golf, we head over to the stables and sign up for the trail ride. It's a guided 3-mile walk through the woods. Katie gets her own horse which seems to huge compared to her, but the horse knows its business so I'm not too worried. At this point, I'm trying to remember exactly what was on the release form I hurriedly signed.
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At one point, I asked Katie if this counted as our daily ride. Originally, I'd resolved to ride bikes every day, but we now modify it to ride "something" each day.
[click here to see horseback ride video]
Flush with confidence after the horse ride, Katie opts for a go-kart experience. I've never driven one before, but I figure... heck... how hard can it be. Turns out, it is not difficult, but after a few laps, Katie lets me know that she's no longer enjoying it and we end our turn early.
2:15pm
We drive West from Eagle River along WI-70 to Hawk's Nest Canoe Outfitters and arrange for a raft experience. The Wisconsin River here is placid and slow and at most waist deep. It's perfect. We secure a 3-man raft and get dropped off for a 2-hour float down the river back to where we started.
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[click here for rafting video]
Things were going smoothly, until a thunderstorm hits. I remember some vague instruction before we got dropped off about getting off the river if that happens, so we found what looked like a sheltered spot and stopped.
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Sure enough, the raft operators show up to pull us out early. There was a little drama because we had to paddle upstream to get to where they were going to pull us out... it was so much easier to go downstream. Anyway, someone swam out and helped us and we all made it out safely. It did start to rain very hard, though.
4:05pm
We drive through Lakewood on the way back. We stopped in at Sweet Memories Candy Shoppe. It's pretty big. I insist on eating something substantial before candy, however, so we head over to Northern D'Lites, a drive up sort of place and Katie downs some fried mozzarella and some french fries with a Sprite before digging into her candy. I feel that nutritional norms have at least been nodded at.
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We arrive back at the cabin. It's been a full day. We didn't get to fish after all, but we did squeeze in mini golf and go-karting... so that's something. It's a day I don't count as a traveling day, but we still drove 173 miles.
Katie tells me that tonight is "now or never" for s'mores with the ingredients that we brought. It's raining outside so I rule out the firepit next to the cabin. I build a fire in the fireplace inside and we have the s'mores there.
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It's been a long day, and we're both ready to hit the hay after packing and cleaning up.
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