Lake Geneva Blog #3

Sorry this is late, but I had problems with the Internet connection last night. Here's the rest of the trip.

Wednesday had a slow start as I was still feeling a little on the rough side from too much sun and not enough liquids. Classic, silly mistake I know, but there you are.

Mid morning we decided to branch out a little further and go to the town of Delavan, having exhausted most of our options in Lake Geneva. Delavan is about 25-30 mins. from town and is an interesting slice of small town America.

Delavan prides itself as being the 1800s Circus capital of the world. Somewhere in the 1850s and 60s, the town became the winter headquarters for both the Marble Brothers and the P.T. Barnum Circus, two of the most popular names in all circusdom. Though there are now just a few locals who carry on the tradition of circus performing the city still celebrates this history and has statues of circus animals along the town's main street.

The other interesting thing about Delavan to me is its apparently large Mexican/Spanish American populace. For an area of the country known to be settled by Swedes and Germans it seemed as though the majority of the shops were Mexican food, ranchero type western clothing, and many were based in Spanish culture. Nothing wrong with this, mind you, (I even liked some of the shirts in the clothing shop), it just struck me as a little odd.

But the reason we went to the city in the first place was to go to the Brick Street Market to buy some honest to goodness Wisconsin cheese. Not only do they sell cheese, sausage, beer and wine (how perfect can you get?), they serve lunch as well. We met a very nice lady named Laurie, who let us sample various cheeses and made suggestions according to our tastes. Our sandwich lunch (nice, light Summer type sandwiches by the way) even came with a cheese and sausage sampler she picked out herself. That kind of customer service wins the day every time. Naturally, we brought home some cheeses, a Parmesan soaked in Raspberry ale, and Antonella infused with sun dried tomato and rolled in basil. Normally we're not "Infused with" or "soaked in" people but this is seriously good stuff. As Laurie herself said, "This is Wisconsin, we don't make bad cheese." She also let me do a pick a six of New Glarus beer, which I will be happy to share with family and friends provided I see you before I drink it all.

After that it was back to the condo for a quick nap, 'cuz it's vacation, and then out shopping. We got some ice cream and brought home some fudge and caramel from a local shop, 'cuz it's vacation, and bought some t-shirts and trinkets for the kids. soon enough it was dinner time. And this is where we spent most of our budget.

The condos we stayed in are run by Holiday Inn (actually they bought out another company and have yet to renovate which they really need to do), but they are on the property of the Grand Geneva resort, one of those exclusive all inclusive type resorts. There are actually multiple resorts on the grounds, including one with a water park inside, a full service spa and gym with indoor and outdoor pool, and a man made lake plus two golf courses. Fancy shmancy, with the Holiday Inn condos barely registering on the map and stuck at the back of the property. Well, just because we could we ate at one of their restaurants, The Geneva Chophouse. Incidentally this used to be one of the first Playboy Clubs. No sense of that remains.

It's about what you expect. We were under dressed a little but it proved no problem (though they did check to make sure we were resort guests...). All of the items on the menu were served a la carte. The bread was served with three different spread choices, butter, sun dried tomato, and bleu cheese butter which tastes way better than expected. We had our choice of spring or sparkling water, but disappointed the busboy by choosing regular water. Our waiter was nice enough though he seemed to look down his nose at us a little, but he's probably like that with everyone.

As for the food, Valerie ordered a clam chowder which was full of creamy goodness, and lamb chops that she thought were absolutely wonderful. I skipped the salad and just ordered an 18 oz. strip steak with garlic butter shrimp. The shrimp was excellent and the steak was one of those huge cuts that are just sooo thick. I made a slight error in ordering medium rare, because it's my experience that often when I order medium, the steak comes back a little dry for my tastes. Well, I should have known by the type of place we were in that they'd get it right but I erred on the side of caution anyway. So the steak was a little too red for me, and sure, I could have sent it back to cook some more but they delivered exactly what I ordered so fair play to them. And it was delicious nonetheless. We also shared a cheesecake with chocolate ganache for dessert, which made Valerie declare that she will never eat cheesecake anywhere else ever again. So all in all a successful meal. Very pricey though. Let's just say that $20 would have been a conservative tip.

There is little else to tell. Today was a driving day, we picked up the kids and dog and are all back home. Tessa loved her gifts, the twins were indifferent to theirs, being one year old and all, but all were very happy to see us and come home.

This vacation was a nice getaway. Not quite as many options for entertainment as I would have liked but it was relaxing, and apart from a few showers Monday morning the weather was near perfect. Sunny and under 90 degrees all week, actually a little chilly at times, with little to no humidity. While I don't think we'll go back soon, I wouldn't cross it off the list of possibilities either. Overall, we had a good time. And I got a Piggly Wiggly t-shirt, so I'm happy.

Pictures tomorrow, I promise.

PS-Not a lot of people with the standard Wisconsin type accent, most who did have were older. I think it's dying out in that area as the kids didn't seem to noticeably have it. That's kind of a shame.

PPS-I'm like 90% sure Gene Simmons of KISS fame was staying at the resort between gigs in the area. Didn't meet him, probably for the best.