| Oct. 5th, 2007 @ 11:23 pm Wisconsin Dells Wonderland |
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Our "weary souls" trip went off very well. It was only one day, but it was a day well spent. We actually were on the road well before noon and an hour away from the Dells before we almost took a side trip to hell.
That side trip was Janesville. I had a list of restaurants that looked good to entertain my wife at there, since it was the midpoint between our home and the Dells. Turns out, that place is deader than a doornail on a Sunday. As the community with the largest number of reported Alien Abductions in the country, I can only assume they were all off planet for a meeting. I say that kiddingly, even though I think the alien abduction phenomena is very real science anyway you look at it--psychological or truly physical. Anyway...
We got lost in Janesville even with my trusty GPS. Where we ended up was quite interesting. Where that is exactly, I am not sure. It was near the expressway though. We had a choice of many franchise restaurants to go to, but the wife had a hankering for Mexican food, so we stopped at the first place we saw. It turned out to be terrible and not very Mexican at all, even though it was run by Mexicans and had a purely Spanish name. When I asked for Chorizo in my Fritto Burritto, the waiter who was managing us and a cell phone call looked shocked that Senor Grengo would even know what Mexican sausage is. Of course, it wasn't available since it wasn't on the menu.
After we left, I decided to look one of my cousins up on the GPS. He lives in Janesville and I haven't seen him in over 20 years. As a child we were little buddies, especially after my dad died. The friendship abruptly ended as a pre-teen when I flipped him off when he exerted his authority over me in some meaningless incident. He was a few years older than me. We are Sicilians, we hold long grudges.
So, I found his house on the GPS and to my surprise, he was only 2 miles from the restaurant. So we drove down and found his house. It was at the end of a deadend street in a newer part of town. Pretty random America, really. I wanted to hover by his house for a bit to see if I could see him through the windows, or perhaps one of his children, but since it was at the end of a deadend street, I didn't feel comfortable that I would have a good gettaway. So I drove down, had my wife open the blacked out window of the car and start shooting the camera. At the very least, I am hopeful he caught a glimpse and freaked out. hahaha
Onwards to the Dells....
The Dells are one of our favorite vacation spots in the Midwest. This was our third trip. We love the waterparks and the myriad things to do there. We are finding with many things that the second time at a place or location often is a disappointment. We stayed at a resort that we loved the first time we were there. This time, not so much. Kind of disappointing. The room and the Jacuzzi tub in it were pretty lackluster. The waterparks were fun, but partially closed down, so that was a bummer. The new waterpark with the large wavepool was fun, but made me motion sick. My favorite ride was closed for maintenance. Bummer, bummer.
We did try a new restaurant we liked a lot called Buffalo Phil's Grille. The wait staff were all Eastern Europeans. Judging by the accent, they were either Bulgarians or Russians. I am not sure which. Our waiter was extremely pleasant, but I could tell he was struggling. I felt like he knew he was better than the job, but not in a heady way--in a disappointed way. I felt it and I felt sorry for him. The food was great nonetheless. I love Rotisserie chicken and theirs was the best I've had.
After our experience at the restaurant, we went to see The Bourne Ultimatum. It was fantastic. It was great to see a movie in a theatre. I happily handed the ticket counter the ridiculous amount for the tickets, and the ridiculous amount for the concessions. My wife and I were used to seeing a movie at least twice a month in the theatres before we had Sofia and not getting to do that had a greater impact on both of us than we expected.
We got back to the hotel and, quite knackered, hunkered down for bed. To our frustration, we kept rolling into each other on the king sized bed. I had gotten us the Honeymoon suite at the resort....and you can guess why we easily drifted into the middle of the bed! Um....yeah.....
The next day we had an amazing breakfast at Paul Bunyans, where again there were many Eastern Europeans. We spoke with one of the American women working there and she explained that they hire seasonal workers from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia each year because they have a labor shortage and those groups tend to have the best English outside of English speaking centres of the world. I would also suspect, not quite so subtly, they also choose them for how white they are. Perhaps that is racist though. But I just got that sense. I did not see many Hispanics working anywhere. On the other hand, drawing from collegiate seasonal workers is a trend that extends to both sides of the Atlantic. My sister did "seasonal type" work in England for a while. It's hard work for an educated person to do, but they do choose to do it.
This woman explained that they draw from Poland, Sweden, Finland, Macedonia, Russia and Bulgaria each year. Most of them are on their summer breaks for college, but a few of them have graduated and come back to work because they can earn more money seasonally than they can through most of the year back home. She said that several of them that have come back have had their PH.Ds and advanced master's degrees. I recalled how Poland has one of the most educated workforces that isn't working in the world. I can imagine that frustration of being very qualified and not having a job available. Actually, I can sympatize much more now than I could have in the past. I thought back to our waiter at Buffalo Phil's grille. I wish I had spoken with him more than just about the menu and pleasantries. I am shy that way sometimes. I bet he was pretty interesting. A physicist or something...
We wound up the day by going back to the water park for a short bit and then driving home. It felt very good just having a "21 hour" vacation with my wife alone. |
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