Day 3: Wisconsin Dells, WI

We woke up around 8am to prepare for our first day not involving out-of-city travel. After a quick stop at Walmart for some breakfast items and a waterproof camera (that we’ll probably return because it didn’t work well), we drove about 5 mins down the road to Noah’s Ark Waterpark. Wristbands for each day of our stay at our hotel were included for free, so all we had to pay for was the $15 for parking. Arielle was hopeful that Abe would try a number of rides despite his lack of affinity for such things, and he didn’t disappoint! We went together on the Congo Bongo, the Bermuda Trinagle, Flying Gecko (which was almost all dark and covered) and Kowabunga, where Abe legitimately thought he was going to bounce out of the giant tube on the way down the sloped slide. We stood in line for what was mostly a kids’ short zip line into the pool and laughed as one child dropped immediately after stepping off the ledge, but then Arielle did the exact same thing, and Abe lasted about a second and a half longer. That proved to be the most scarring experience of the day, with our hands and arms feeling sore for hours afterwards despite mere seconds of participation in this child-friendly activity. We threaded through the Wave pool and even rode down one of the Monkey Rapids into the Adventure River, which was mostly a lazy river until buckets of water poured onto us. Arielle did one ride on her own - the Raja - a brand new ride billed as the World’s Largest King Cobra - and was quite terrified to be spit out into the cobra’s mouth backwards. Abe captured a great photo below.

Arielle was thrilled to find a kosher Hebrew National hot dog (and pareve bun) for purchase in the park (for less than at a Mets game) and Abe enjoyed food from Johnny Rockets. We capped off our culinary experience a few hours later with the LoL (lots of layers) size of dependable park dessert Dippin’ Dots, which, despite not having caught on as the ice cream of the future, are delicious. Being at Noah’s Ark was made especially seamless by Arielle’s use of a waterproof fanny pack that has three separate zippers and kept all of our belongings dry, as well as an inflatable water bottle. The weather got a little colder so we left around 5pm and went back to our hotel, where we enjoyed the pool-size hot tub adjacent to the “indoor waterpark” that thrilled a number of young children.

We had passed a restaurant on the drive back that looked appealing, and opted to check out HuHot Mongolian Grill, a chain with locations mostly in the Midwest. We were beyond impressed with the treatment of Arielle, deemed a VIP, with the V standing for vegetarian. When she handed her white bowl (not black or blue like those available at the buffet of raw items) to the grill warrior, he promptly cleaned the grill multiple extra times and then set up a barricade of plates and spatulas to make sure that her food was kept separate. Arielle has never felt more confident that her food in a restaurant was truly vegetarian. This chain is highly recommended, both for its accommodation of dietary needs and its deliciousness. We returned to our hotel room, where our hopes of driving a few blocks down the road for custard were dashed by frighteningly wondrous lightning storms visible from our window and pictured below.

Approximate number of miles covered: 10