It’s been a great weekend! Though at one point, I thought we’d made a big mistake and wished we could have cancelled our hotel booking.
A couple of months ago, I came across an ad for the 28th annual Winterfest event in Lake Geneva and was immediately intrigued. In addition to the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship – the only competition of its kind in the United States – it promised a Downtown Ice Sculpture Walk, bonfires on the beach, live entertainment, and more. We had a $130 room credit courtesy of hotels.com and we’re always down for an adventure, so we booked a room and eagerly awaited the festival.
What we did not know was that 20,000 other people eagerly awaited the festival, too. The majority of them from Illinois. A fact we only discovered much later, at a dive bar in Elkhorn Saturday afternoon, where we had backtracked after getting caught in the Mother of All Traffic Jams in Lake Geneva. It was so bad, we couldn’t even make it to our hotel. Rather than fighting the hordes, we decided to kill a few hours at a bar, only to find every single place with indoor seating had lines out the door. Rather than wait 45 minutes for a table, we decided to turn around and drive back to Elkhorn, about 15 minutes away.
“I bet we’re already eating cheese curds in Elkhorn when they text us that our table is ready,” I predicted.
Sure as hell, that’s exactly what happened.
We had a few drinks in addition to the curds and waited until after dark to attempt a return to Lake Geneva. Fortunately, by then the crowds had cleared out and we were able to check into our room. We then walked around downtown a bit before ducking into Lake City Social for more drinks and a fantastic dinner.
From left to right: panko-crusted deviled eggs with bacon, bleu cheese, and everything bagel seasoning; crab crusted salmon with lobster sauce over a bed of almond rice pilaf (and mashed potatoes, which they apparently considered the vegetable side); Brandy Old Fashioned; shrimp and crab chowder. Yes, it was all as delicious as it looks.
Afterward, it felt too early to go back to the room, so we found a much divier place with a DJ spinning mad tunes. “Stayin’ Alive” was playing when we walked in, so I knew we were going to have a good time. We sure did. Even danced a little and didn’t get out of there until shortly after midnight. Who are we?!
Walking around town after dark, it felt like it was still Christmas in Lake Geneva. I guess they don’t really disassemble the holiday until after Winterfest.
It was obviously very late when we got back to our room, so we basically crashed. But we were up pretty early this morning to take advantage of the sparse (but certainly not non-existent) crowds and check out the various snow sculptures, as well as the ice sculptures downtown.
The level of detail was amazing! I’ve seen sand castle contests before, but never anything done with snow. It’s a much more fragile medium. This morning, the ice sculptures were already melting. And then I went and bumped into one like an idiot.
OK, just kidding. It was like that when I got there. But the reactions of people walking by were priceless.
We grabbed breakfast, walked out onto the frozen lake, and then began the trek home.
But not straight home. We detoured through Janesville to hit up Home Depot, where we finally made some decisions on the house.
We’re going with vinyl wood-look plank flooring in the living room, dining room, and hallway, and carpet in the bedrooms/on the stairs. It’s amazing how realistic these products look. Even side by side next to real oak, I could hardly tell the difference. We’ve also decided on colors for the living room, office, and guest room. Narrowing our choices down for the master bedroom still. We haven’t ordered anything yet, but we scheduled an appointment for the Home Depot people to come out and take measurements. It’ll be the Friday after we close.
Progress!
By the way, in case you still have me bookmarked under swingedcat.com, that domain expires in six days and I won’t be renewing it. “Swinged Cat” was a South Dakota nickname and therefore no longer relevant. If you want to keep reading these emotion-laden, thought-provoking meditations on life – or you just want to see me continue to act like a goober and pretend to break detailed ice sculptures – make sure to follow markpetruska.com instead.
And if you think I only behave this way for the blog, ask Tara about that time we stayed out late at a dive bar in Lake Geneva and I dropped to the floor for some fake break dancing…
Mark My Words 
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