Wisconsin, eh?

We continued our tour of the midwest with a trip to Wisconsin. Because no American road trip is complete without cheese. So much cheese. 

We started the trip with a visit to House on the Rock. There was so much more there than I ever expected. We opted for the full self guided tour- estimated to take 3-31/2 hours. They were not kidding, we spent nearly 3 hours exploring things and could have easily spent several more if we stopped to look at every single thing. The tour is divided into three sections- the actual house, and two different galleries. 

The House: The guy who built this was obviously short, because Mitch and I were about as tall as you could be to comfortably navigate the place. It was full of dark corners and seating areas. I have no idea how big the house actually is, but it felt enormous as we twisted and turned around corners and through narrow hallways. Probably the most interesting part of the house, and definitely Mitch’s favorite part, was the infinity room. It was designed to look like it never ended, and the effect lands. It is fashioned as a huge spire sticking out of the house with windows on both sides at an angle. As it goes further into the abyss, and off the rock, it gets narrower, until it gets to the point that a smaller turret comes off of it at an angle. Total its well over 100 feet sticking straight out and off the rock, with no supports under it. Unique doesn't begin to describe it, but that really describes the entire place.

The Galleries: This guy collected EVERYTHING. So many dolls- all over the place. Circus dioramas. Model trains. Organs and Organ pipes. He also had many instruments that were wired to play themselves with the help of various electric parts. The instruments played a specific tune and were scattered throughout- sometimes as a solo unit, sometimes with up to 30 others, arranged like an orchestra. Sometimes they were accompanied by mannequins dressed like dancers, other times they were in a tucked away corner.

And then there was the whale. I’m not sure what the whale was doing there, but it was. And it was being attacked by a giant squid. These enormous sculptures (papier mache wonders?) were over two stories high. And surrounded by large models of ships and various nautical memorabilia. Each room was like this- a theme present, and then the most insane collection of items collected and displayed.

My favorite was the carousels. The world’s largest carousel is apparently there- it was defiantly very big, and at least 3 levels, filled with dozens of different animals and a wide variety of chimeras- but no horses. The walls in the room were also covered in carousel animals and horses. And multiple smaller carousels were around the gallery, one of which had tiny horses and held only dolls. The only downside was that you cant’ ride the carousels- so no caroselfie this time.

After the House on the Rock, we drove up to the Wisconsin Dells- home to the most waterparks in one area. We stayed at Mount Olympus, in an older motel they had bought and painted blue and white to indicate it was part of Mount Olympus. Our room was decorated with a lovely, wall sized, portrait of Poseidon on his horse, emerging from the sea. So that was a plus. Our stay included admission to the water park as well. 

The highlight of the Dells was the relaxation and recharge time, however. But there was time spent in waterpark. They had 3 lazy rivers and I tried them all, several times. There were also two wave pools, a bunch of slides, both tube and body, I tried a few of the smaller slides, designed for the elementary school set, and then returned to my river. Mitch tried a few more slides, reaching up to the middle school level and reporting back on what I could handle without injuring my back further. Our day in the water was topped off with delivery Italian food consumed while sitting in bed. Not a bad way to unwind.

The House on the Rock was not terribly well lit, so my attempt at photos is not great, but here are some to give you a sliver of an idea of all the weird things it had.

The first of so, so many carousel animals

 The Infinity Room! 

 This is what it looks like from outside

 the roof of the infinity room

 For your pill needs...

 There were dozens of these type machines around. Mitch is apparently an uncontrollable lover.

 I'm hot stuff.

 Thats a giant squid (or octopus? it's debatable) 

 Confirmed: Out of Control

 Still sexy. 

 

Carousels everywhere. So many horses. Literally hundreds adorned the walls. 

Magical musical displays.  

 These were all over the grounds and I want one. A giant pot covered in dragons!