Just recently my family of five took a road trip for spring break. We knew our first destination would be Oconomowoc Wisconsin for Easter and that our last stop would be home. All the "in- betweens" were a sprinkling of who-knows, and that is just the way this family rolls!
I have always been a huge fan of winging it. Winging it, as in setting aside the road map and just seeing where life leads me. Trying that different route, driving that scenic back road, or touring that unknown spot that is just screaming for me to explore, had always been how this girl lives. Is it genetic? I have no idea, all I know is that there is a whole heck of a lot in life to explore and much of that is not on the road well traveled.
Back to our spring break! Easter in Oconomowoc was well spent with family and a new friend. After a few days of catching up with family we hit the road and headed west. With a ton of scenic back roads and an equally amount of St. Vincent De Paul thrift shops, our sights were set on Wisconsin Dells (aka Wally World, as I like to call it!) 
For those of you that have never "experienced" the Dells it is truly a world of its own! The town is filled with waterparks, themed restaurants and villages, trinket shops and tourist traps of all kinds. Just the kind of place a family could get sucked into and hardly know what hit them. It was the off-peak season though, so we were presented with a place that kinda resembled a ghost town. Nonetheless, we managed to find fun in the moment. We stayed at the Kalahari resort and the kids delighted in the ginormous indoor waterpark! After a heavy dose of frolic and fun (and not to mention a dizzying amount of chlorine!) we hit the road in search of our next memory. We took the back roads out of the Dells and hit Baraboo along the way down south. Baraboo was once the hot-spot for the cirus circuit. The Ringling brothers started their famous circus there back in 1884. It remained there until the Ringling brothers merged with the Barnum and Bailey show. Currently their is a Circus Museum there with not much else. Culvers was one of the only shining highlights of that side trip. The hilly Wisconsin countryside, however, was a beautiful feast to my eyes. With the fresh green earth emerging, everything looked so fresh and alive. A perfect balance against the striking red wooden barns and old time white farm houses. This truly is America's heartland.
We made our next stop in lovely Madison. Some years back we lived there with our newly emerging family. My son was only 6 months old when we moved there and our first daughter was born there. Madison is just the perfect sized town that holds a ton of different layers. It has the University of Wisconsin and all that culture that goes along with college life. The state capitol is there. The diversity there is so captivating and alluring. Throw in a free zoo and a number of beautiful lakes and you have a wonderful place to visit. 
We spent almost three days in Madison and still it was not enough time to explore. A side trip was to Black Earth and to the "Midwest's largest shoe store."
The Shoe Box is a site worth seeing! Here in this rinky dinky town in the middle of corn/cow heaven is a rather large sized building housed with more shoes then I have ever seen in my entire life! The staff was super friendly and we made out with some rather awesome deals. Back in Madison on a random road to somewhere we encountered a store with a rather odd name. The sign on the outside said, "Dig and Save." With curiosity peaked we parked the car and headed in to see what it was. Inside we were presented with a good-sized room filled with large-sized cardboard boxes. Inside each box was a heaping assortment of all types of clothing items. These boxes were literally overflowing! The sign on the wall said that clothing was $1.00 a pound! In the back of the store was a whole separate area what housed household items, do-dad's and what-nots. These items were 35cents a pound. A quick stay was not enough. This place requires one to spend some quality time, a whole mess of patience, and an open mind!
We spent almost three days in Madison and still it was not enough time to explore. A side trip was to Black Earth and to the "Midwest's largest shoe store." The Shoe Box is a site worth seeing! Here in this rinky dinky town in the middle of corn/cow heaven is a rather large sized building housed with more shoes then I have ever seen in my entire life! The staff was super friendly and we made out with some rather awesome deals. Back in Madison on a random road to somewhere we encountered a store with a rather odd name. The sign on the outside said, "Dig and Save." With curiosity peaked we parked the car and headed in to see what it was. Inside we were presented with a good-sized room filled with large-sized cardboard boxes. Inside each box was a heaping assortment of all types of clothing items. These boxes were literally overflowing! The sign on the wall said that clothing was $1.00 a pound! In the back of the store was a whole separate area what housed household items, do-dad's and what-nots. These items were 35cents a pound. A quick stay was not enough. This place requires one to spend some quality time, a whole mess of patience, and an open mind! 
Our stay in Madison was fast and fun but soon we needed to head out. We exited and continued on south soon entering Illinois. The pace quickly changed the closer we got to Chicago. Cars and all the rush-rush made my head spin. We made a pit stop at IKEA in Schaumburg, stayed at a local hotel, and recharged for our last leg of the journey. We made our last stop to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Arriving mid morning we made our way into this massive building housed with oodles of interest. The place was not too packed for a Saturday in Chicago. Everywhere you looked there was something amazing to look at and play with. It was very interactive and the kids (and adults) were fully engaged. Honestly, one day is not enough time to truly get the full effect of this awesome place. Some hours later and with three tired and hungry kids we loaded the car for our final destination in sight..home. 
The week for me was fun, relaxing, and restorative. I tried my best to "live in the moment" every day. This truly made a huge difference! This journey may have ended, but soon enough the next will take off. Already we are planning our next adventure, possibly down south to Texas? In the meantime, while the memories are still fresh (and the laundry needs to be washed), I shall savor our spring break journey and be forever blessed by this great land that we live.
