Wednesday, April 10, 2013

On This Date in 1998: Friday, April 10



It’s Good Friday afternoon.  JoAnna took the day off, and I worked a short day, from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.  I would have gone in earlier, but the crown work JoAnna was having done at the dentist took longer than expected.
“They had to make two impressions,” she explained.
In less than an hour, we should be on the road to Wisconsin Dells.  We have a reservation at the Polynesian, a hotel with a indoor water park.  These types of establishments, and there must be at least a dozen of them now, have helped to revive the Dells’ economy, which is primarily built on tourism.  It makes the area less dependent on the summer months.
We’re staying just one night, at least that was the original plan.  We don’t have any plans for Easter Sunday, outside of giving the house some attention and continuing with the early season yard work.  Last Saturday I swept off the patio, cleaned all the patio furniture, brought out the picnic table umbrella, and set up the swing.  Then I turned over the soil in the area by the patio where we always plant annuals and spread the extra soil over the area where we dug up two cedars last fall.  I need to begin some serious lawn doctoring.  The front, at least the portion near our bedroom window, is suffering from some blight, which I think I correctly identified last year, but now the name escapes me.  The back, the “center strip” area specifically, never fully recovered from the summers of waffle ball and kickball, four years ago now, I would guess, and is usually under a wide canopy of shade provided by the silver maples.  Maybe we need professional help.


                                                            Later in the day
We checked into our room at 4:15 and immediately changed into our swim wear.  The hotel has two indoor pool areas, one of them just a few steps from our room. We managed to find a patio table and four chairs in spite of the crowd.   The hotel has 250 rooms, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already hung out the “no vacancy” sign.  In fact, my guess is that no rooms are available this or most weekend without a reservation.  The Chicago Sun -Times recently ran a feature story on the Dells in its travel section and named the Polynesian as the best place for families with children under 12.   It certainly is a kid-friendly place.  None of the pools is designed for adults, which is the reason I remain in my chair and provide you with a report of our overnight getaway.
Outside, it’s almost warm enough to swim – in a well-heated pool anyway.  The temperature hit 60°, according to the digital display on the van’s dashboard.  The sky is clear so an uninterrupted sun is warming the air.  The hotel has an extensive outdoor waterplay area, but that probably doesn’t begin operating until Memorial Day.  I can imagine the crowd here then!

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