This weeks #SplorinSaturday is a little different than the usual. We had to start the weekend off with driving to Milwaukee so we could deliver rainbow Jello to our youngest daughter, Carrie, who goes to Marquette University. This is a tradition dating back to Kindergarten when Tammy made her rainbow Jello for her class treat and it has become something that Tammy (although she complains about the long hours to make it) loves to do for Carrie. This year it was a surprise delivery. Carrie was not expecting us to drive 3.5 hours to bring it to her; we just showed up on Friday evening to deliver it — and she was quite surprised!! So first off the plan for #SplorinSaturday had to include #RainbowJelloDeliveryFriday. Luckily Mike is always looking at things for future #SplorinSaturday adventures and this was a great way to take advantage of something on the east side of the state. We have talked about walking the short path (oops — that was a typo, but too interesting to correct), it should be “shore path” around Geneva Lake for a while. This was our opportunity to actually do it. The weather looked like it would cooperate and if it didn’t, we could go to Lapham Peak (one of those busy places that might be less used if bad weather).
The reason the “short” typo above was allowed to stay is this not even remotely close to “short”. From Mike’s research we knew that it is 21 miles to go all the way around the lake. Mike also found some places that said that the shore path was 26 miles, but his trusty go-to app said it would be about 22 miles all the way around. Mike found a great article called Around the Lake in a Day that laid out the distances and times for each of the sections. This led Mike to lay all of this out in, of course, a spreadsheet.
Amazingly he got very close to right on the money. He had estimated a total time of 9 hours (including an hour break for lunch time happy hour) and we ended up doing it in 8 hours and 50 minutes. He estimated a total distance of 22 miles and the actual total was 22.5 miles (according to All Trails recording).
The shore path has been used by indigenous people dating back to 2500 B.C. Up until the early 1800s it was used for travel between villages along the short of the lake. Early settlers wanted this path to remain available to the general public and decreed that 20 feet leading to the shoreline be preserved as public domain. It is up to the homeowners to maintain the path on their property. Some go all out: paved paths, stone or decorated brick paths, some just have a dirt path. Others just force you to walk across their lawn. The shore path is mostly on private property, so you are advised to remain solely on the trail and not venture into peoples yards/gardens/piers/boathouses/etc. If you would like more information on the shore path, Visit Lake Geneva has a very good article that provides a lot of good information on the Geneva Lake Shore Path. It really is a unique experience.
This is kind of an atypical #SplorinSaturday post as we did not take too many pictures. While we saw AMAZINGLY beautiful and very large houses/mansions/estates/etc., it got to the point where if we were going to take a picture of a few, we would have had to take a picture of them all. They were all different and unique in their own way. By one quarter of the way around, we ran out of expressions for how beautiful and amazing most were. I think we set our single day record for the number of times we said “oh wow!”. Actually, I don’t think we set it, I know we set it, but we have no idea as to how many times it was actually uttered.
Before we get to the actual hike around the lake — we were excited to go to a place in Elkhorn, WI for breakfast. The Elk restaurant looked like a great place to start this day. The plan had us getting there for breakfast at 6:30, which was no problem as they were supposed to open at 6 (according to their website, Google and Facebook), but alas it was still dark inside when we got there. There were employees inside but it was obvious they were not opening until 7. Instead of waiting and being farther behind schedule, we decided to take a chance at a restaurant right in Lake Geneva for yet another Plan B breakfast. It also opened at 7, but going there was a lot closer to our starting point so it made sense. We made our way to Joni’s Diner. We pulled into the parking lot at 6:57AM and there were already four or five other cars in the lot. We knew we had hit the jackpot for breakfast!! As we pulled into our parking space we saw the OPEN light come on and we made our way into the restaurant.
We were the second or third table to sit down. The only other person we saw was the one waitress who was rushing around trying to get everything ready. She was was frantic but in control. She was behind the counter with a pot of coffee making eye contact with each table asking they wanted coffee so she could pour and deliver them all at once! It was awesome — organized chaos! She made it around to all the tables and took their orders pretty much in turn to when they arrived, but it didn’t matter the food and the experience was amazing. It didn’t take long and there were others helping her with coffee, taking orders and saying “thanks for your patience” — it was just such a neat place to start our day. By the time we left the entire restaurant was almost completely full — we were very lucky to have arrived when they first opened.
Big Foot Beach State Park was our starting point for our trek around the lake. Mike picked here because he knew it would be an easy place to park for the entire day, we didn’t have to pay for parking and, well, it was a state park afterall!! We started the walk along the road right next to the beach.
Immediately after the beach was where the real “shore path” began. Tammy really felt awkward “walking through people’s yards” even knowing it was ok.
She did not give this feeling up the entire day and could often be heard mumbling “sorry, hope this is ok etc” to people that weren’t even there. Mike had read the Visit Lake Geneva article (and many, many more) and knew this was what walking the trail was like, but it can be a little strange to start out. One picture that Mike took was right away on the path was a mansion where one of his coworkers in Bloomington had worked on the grounds’ crew when he was in high school. This was one of the “smaller” houses we saw. š
Just past here we ran into a group of 5 or 6 people heading the opposite direction. They asked if we were doing the whole shore path, we said we were and so were they. We knew we would see them eventually again on the trail, unless they stopped somewhere for lunch and we passed them or vice-versa.
Everywhere in the yards, on the path, on the shore of the lake were piles and piles of wooden bracing. They were piers that had yet to be placed in the lake. Almost every yard had stacks and stacks of these. Some of them were placed well off the path, but we often had to walk around or through big piles as well.
While it kind of cut down on the beauty of the yards, it was actually kind of neat because it really gave the lake a completely “clean” look to it. The stretches where all the piers were in and people already had their boats and toys on them really cluttered the look of the lake. We would much rather look at the lake itself rather than pier after pier after pier.
In short order we made it to downtown Lake Geneva and walking along the beach where, of course, they had stacks and stacks of pier parts. Here we saw the first crew setting up people’s piers around the lake. As Mike suspected they would need not only smarts and brawn, they would also need cranes to lift these pieces. Many of the large pieces were placed way up on shore where the only way you could get them down to the water would be a crane. The cranes are attached to barge-like boats and allow them to lift very heavy pieces way up on shore. We tried to stop at the bathrooms at the end of the beach, but unfortunately they were still locked for the season. Oh well, we were hoping there would be some at the next public access point along the lake.
We saw many things for the first time — it was such an interesting walk. One of the very large houses had a very large yard that was freshly cut. All over the yard we noticed two wheel tracks. It looked like someone had pushed a lawnmower all over the yard in a million different directions. But the yard was easily 5 acres; there is no way someone used a push mower on it. When we rounded the corner we saw “Roomba” lawn mowers. They were just tooling along cutting the grass going back and forth across the yard. Well, they were Husqvarna mowers, but “Roomba” is something that most would understand. It was pretty bizarre to see.
We also had fun looking across the lake trying to figure out what we would be seeing later in the day. After walking about two hours (six miles-ish) we could still see Big Foot Beach State Park. Well we could tell where it was, not really “see” it. We also could see a very large golf course right on the short across the way. (Little did we know at the time, that the golf course would be almost the very end of our day.) We eventually made it to Williams Bay where Mike had said there would be bathrooms. Of course we went to the first set of restrooms and they were locked. Tammy was prepared to have to make it another hour and half before we were stopping for lunch, but luckily the next building was also a set of bathrooms — that were open!! The building was really nice and had a cute map of the area on the wall.
We then made our way from there toward the town of Fontana where we were going to stop for lunch/happy hour. Not only was it weird going through peoples’ backyards, it was also different passing through small towns while splorin. One of the more interesting things in between the two was Conference Point. This is a 150 year old camp that used to be one of the highlights on the lake shore. Now, unfortunately, a lot of the buildings are run down and in need of being torn down. There were several spots along the path here that it felt like the little bridges were about ready to fall into the water below — but we survived!!
Not too much longer and we were to Fontana — and Chuck’s Lakeshore Inn. We walked in and immediately fell in love with the place. A very unique dive bar and grill type location right on the lake. We found a table and went up to the bar to order. Of course we had to get Bloody Marys along with a salad for lunch. We decided to forgo our “usual” appetizers knowing that we still had more than 10 miles to get back to the van. Before we could say no, the bartender was handing us two open 8oz bottles of Miller Lite as chasers for our Bloodys, saying he would bring the drinks to us when they were done. We just looked at each other and shrugged and took our beer to the table. Mike hasn’t had a beer in forever and Tammy has never liked beer in the first place, but……somehow walking 12.5 miles and the promise of Bloodys made those beers taste very, very good. (even to Tam) Mike’s Ahi Tuna salad came with an Asian style dressing (typically pretty sweet) and Mike ate it right along with drinking his beer — “blood sugar be damned” was his motto for the meal — but in reality, it did not affect him that much at all!
While we were eating, Tammy looked up and saw that group of 6 people we met earlier in the day come in!!! They made a beeline straight to the bathroom. We were going to wait until they got a table and then go over and talk to them. But as soon as they got out of the bathroom, they headed back outside and left! How rude. They came into the bar, used the bathroom and left without ever making a purchase. Some people’s kids, we tell you…. Just didn’t seem right to us.
We were too soon done and as ready as ever to start the final 10 miles. Once again there were sections along here that had amazing houses and gorgeous pathways that were built to accommodate the shore path walkers, but there were also many where you had to “make it up” and just walk across the grass of people’s yards. Apparently most people are very happy to have the path and make it an adventure, but others barely seem to tolerate it, doing their best to seemingly push you into the lake. We finally made it to the golf course we had seen across the lake and discovered it had a brand new boardwalk across a wetlands area and a small stream. As we got close to the stream we saw a splash and something moving through the water. Just on the other side, a muskrat popped up to see if we were still there and immediately dove back down when it saw us starting at it.
We kept seeing glimpses of Big Foot Beach State Park. It started off and we could see the shoreline of the beach itself. Then we could see cars going along the road behind the beach. Then we could see the wheels of the cars going back and forth. Finally we were on the road and trying to play “Frogger” with the traffic to avoid being hit while crossing. Strangely enough, it started raining right at the end of our walk too. We were watching the weather closely all week and we thought rain would only be a possibility in the morning, but the afternoon is when we got a little wet. We made it to the van and tapped out at 22.5 miles and 7 hours and 50 minutes of moving time. Tired, but it was such a great day!
#SupperClubSaturday was a the Duck Inn Supper Club in Delevan, WI. On Friday and Saturdays they don’t really take reservations, instead it is more of an advanced seating request. We arrived 15 minutes before our reservation hoping we wouldn’t have to wait too long and we were immediately taken to our table!
We had stuffed mushrooms and a relish tray (yay!!) for an appetizer. Mike of course had the Prime Rib and Tammy had the “Not Prime Rib”. Unfortunately again for Mike, the Prime Rib was only “OK”. It was done perfectly, but the seasoning and the au jus left a lot to be desired. Luckily the company was way better than the food!! This was the first time in a long time that we were at a place that was really crowded. It is definitely one of the more “better known” Supper Clubs in the area and while it was nice, we think we will stick to some of the more “out of the way” places from now on.
The bad thing about today was the LONG drive home. 3.5 hours after walking 22.5 miles and eating a heavy dinner made the drive even longer than it normally would have been. But we made it home, collapsed in bed (after being attacked by Henry) and got some much needed rest dreaming about where the next #SplorinSaturday would take us.
Splorin' Saturday 