Geocaching in Wisconsin & Lake Delavan

My parents joined us one day in July and we took off for Wisconsin to do some geocaches.  I actually had ulterior motives because I wanted to make a stop at a place where my mom and dad rented a cabin for us each summer when I was a kid.  So I planned some geocaches around the area.  The first one was at the site of this 1838 log cabin, out in the middle of nowhere...

Can you imagine a whole family living in this little thing?

Was everyone super short back then or what?  My parents and Louie all stand taller then the top of the door....

I was dying to get inside but unfortunately it was all locked up.  I did find a small knothole that I could peer through tho....

One of my favorite caches of the day was hidden someplace on this wooden bridge.  I'll admit it took us quite a long time to find it.

But we were determined and kept looking, high and low.....

Finally Louie caught sight of something from just the right angle and I was able to make the grab.  My feet may have gotten wet in the process.   Just saying....

Another fun stop was this old water tower in Clinton....

I would have loved to see something like this being built way back then...

I love history like this and thought it was very interesting...

Isn't this cool?  These are the original railroad tracks still in place....

So I had to take the opportunity to "phoon...."

This was another cache we looked high and low for....

Pretty clever.....

Mom and dad found a few.  No old people were harmed in the finding of this tree cache....

We took a very quick dash down this forest path for another cache.  It was mosquito heaven back there.  I didn't even take the time to snap a picture because it was so bad.

Who wouldn't smile at this?

We found a very nice cache here...

And dropped off a travel bug...

I think we did 10 geocaches that day and then headed over to Lake Delavan to check out our old cottage.  This is the original Snug Harbor.  If you look real close you can actually see the cabin name painted underneath the windows.  We loved that place and it was a hugely anticipated vacation every summer.  Those trips were what cemented my life long love of cabins and lakes.  Our current lake house in Kentucky has been named Snug Harbor in honor of those happy memories.  That's me in the white shirt, blue shorts and super short bangs.  What was that haircut all about??  It's also probably the only time in my life that I was taller than both my sisters.  Don't ruin your eyes trying to decipher the date on the side of the photo.  I'll save you the trouble - it was 1965 and just before my 9th birthday.

Here's what the cabin looks like now - they've fixed it up a little and added a small deck.  Snug Harbor now hangs on a sign from the deck.  I was so happy to see that it still had the same name.

I was tickled to see the old shuffleboard courts were still there.  We spent hours playing that game and I loved it.  You never even see that anymore.

Here's a shot of the swimming beach from back then.  It's funny but I don't remember it ever being that crowded.  I love all the sailboats and the old speedboat in the background...

Assembly Hall still looks much the same, altho it's been re-sided.  On Wednesday nights they would have a dance and everyone would show up and socialize.  It was great fun because it was the only time all summer when we didn't have to be home when the street lights came on.  They would open the huge doors, blast music and people would spill out onto the street, talking and laughing.  I specifically remember dancing the Mexican Hat Dance.  It was also where I practiced doing "The Twist."  I still do a mean Twist and every time I do, it takes me back to those hot summer evenings under the stars of a Wisconsin sky.

Those are great memories and it was fun to go back and drive through the place.  What memories do you have from summer vacation when you were a kid?