Day 25, 11th September 2011. Minnesota - Wisconsin Dells

Today was a really long (but fun) day. We had to leave at 7am so we could fit a lot in the day.
Also, it was 10 years since 9/11 on this day, so it was really weird to be in the USA to see if it felt weird. It didn't, but I'm glad we wasn't in New York because it would have been a really sad atmosphere. I think because it was Dash's birthday (he was the other groups tour leader) we were more focused on it being a fun day. I still thought about what a sad day it was though, and couldn't believe it had been 10 years already!

We drove about 2 and a half hours to Wisconsin Dells, where we were going to a theme/water park for the day. It was really fun to actually do something like this, because it was so different from how we spent the last 3 weeks, it actually felt like a holiday.

We arrived at Mt. Olympus theme and water park just before it opened. We got tickets for the theme park and the water park, it was so cheap, I can't remember how much it was, but it was super cheap. We sat on the grass outside while we waited for it to open.

When we got inside, we first went to the water park bit with everyone else because loads of people didn't want to go on the rides. Me, Gary, Abby and Volker then went over to the rides section of the park and went on the roller coasters. They were actually a lot better and scarier than we were expecting, so it was good. We also went on a go-kart track thing that I was really bad at, so the other 3 had fun laughing at me.

We then went over to the water park area because a lot of the other rides were just for kids.

Because it was late in the season, all the slides were closed, I was so upset, so we could only go in the wave pool. I then got even more upset because the lifeguard told us off when me and Gary played our (ok, my) favourite game of Gary throwing me over the wave when it came. We always play it in Typhoon Lagoon for hours, so I was so dissapointed that they wouldn't let us do it. Plus the water was freezzzziinnng.

After that, we did some sunbathing and I rang my mum, and then we went to get some lunch with Abby and Volker. We had hot dogs and burgers, they were ok.

Art and Dash were walking around the park wearing some crazy outfits for Dash's birthday, so Gary bought them some hats to go with their outfits.

In the afternoon we sunbathed a bit more, then went on the rides again with everyone until the theme park closed, which was at about 5pm. We all went on the go-karts again and everyone was laughing at me still. I don't think I am ever meant to drive.

Camp was only about 5 minutes away, and when we got there, Art told us that we would be staying in these cute little wooden cabins. They were so pretty, they looked like a little house out of Snow White.

We had 3 cabins to share between the group, and luckily for us, all the girls went in one, and all the boys went in the other, so me and Gary had one to ourselves :)

As soon as we got in there we took all our stuff out of the bags and made a huge mess sorting it all out. It was so nice to finally have some space to spread all our stuff out, even if it was only for 1 night. There was a really nice swimming pool at the campsite so we went swimming for a while with Daniel and Loz before having showers to get ready to go out tonight. The showers were so annoying, you had to contiually hold down the button for the water to flow! But I loved being able to go back to the cabin to dry my hair and stuff without having to do it in a gross dirty bathroom.
We all had dinner, then had about an hour to relax/get ready before we were going out.

All the girls and Art

It was about a 10 minute walk from camp into the town where all the bars were, but it was a really confusing route. We had to cross a bridge that was literally covered in spiders, not good!

When we got there, only 1 bar was open, so that's where we went! It was pretty boring at first, but we had nowhere else to go. The boys were all playing games, so all the girls sat around chatting and drinking for a while waiting for it to get good.

The boys played a claw game where you catch a real lobster and they cook it for you... how mean!!

After a few drinks it started getting a bit more fun. Me and Shannon found out you could select music so we put loads of money in and picked loads of good songs. The other group showed up not long after and we just had a really good night with lots of drinking.

Caroline was trying to get the bartender to make a drink called a fruit tingle, and had to tell him how to make them, he was so drunk and kept getting it wrong so we ended up getting it for free :)

We ended up leaving up very drunk at about 1am (I think), me and Gary left on our own because some people had already left, and some were staying later. We ended up getting really lost and found ourselves walking through a Pirate's Cove mini golf course! We soon found our way back, after finding James in the other group also drunk and lost. We finally got back at about 2am.