Tag Archives: recreation

Camp Wandawega

With our one-year anniversary fast approaching, my husband and I were in search of a little cabin getaway not too far from the hustle-bustle of Chicago.  What we found is a time-capsule gem of a place, a true nostalgic’s delight, a wonderland of simpler times: Camp Wandawega in Elkhorn, WI, just two hours northwest of the city!

Owned by Tereasa Surratt and David Hernandez, the rustic lake resort was the site of David’s annual boyhood family vacations, and was purchased by he and his visonary wife; together they lovingly restored the property to a point beyond its former idyllic rusticity to its current nostalgic (im)perfection.

I’m so looking forward to canoeing, swiming, tennis, archery, campfires, bugs, hiking, beers, and more. The property offers a variety of whimsical accommodations, including a lodge, boy scout canvas tents, and several cabins.

We’ll be staying in A Very Modest Cottage, an 11 x 11 foot one-room cabin. I. CAN.NOT. WAIT. (!) The cabin was rescued from its old location nearby Surratt’s grandmother’s home in Illinois and moved to the Wisconsin lake resort.  Over the years it has served as a cabin court, a brothel, a truck stop, and a hunt club’s cabin.

here’s the cabin before rescue:

Read more about it:

Chicago Home Mag

Country Living

Apartment Therapy

Buy the book:

WHERE DA SNOW AT?

I heard on npr that the December 2011-January 2012 period in Chicago is the warmest in 80 years. And it may pan out to be the Second mildest winter in the US since record-keeping began. In Illinois, January average temps were up 7 degrees, to a balmy 31.5 F (hate to admit that I, too, have found myself regularly remarking on the warmth of this winter compared to my other Chicago experiences, all things being relative). Thus far, I’ve dug out my car ONE time, and have worn my Bean Boots for less than a week. Europe and Eurasia, on the other hand are slammed with record freezing weather, with snow as far south as North Africa. It seems Global Warming patterns are polarizing precip and temps, sending all of 2012 winter across the Atlantic.

Not wishing for anything so drastic, but here in the usually-snow-bound Midwest, we’ve really missed the fun part of having snow. Without the powdery stuff, its been a game of waiting for conditions to be acceptably wintery to use our new MSR Evo 22 snowshoes. In the meantime, we’re headed down to New Orleans this week for our annual “Beat the winter/Cabin Fever Escape,” and I hardly even feel the drag that Chicago winters usually smite me with by this time of the season. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take the trip–I’m so excited that a bit of Louisiana has crept into the title of this post and I might not even come back owing to how awesome NOLA is going to be–but am really wondering if those snowshoes are going to sit unused until next season!

We rented them through REI last winter, and decided that the MSR Evo 22s were a well-priced, lightweight, slim profile shoes accessible to amateurs and liked by veterans as a highly versatile model great for hiking, trekking, backpacking, etc.  If you’re fond of hiking and wilderness landscapes, snowshoeing is a great winter sport activity that requires minimal specialized gear and will get you outside and having fun at a time of year when its otherwise pretty hard to do so casually. (Interested in snowshoeing? Get introduced here).

Plus, snowshoes will come in very handy when we need to hike in over several feet of snow to our super isolated future cabin. I’ll call it an Investment in our Future, albeit one that will provide some fun along the way.

I am so excited to spend more time in the beautiful state of Wisconsin doing just that. Someday. Maybe next winter if global warming doesn’t send all it elsewhere.