Monday, October 19
After our relaxing morning by the fireplace, we headed out for a walk.
By chance, I had found there was a nature preserve about a 1/2 mile from our hotel. We drove, since it’s along a busier road.
Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy
The trees in here were also hit or miss, but it was so close to our hotel and it was THE MOST GORGEOUS DAY!!!! I almost can’t believe our luck on this trip. It was almost too warm as we walked. I started in a vest and sweatshirt, assuming it would be chillier in the morning, and ended up slowly peeling off layers.
It was not like a “must see” hike in terms of fall foliage, but for a casual, easy walk- it was great! So pleasant. We walked pretty leisurely, wandering around the various trails for at least an hour or more.
Here’s a big photo dump! I really enjoyed this. 🙂
From there, we were ready for some food. Earlier in the morning, I had done a quick search of good lunch places nearby (Williams Bay is tiny), and what are the odds- in addition to the little sports bar we went to Sunday night, there’s an “authentic MEXICAN restaurant” right in town, too! I feel like on this trip all the chips fell perfectly in place for us. Haha.
Lunch = Mexican food!
It was quiet in there and we had a nice lunch of chips/ salsa, caldo de camarón, aka shrimp soup, for me, and Ivan got a torta de milanesa de res (a sandwich with beans, guac, and thin breaded steak).
It was good! Not amazing good, but good. And being really casual, it fit nicely into our day in our post-walk sweatpants. 🙂
Walk by the water
After lunch, we noticed that we were basically right in front of the lake (a different part of the lake from the main downtown of Lake Geneva- but it’s the same lake). Like I said, the weather was absolute perfection, so we went for a little stroll.
There was a little park with swings and I suggested we swing on them! Which I haven’t done in years, but was really fun and the sunshine felt wonderful and the view was beautiful. I felt very carefree and relaxed! 🙂
We walked to a pier down the path and sat out there for a little while, just swinging our legs over the edge. It was seriously such a beautiful day!!!
The picture doesn’t capture it, but the sun was absolutely glistening off the water, like a big path of sunshine. So pretty!
Relaxing time
After lunch and our stroll, we went back to the inn for some relaxation time, after stopping at a gas station to buy a couple of drinks.
I spent a long while sitting on the porch and reading my book and sipping my Bubblr! Ivan spent some of the time doing his work performance evaluation inside…. eye roll… not sure why he left it until the day before it was due to write it…. but hey. I enjoyed the quiet alone time, lol! I also like that the hotel pipes in soft instrumental music to the outside areas.
Boat tour!
After our relaxing afternoon, we changed clothes and drove back to downtown Lake Geneva for a boat trip we had booked that morning. Like I’ve said multiple times, the weather was gorgeous, and everything I read said that a boat trip is the best way to really see Lake Geneva!
At the boat dock- a very cute fall display + the water + boats = a beautiful spot!
We both really enjoyed this! The options were a 1 hour “Best of the Lake” cruise or a 2 hour “full lake” tour. We opted for the shorter 1 hour tour, in part because the 2 hour cruise was at 1:00 and we preferred the 3:15. In the end, we chose correctly- the 1 hour felt like the right amount of time for us.
There actually WAS a good amount of fall color lining the shores of the lake!
The guide was very informative and we both found the history of the lake super interesting. There is A LOT of history here! Many of the huge homes used to be EVEN HUGER estates, more like palaces, back in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Most have been “downsized”/ split up over the years.
One of the most note-worthy is the Wrigley Estates, along with many other massively wealthy industrialists from the Chicago area. These homes/ mansions were not built for your average people….
It was so interesting to hear all the stories of the history of these places and the owners! I’d definitely recommend doing this boat tour.
And the views are amazing. We had so much fun!
We got some amazing pics on the boat dock after!
Wandering around the lakeshore area:
We didn’t eat at Nick’s, but I liked this fall display!
It was ~4:30 by this time, so we decided to stop at a lakefront place for a little happy hour beer. We had dinner reservations for 7:45 (originally 7 but we moved it later so we could linger longer here!).
Happy Hour:
We just had the one beer and then went back to the inn. We had enough time for a little relaxing/ more reading for me! and then shower before dinner.
Our inn is right next door to this adorable Music Theater (no events during the week), but I loved this shot of the pretty sky behind it.
Living my dream life lol!:
Celebratory dinner out: Italian!
I’d reserved at the nice Italian restaurant in Williams Bay, Cafe Calamari. It looked to be a cozy, romantic vibe, and that’s exactly what it was. We got a high top in the very cool bar area and it had candles on the tables and was great all around!
Yummy bread….
I really liked the bar!
And that was a wrap on our day! Now today, Tuesday, we’ll be heading home- but we’re currently at THE CUTEST coffee shop that is a short walk from the hotel. (The hotel is NOT actually in a super cute walkable area- but this coffee shop is one of the few things we could walk to.)
We are thinking we will go back for another one of those chicken sandwiches at Flat Iron Tap in downtown Lake Geneva for lunch after we check out- we loved it that much! And I’ll need some more of those fries!!!
This has been THE BEST little getaway. We needed this!! I’ll stop back tomorrow with a final recap of today- we have a few other little things on our list before we head home. 🙂
Happy fall!
