Geneva Lake

I mentioned in the previous post that Scott and I intended to take the boat out on Geneva Lake on his birthday but ended up on Delavan Lake by accident instead.  The day after Scott's birthday, we once again headed out for Geneva Lake.....and this time, we made it there.

We launched the boat in a cute little town called Williams Bay.  Below is a picture of the municipal pier at the launch site. 

Geneva Lake is a decent size lake.  It's a little over 5200 acres and the average depth is 61 feet.  It's deepest point is 135 feet-- much, much deeper than the Madison lakes.  The deeper the lake, the cleaner the water.  Plus we learned that Geneva Lake is spring-fed, making it especially clean.  The water in Geneva Lake is beautiful; a deep aqua-green color.  Before it gets too deep, you can look through the water all the way down to the bottom.  Scott commented that even the bubbles the outboard makes as we motor along are clear.  Now that's some clean water.

We didn't get out on the lake as early as we intended to.  I think we finally made it out around 9 AM.  There is a beach right next to the launch in Williams Bay.  Even though we didn't think it was very early, apparently beach-goers did; the beach was completely empty except for the life guard.

There are a total of 4 public beaches at different places on Geneva Lake.  They would fill up as the day went on.

As with all the lakes we have been on in southern Wisconsin, the landscaping surrounding Geneva Lake is gorgeous.  Lush.  Verdant.  Watching the anchored sailboats, pictured below, rock in the waves could lull me to sleep.

Scott and I spent the first part of the day tooling around the perimeter of the lake.  We found a small college on Geneva Lake:  George Williams College.  I need to look it up on line.  I suspect it ain't cheap to go to George Williams.  It had the appearance of a small, private, elite, expensive school.  The picture below is one of the college buildings, right on the lake by a pier and a small beach dedicated to the school.  Cute building.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think these are some of the college dorms.  If you have to live in a dorm, this is the way to do it-- walk out your door and you're steps away from a beautiful lake.

Side note:  see how pretty the water is in the picture above?  You can really get a sense of the clean color of it.

There are some amazing houses on Geneva Lake.  Who are these people that can afford houses like this??  Some examples are below.  The first house had an in-ground pool and a pond between their house and the lake. 

This house had a big clock on it....with the right time.

This next house was stunning.  You would have to have an entire staff to take care of a place like this.  It was even deeper than it was wide.  They had a huge in-ground pool and the landscaping was immaculate. Even if I could afford it, I would never want a house this big.  But it was impressive.

In addition to big houses, it appears that anybody who is anybody that lives on Geneva Lake has a wooden boat.  I'm not exaggerating when say that Scott and I counted at least 70 wooden boats in boat slips around the lake, maybe more.  These weren't just wooden boats, they were beautiful wooden boats.  Totally restored. Vintage and shiny.  It must be the thing on Geneva Lake.  They even have a Classic Boat Show in September.  Most of the wooden boats we saw were passenger boats.  The boat below, however, was a house boat.  So charming with the curtains in the windows.  Under the front overhang, they had a huge dining table and chairs.  They could fit a lot of people on that boat.

It's not wooden, but this tug boat caught our eye in one of the slips on the lake.  They must have converted the old tug boat to a passenger boat.

In the town of Lake Geneva, there are several companies that do tours around the lake.  They have some big old double-decker boats for the tours, including some with full bars, like the one below in the harbor.    

After we putted around the perimeter of the lake and did some sight-seeing, we stopped along the shore at the party spot where everyone gets out of their boats and into the water.  Scott jumped right in.  Here is his little head out in the water.  I smile when I look at that picture.  He is so cute.  I love that sweet boy. 

We put a couple chairs right in the water.  It was relaxing to sit there, staring across the lake, waves lapping against us, sun shining down, sipping on some ice cold beers.  Ahhhhhh.

We hung out for a while and then decided to go for a late lunch.  We headed all the way back across the lake, which was probably about a 30 minute trip.  I'm not exactly sure though. I slept for most of it.  We tied the boat off at a pier.....

...and then had lunch at this place right across from the lake.  Chuck's.  It's a place that's supposed to have good burgers.  We tried the burgers, of course.  They were decent and we were hungry, so it worked out great.

Chuck's is definitely the kind of place where people get out of the water and come right straight on in.  Nothing too fancy. The crowd inside spanned from a group of Harley bikers to women in bikini's.   

Oh, and there was also this guy....drinking a Keystone Light.  You read that right.  Keystone Light.  The picture proves I'm not making it up.

I didn't even know there was a bar that stocked Keystone Light.  Chuck's does.  All I can really say about that is a deadpan:  wow.

I think the lake town Chuck's is located in is called Fontana.  Big tourist spot in the summer apparently.  There is a beach, boat rentals, para-sailing.  This is a boat rental shack right across from Chuck's.

And a shack for other kinds of water sport rentals.

I'm sure it's a fun place to vacation.  Lucky for Scott and me.  We can go on vacation there every weekend, at least for a day.  That's one of the great things about having a boat and living in an area where there are so many lakes and waterways.  Every time we go out, it feels like we're on a mini-vacation.

Mid to late afternoon, Geneva Lake gets very busy with a lot of boat traffic.  It's a long lake but not a very wide one, so when there are a lot of boats out, the water gets choppy because of all the wake.  That's when it's time for Scott and I to bring it in.  I took the picture below as we were heading back to the launch.  You can see one of the double-decker tour boats.  You can also see how choppy the water is. 

Yep.  Time to bring it in.