We had the BEST time in Lake Geneva with our friends last weekend. I’ve mentioned before that being having Hudson just 6 weeks after my best friend Roshni had her daughter has been the biggest lifesaver on the sanity front—always having someone to text asking, “is this normal?” and receiving an affirmative is priceless! And I love, love, love thinking about our little ones growing up together.
When we were both pregnant and overly ambitious, we talked about renting a house together in Michigan for a week this summer. Come March, two tired new moms scaled it back to a weekend at a resort in Lake Geneva. It turned out to be the perfect choice, especially when we switched out two resort rooms for a two-bedroom villa that was magically available that weekend.
The drive to Lake Geneva is just under two hours from Chicago, or two hours on the dot if you stop to pick up Spotted Cow immediately after crossing the state line.
The Abbey is on the Fontana side of Lake Geneva, and we picked it because it was right on the actual lake and a quiet, very family-friendly resort.
Our rooms weren’t ready when we checked in (this may be one of the only downsides of the resort—check in isn’t until 4PM!) and we hung out by the harbor for a little baby picnic and a “we’re on vacation” glass of wine for Roshni and I.
By the time we got settled, it was already after 5, so we were staring down rapidly approaching bedtimes. We decided to take a walk down to the water, and found an awesome playground right across the street. Both of the babies are not quite walking yet, so “going to the park” involves a lot of swinging and tandem slide rides. We ordered room service for an early night at the villa and ate out on our back balcony.
Though we didn’t have a water view, we had a view of a little river and I could hear birds chirping. Such a great peaceful break from the city—until a bachelor party came out to grill in the villa underneath us in their full, drunken splendor. Guess who totally called security on them? I expected two nights of peace and quiet, sirs. #noshame (Though I hear the ghost of my 20-something self whispering “hater.”)
With both babies still living that two-nap life, we had to strategically organize our Saturday. After breakfast, we headed out for a walk down to the lake. We ended up finding a small beach and Hudson, as always, dug right in to the sand. Lake Geneva is so beautiful, and when we took the babies back for a morning nap, the “grownups” sat out on the back balcony Zillowing lake houses that we could share. 5 year goals, right guys?!
In the middle of the day, we packed everything up and headed to the pool. The Abbey features a zero-entry pool for babies and toddlers. Unfortunately the water was pretty cold, despite a very hot day. So there was more carrying babies around than there was them actually playing in the water! We have zero pics of this because babies, pools, and phones are not friends 🙂
Roshni figured out that the big kids pool was heated, so we ended up jumping in there and splashing around with much happier little ones in much warmer water.
After the pool, we had a little playtime outside while we waited for our lunch order to be ready to take back to our villa. Both of the little ones took GREAT naps after such an active morning, and we hung out on the balcony having a few Spotted Cows (rose for me!) and chatting.
For our final outing of the day, we headed back down to the waterfront to see if we could find a table for us all to eat dinner outside. This was an act of bravery because though Hudson and Katrina are both very good babies, they are intensely wiggly at this age and high chairs are no one’s favorite thing! Our bravery paid off, however, because we ended up sitting at a picnic table at Gordy’s Surf Shack on the water—the cutest, most perfect place to end the day. We were sitting on a deck over the water, the sun was setting, there was live music next door floating over, and I got coconut shrimp. Heaven.
We grabbed ice cream cones on our way out and stopped by the park one more time on our way back to the resort. We had big plans of staying up to have some more grownup time with drinks and cards but apparently the babies weren’t the only ones exhausted from a day in the sun, because I am pretty sure we were all crashed out by 10pm.
The next morning, we tackled one more breakfast out as a group, snuck in one more pre-road trip nap and then all hit the road. If I could change anything, we would have gone for one extra day to have two full days there to really soak it all in. Though 2 hours is about as close as it gets in terms of a Chicago getaway, keeping a baby entertained for 120 minutes in the car is a lot of work, and the extra day in between drives would have been nice 😃
But though it was short and sweet, it was a great, great, great weekend and one I’ll always remember! Hopefully, this will just be the first of many summer trips together.
There were more than a few times this weekend that I’d look around and just wonder how the heck this had happened: weren’t we just in college together, complaining about our crazy Econ professor, dancing on boxes at Goodbar and eating Jimmy Johns 10 times a week?
Though we see each other way, way less than we thought we would when we found out we were pregnant (I remember talking about daily playdates and lunches, HA. HA.) I’m so grateful to know that she’s there. I have definitely grown up with Roshni and I am loving this new chapter of our lives together. If the last 14 years of our friendship was any indication, the next 14 years will also likely go by in a blink (a very fun blink!) so as always, I’m just trying to soak it all in.