What takes Germans in Munich sixteen sudsy days, Lake Geneva can pull off in just two. It’s October in Lake Geneva, and yesterday while walking the lake path during a home inspection (556 Sauk Trail, I sold you, like I always knew I would), I noticed a considerable amount of fall foliage for the first time this season. A few maples here and there had been willing to give up on green weeks ago, but fall colors are now pronounced when viewed from the water. It’s going to be a beautiful fall at Lake Geneva, and this weekend provides you with ample opportunity to channel your inner Dieter. Lake Geneva plays host to their 18th annual Oktoberfest celebration this Saturday and Sunday (October 9th and 10th), and the weather promises to be divine, as is evidenced by the rotating suns pictured below. Oh, by the way, we all find your inner Dieter to be insufferable.
Lake Geneva, WI (53147) Weather Forecast
If Saturday lives up to its promise, and it is indeed sunny with temperatures moderating in the low 70s, there is no conceivable reason you should not be in Lake Geneva this weekend. Oktoberfest will be held downtown, with loads of food for adults and games for children, but if you’d rather experience a more bucolic weekend in the country, I urge you to take a walk down the shore path. So many people (day trippers) visit Lake Geneva on weekends such as this, and make a snap judgment based on what they see downtown. What do they see? Tourists and shops and restaurants. They assume Lake Geneva is just another tourist destination, possibly cheesy like the Dells, or boring like the entire state of Michigan. While Lake Geneva the city is a nice destination, Lake Geneva the experience has very little to do with Main Street.
The true fall experience at Lake Geneva takes place on the shore path, and on the water. If your really want to explore Lake Geneva this weekend, do exactly as I say. First, go to Lake Geneva and get a coffee. This will help you feel warm and fall like. Starbucks or Caribou will be fine, depending on how much acidity you prefer in your cup. Once the coffee cup is filled, proceed towards the lake. You may stop at a store or two along the way, but don’t go wasting the whole day shopping. You can shop at Northbrook Commons, but you can’t walk along side a sparking blue lake there. Once you make it to the lake, look both ways. Scan the shore to your left and then to your right. Now to your left again. Once you’re content with your route, commence walking in either direction. Follow the path for as long as you wish, but notice how your mood changes when you get further and further from the tourist epicenter that is downtown Lake Geneva.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll relax a bit. Your cup of coffee will long be gone, but resist the urge to stash it under a bush. This sort of behavior might work in Door County, but Lake Geneva will have none of your littering here. Notice the architecture of the homes that you’ll be walking in front of. Look at the boats hanging in the slips, hoping for one or two more rides before they’re relegated to their suffocating shrink wrapped winter existence. If you can call being stuffed in a freezing cold pole barn covered in thick blue plastic an existence. Listen for the sounds of geese overhead, and replay the soundtrack of a Lake Geneva fall crunching under your foot over and over again. Ipods are not welcome on this trip, so please leave those in the car. Cell phones are permitted, though not encouraged.
When you’ve walked far enough and soaked in as much scenery as you can hold, turn around. Notice when you walk back that you’ll be walking the exact same path but that everything you see will appear different. The leaves will crunch the same, and the boats will still be begging for a soak, but the way the lake unfolds around every twist in the path will look entirely different. During the last ten or fifteen minutes of your walk, you’re going to want to speed up a bit as your coffee will be calling.
If you indulge in this simple shore path walk, either before or after you drink in a little Oktoberfest, you’ll easily see Lake Geneva in a different light. If you’ve been coming here your whole life, or you’ve only been here once in the 1980s and think you know what Lake Geneva is all about, you should still be here this weekend. Shop the town, walk the path, and perhaps sneak in a trip to the Alpha Orchard. Whatever you do, don’t waste a beautiful fall weekend like this sitting in the suburbs or behind a desk. And for heaven’s sake don’t think you have to drive all the way to Door County to have a beautiful fall weekend, and do whatever you can do keep your car from traveling East on I-80. See you at the lake.