At 9:40 on a Saturday morning, Priya climbed into my Corolla with a tote bag, a pillow and a paper map of Lake Geneva she'd printed "in case the phones die." We'd been talking about a summer trip since spring, and this was it: one night in Wisconsin, about a ninety-minute drive from my parents' house, with a budget we'd agreed on in writing. Well, in a text.
My share came to $186. Here's how we did it, and what I'd change.
We set a ceiling of $200 each before we booked anything. The rules were simple. Split the room, drive my car and split the gas, eat one nice meal and keep the rest cheap. Most of the fun in Lake Geneva is the lake itself, and walking along it costs nothing.
We booked a plain motel a short drive from downtown, two beds, clean and a little dated. The room was $138 with taxes, or $69 each. Downtown hotels on a summer weekend were double that or more, and we only needed a place to sleep.
The Shore Path
The main event was the Shore Path, a public footpath that runs around the whole lake, right along the water and across the front lawns of some very large old estates. It's free, and it's one of the strangest and best walks I've ever done. One minute you're on a narrow dirt path next to the water, the next you're walking on someone's stone steps past a boathouse bigger than my parents' house.
The full loop is far too long for one afternoon, so we picked a section starting in the town of Lake Geneva and walked out a few miles and back. Wear real shoes. The path changes from pavement to roots to wooden planks, and it gets close to the edge in spots.
We walked for almost four hours with breaks. Priya named every house after a teacher at her school based on its personality. I won't share the names. Some of them are not nice.
Every dollar of my share
- Half the motel: $69
- Half the gas, round trip: $18
- Dinner at a casual lakeside place, with one drink and tip: $31
- Frozen custard after dinner: $7
- Breakfast at a diner the next morning: $14
- Lunch on the drive home: $21
- Half of downtown parking: $6
- A candle from a shop downtown that smells like a pine forest: $20
Total: $186.
The frozen custard was the best $7 of the summer. It's denser than ice cream, and we ate it on a bench by the water while the sun went down behind us and the lake went gold.
The candle was the only thing I bought that I hadn't planned. I spent ten minutes deciding and bought it anyway. It's on my dresser and I light it when I'm working on the club sheet, so I'm calling it a business expense. (It is not a business expense.)
What I'd do differently
Pack lunch for the drive home. We were tired and hungry and stopped at the first place we saw, and $21 for a sandwich and a lemonade stung a little.
Park once and walk. Downtown parking adds up if you keep moving the car, and we moved it twice before we figured that out.
Go on a Sunday-to-Monday if you can. Priya is off in summer, but I had to use a vacation day for anything longer than a weekend, so Saturday to Sunday it was. Rooms were cheaper midweek when we checked.
I'm still paying down my student loans, $1,100 a month since June, and I'll admit I hesitated before saying yes. I ran the numbers in the club sheet before booking: the $186 came out of my fun line for July and August, not out of the loan payment or the emergency fund. Nothing had to move.
And yes, it was worth it. Priya and I have been friends since our freshman dorm at ISU, and we don't get many full days together anymore. She has thirty kids from September to June; I have claims and denials. Twenty-four hours with no schedule, a long walk and a cup of custard did more for me than any weekend in the city last year. We're already talking about next summer. Same motel, same budget, and a packed lunch for the drive home.
