Every summer for the first 14 or so years of my life, I spent at least a week camping with my family up in the Kettle Moraine. And when we weren’t camping, we’d drive around the Kettle Moraine and talk about camping. We knew how to have fun.
This year, though, I got back in the habit and drove up to Long Lake with Michael to stay with my parents for a weekend. Let me tell you, it was a real wave of nostalgia for me. I hadn’t stayed up there in almost 15 years, but the second we got up near the state park, I was in full-on Kaminski camping mode – meaning I rattled off boring facts about the geography of the area, made a lot of comments about what buildings used to be what and somehow remembered the layout of the campground like I was there last week. I also had an urgent and dire craving for the Hamburger Haus.
The Hamburger Haus is the tiniest little burger stand nestled in the heart of Dundee, Wis. Outside of switching from Schoepp’s to Cedar Crest ice cream sometime in the last two decades, this place hasn’t changed a bit since my childhood. There’s still the same gingerbread house-style stand, the picnic tables, the walk-up counter. It was really heartwarming to come back and visit with my dad, brother and husband.
Now you might think that after all this time, it might not live up to my childhood expectations and tastes, but it totally does! The burgers are still good (it’s the buns that really make them) and the ice creams are still huge. And it’s still my favorite place to stop before heading to the lake.
