My fascination/obsession with Midwestern college town was fed with an overnight trip to the home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers. In previous trips, I have hit Columbus (Ohio State), Bloomington (Indiana), West Lafayette (Purdue) and most recently, Iowa City (Iowa), but the big kahuna of all these has always been Madison. The day started with the phone call from Canon that my camera was fixed and so I picked it up on my way out of town. It is about a two and a half hour drive from Chicago to Madison (assuming you don't get all confused by the spaghetti like interstates out around O'Hare).
An aerial view of Madison, WI, which is situated between Lake Mendota (foreground) and Monona (background)
I arrived with no agenda or knowledge of the city other than the well-known State Street (Telegraph is the Berkeley equivalent and The Ave is the UW equivalent) that connects the University of Wisconsin on the west end and the capitol a mile to the east. I arrived and I saw hordes of people headed towards the capitol and so I asked what the deal was. I had luckily arrived on one of the nights in which the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra was performing one of it's six summer outdoor concerts on the lawn of the capitol. Bonus.
The masses on the lawn
My side view of the orchestra
A view of the eastern entrance to the Wisconsin State Capitol
Alas, I must comment that instead of it being a concert with some picnicing going on in the background, it was more like picnicing with some music playing in the background. Since most of the crowd was unable to actually see the orchestra they were listening it to it through speakers and therefore were holding conversations (loudly) or dealing with babies and children. One highlight was the United States debut of Hayley Westenra, a 16 year old singer from New Zealand. She was pretty amazing.
After the concert, I took a leisurely stroll to the other side of State Street and ended up getting some ice cream a the Wisconsin Union and taking it out onto the terrace of the Union. This is perhaps the pride and joy of this campus. The terrace opens up directly onto a northwestern view of Lake Mendota and is famous for the bright orange, yellow, red and green steel chairs. Wednesday is apparently open mike night, and I just sat there like a lame older guy, watching younger college aged kids drink beer and cheer on their friends getting up to sing and perform.
The Wisconsin Union Terrace
This morning, I got up from a great night sleep and continued my exploration of Madison. I checked out the Monona Center (Madison's civic center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) and drove around Lake Mendota. I will confess that if there ever were a city that I had a hard time getting oriented in, it was Madison. First of all, it's flat, so there is no real way to use physical landmarks. Was I near Lake Mendota? or Monona? I never got it figured out so when I found the highway that I knew, I got on it and blew out of town, back to Chicago.
I arrived with no agenda or knowledge of the city other than the well-known State Street (Telegraph is the Berkeley equivalent and The Ave is the UW equivalent) that connects the University of Wisconsin on the west end and the capitol a mile to the east. I arrived and I saw hordes of people headed towards the capitol and so I asked what the deal was. I had luckily arrived on one of the nights in which the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra was performing one of it's six summer outdoor concerts on the lawn of the capitol. Bonus.
Alas, I must comment that instead of it being a concert with some picnicing going on in the background, it was more like picnicing with some music playing in the background. Since most of the crowd was unable to actually see the orchestra they were listening it to it through speakers and therefore were holding conversations (loudly) or dealing with babies and children. One highlight was the United States debut of Hayley Westenra, a 16 year old singer from New Zealand. She was pretty amazing.
After the concert, I took a leisurely stroll to the other side of State Street and ended up getting some ice cream a the Wisconsin Union and taking it out onto the terrace of the Union. This is perhaps the pride and joy of this campus. The terrace opens up directly onto a northwestern view of Lake Mendota and is famous for the bright orange, yellow, red and green steel chairs. Wednesday is apparently open mike night, and I just sat there like a lame older guy, watching younger college aged kids drink beer and cheer on their friends getting up to sing and perform.
This morning, I got up from a great night sleep and continued my exploration of Madison. I checked out the Monona Center (Madison's civic center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) and drove around Lake Mendota. I will confess that if there ever were a city that I had a hard time getting oriented in, it was Madison. First of all, it's flat, so there is no real way to use physical landmarks. Was I near Lake Mendota? or Monona? I never got it figured out so when I found the highway that I knew, I got on it and blew out of town, back to Chicago.
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