Fun in Madison, Wisconsin

Our first morning in Madison was a Saturday.  We biked to the Capital.  All around the square on Saturday mornings during the summer is a great farmers market.

The capital dome is the tallest in the county except for the one in Washington, DC.

Joe loves to eat vegetables and asked us to take a picture of him by some of the colorful fresh veggies.

Being around the governing seat of Wisconsin, there was more political activity.  We saw two topless young women holding signs high above their heads supporting reproductive rights.  And we enjoyed songs by the Raging Grannies. One of the grannies had a crocheted womb and ovaries attached to a flowery apron she wore.  Another apron was covered in political buttons.

It reminds me of a quote from... who?  Don't underestimate the power of older women in tennis shoes... or something like that.

That night we all went to have dinner with my son and his wife at a restaurant near Kathi's home.  I am so grateful that it worked out that Jeremy and Mel could come to visit with us.  They got to meet Steve too!  Unfortunately, none of us thought to take a picture of us together.  

Just take my word for it.  They are lovely people. We had a great visit.  

Jeremy is now a truck driver and had stories to tell.  Once, even though he uses three different apps to follow the best route,once they took him off of the interstate amd through a switchback kind of road in the mountains.  Here he is, with his flatbed truck, trying to make hairpin turns on blind curves.  The mountain cliff going up on one side and steeply down on the other side.  A line of cars behind him and nowhere to pull over to let them by.  He had to take up both lanes to make the curve with no way of knowing what might be coming from the other way. "But it was very beautiful!" he said.

The next day in Madison, we were to meet up with my friends John and Sandy at Epic.

Epic is a software company in Verona that is open for the public to tour its campuses.  "Why would people want to tour business offices?"  You may ask.

Well, they have a castle and a building with the Hog Warts theme like in Harry Potter.  And a Star Wars Themed building too.

First we ascended to heaven, and then we took the slide back down to earth.

Sandy took our picture at the castle.

Joe popped out of my purse when he saw the knight.

Both Steve and Joe were very familiar with the Harry Potter books and got giddy as they recognized places and things from the stories.

In the library, we found the monster book of monsters.

It was a blast.  

Don't do the tour if you are on a schedule, though.  We got lost in the maze of exterior trails more than once. Just a warning, don't step outside the buildings.  The doors lock behind you and there you are outside in a maze of pathways and buildings and roads that end in locked gates. 

We stopped some people to ask for help.  They tried but were on a quest of their own, and didn't have time to guide us well.  "It's over there," they would say pointing vaguely in a certain direction.  

We were not given a map, and it didn't help that the reception desk (where we started) was not mentioned in any of the directional signs we encountered.

Even getting lost was part of the adventure.  What a fun place.  Now I know why some of our medical bills are so high.  Gotta pay for that software.  

Do you keep your medical records online with Epic?

Thanks to Kathi for a nice comfortable stay and visit.   It was great spending time with you again so we could chat and chat.