Madison, July 8-23: A Portfolio of Events and the Road Home

Introduction
(Note:  I tried very hard to keep up with my photo sessions and related experiences in Madison, but it was impossible to post everything.  I have decided to post what is ready and indicate as "Works in Progress" other postings soon to come.  Thanks for your patience.)

On the morning of the 11th day of my journey I went to Mass at St. Joseph's Parish in Baraboo where my high school friend, Fr. Jay Poster is currently pastor.  Jay and I went out for a quick breakfast on the main street of Baraboo.  I followed my visit with Jay with a stop at Devil's Lake on my way south to Madison.  In the first portfolio below are a few photos from this latest of my frequent visits to this glacier created Iake.  Once on I got to Madison, I just took the rest of the day to settle in.   My friend, Sally, and I went to Lombardino's that first evening to have a great Italian meal and revisit a place that was a frequent gathering place after high school dances.  Today, it is an upscale Italian Restaurant with different owners, but with much of the Italian artifacts and murals that made it an attractive place over 50 years ago.

I have been to Madison, Wisconsin quite often in the last five years.  Last year's trip is documented in the Travel Section of this Website.  It is not my intention in this section of the trip to develop longer narratives similar to the first ten days of my journey.  Rather, my goal is to share with a variety of photos organized around experiences or events that have occurred during my current stay in Madison.  Some of the portfolios may represent multi day experiences, for example, items of interest on the several bike rides I have taken during my stay.  In other cases, the portfolio will document a particular place and time, for example the Olbrich Gardens Concert on Tuesday, July 14.  If there are small stories to share that occurred at an event, I will try relate them to you without a rambling cacophony of words.  Madison is the place I grew up in and I love coming back here for visits, particularly at the this time of my life. There may be some repetition of earlier visits, but this visit should stand on its own. 


I choose to stay in the Countryside Apts. during my extended stays in Madison because their short term economical lease arrangements give me a two bedroom apartment for lots of space and the possibility of entertaining guests.   I came here to visit my friends Ann, Sally, Jerry, and Marsha.  Jerry and Marsha were on a trip the first half of my Madison stay, but we were all together on several occasions during the second half of the visit.  I have already mentioned Fr. Jay from my earlier life in Madison.  Add to that, coffee with my high school friend Pat--we are still friends-- where we brought each other up to date on the story of our lives and shared some thoughts about photography.  She does wonderful work with the camera and it was  fun to spend a few moments sharing our common interests.  

There are a few of those serendipitous acquaintances that continued to happen while still in Madison.  There were Tom and Stephanie from the little Wine Bar on Lakeside Ave, or another person from the past, Joe, who I met on a walk in Wingra Park.  And then, there is Haley from Victor Allen's.  There is even a warm encounter with the family that bought my Mom's home on Euclid Ave. twenty years ago.  I will relate a few of these unplanned encounters in the "Serendipity" portfolio below.

I have continued to shoot photos in Madison on a daily basis, so the effort of preparing them for this Blog has not stopped.  Thankfully, I find myself writing less, although you may be beginning to wonder about the veracity of that statement.  Hopefully the photos below with a few captions added here and there will give the flavor of this fourth visit to Madison in the last five years.

Devils Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin
Wikipedia provides a brief summary of the origin of Devil's Lake:
Devil's Lake was originally a gorge of the Wisconsin River prior to the last ice age. At what is now the southern end of the lake, the river turned from a southerly direction to an easterly direction. During the ice age, a lobe of the glacier passed to the east of the Baraboo Hills and came up the river valley. It deposited materials and then melted, leaving a terminal moraine blocking the river, forming an earthen dam.[2] Another moraine was deposited at the north end of the lake. The river eventually found a new course to the east of the Baraboo Hills, where the glacier had been, leaving a portion of the river gorge between the moraines filled with water. This body of water is Devil's Lake.

References[edit]

1. Jump up ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. p. 105.
2. Jump up ^ A Geologic Tour of the Baraboo Ranges and Devil's Lake Gorge

• Lange, Kenneth I. (1989), Ancient Rocks and Vanished Glaciers: A Natural History of Devil's Lake State Park, Wisconsin; Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Worzalla Publishing Company.

I have spent time here over the years picnicking, swimming, traversing the lake in some sort of person propelled vehicle, or even walking its shoreline hiking paths.  If I am in the vicinity of the State Park when I am in Wisconsin, I will try to stop there.  This particular pleasant, sunny, morning, on my way to Madison, I decided to stop an enjoy the scenery one more time.  Much to my delight, a portion of the park's funding comes from the federal government's park system, so I was able to use my lifetime Senior National Park Pass.  Here are s scenes from that short visit.  It is a lake that provides many recreational opportunities. By the way, I did ride my bike for awhile during my visit.

The Countryside Apts:  Home for Two Weeks in Madison 
Four years ago, I found the Countryside Apts. on line when I searched for short term lease opportunities in Madison.  I have stayed there three times now and enjoyed each rental.  This year, I rented a two bedroom apartment for around $900 for the two weeks.  That beats any motel I could fine, and the space in the rental provided me with a place to work on this Blog, make my own meals, invite others over for meals, and invite my sister and brother-in-law to stay in the second bedroom for a short visit.  The grounds are beautiful, the pool is well maintained and offers an enjoyable place to sit either in the sun or the shade.  There are plants and flowers on the property and the lawn is well groomed.  Atef and Sam are the two gentlemen who keep the grounds looking so good.  I enjoy spending extended time in Madison on an annual basis.  Countryside provides me with an affordable, spacious home away from home.  Bike trails are nearby, downtown Madison is a mere 10 minutes from my door; and if my desire is to travel on to the highways and byways of Wisconsin, the Beltline leading to those destinations is just a minute from my door.

Friday Evening on the Union Terrace: July 10
The University of Wisconsin Union Terrace at the base of Langdon Street is a great place for people of all ages to gather on a Friday afternoon to listen to some music, experience the ambiance of a vibrant college atmosphere, and to hang out with friends and families.  Here are few shots of what a couple of hours at the Union Terrace means to a visitor and UW alumni.

Annual Art Fair on Capital Square: July 11
It is one thing to visit the Capital Square Farmers' Market on a Saturday morning in July, but when it is moved off the square for a Saturday to make room for a two day juried Art Fair, then you know the place will be rocking with observers, artists and craftsmen, buyers, and interested or not so interested bystanders, and those just looking for another downtown social event in Madison on a summer weekend.  The photos taken here represent just a flavor of what the Art Fair was like.  I experimented with some black and white images of interesting faces that I found in the crowd.  The juried fair on the square was for worldwide artists.  The other juried Art Fair just off the square heading toward Monona Terrace and Lake Monona was for Wisconsin artists only.  For this particular "lover" of the arts, it was way too much.  While my friends, Ann and Sally, stopped and chatted with various artists and craftsmen, I tended to stay in the background with my camera, often just looking for a place to sit and relax my aching feet.  However, I did manage to purchase a couple of glass items for Gina and Joe, which they liked when I gave the pieces to them on my return to Connecticut.   After the Art Fair, Ann took us to the little Wine and Coffee shop on Lakeside Ave. where we enjoyed a pleasant glass of wine and a place to rest our feet with the view of Lake Monona in the distance.

Bike Rides in Madison:  Various Dates
I rode my bike six times in or around Madison during my two week stay.  The bike trails in Madison are second to none and I tried to vary my rides.  However, bike trails intersect and sometimes you end up with similar scenes.  I could have taken many more photos on these rides but I decided to document each of my rides with just few photos in favor of a more rigorous workout on the bike.  You will find that Bike Rides1-4 do a pretty good job of showing you the attributes of Madison, WI.  In particular, Bike Ride 4 gives you a good look at the UW campus and Lake Mendota shore trail.

On Monday, July 20, Ann and I went on what for me was my 5th bike ride in the Madison area.  I did not take many photos.  We started at a little village south of Madison and rode for about 7 miles on the Military Ridge Bike Trail to Mt. Horeb where we  stopped and had a cup of coffee in Fink's Cafe and talked about family and life.  It looked like rain and perhaps a thunderstorm when we left the cafe, so we rode hard and fast back to our car.  We felt a few drops, but nothing of great consequence followed.  Ann and I enjoyed a pleasant lunch at a little coffee and sandwich shop in Verona before heading back to Madison.

I had invited my Badgerino friends (Sally, Ann, Jerry, and Marsha) over for a farewell dinner on Tuesday, July 21.  In the morning, I prepared the meat lasagna, which would serve as the main course for the evening get together.  I had made an Italian salad dressing from scratch the night before.  I owe a thanks to Ree Drummand on the Food Network for both recipes.  I decided to go on a final bike ride before making the tossed salad and doing the final preparations for my guests.  I chose to go on another path that I had traveled before, but not this time in Madison.   It is called the Capital City Trail and has some challenging ups and downs that provided me with a great cardiac workout.  My goal was to ride and not take photos, but I did catch a few bike riders while relaxing at the end of my trip at the bike rest stop near Fitchburg, WI.  It was my starting point for my second bike ride documented previously in this section.

I rode my bike a total of 10 times over the 25 days that I was on the road.  I believe that I had only taken two or three bike rides in CT before I left on this trip.  As many of the photos depict, I saw much of Madison on these small excursions and enjoyed the experience very much. 

Wondrous Activities at Lake Wingra Park:  Various Dates
I found Wingra Park located on the shores of Lake Wingra to be a vibrant place of water and land activities involving all ages.  Lake Wingra is the smallest of the five lakes in the Madison metropolitan area.  It is part of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and offers many opportunities for biological and environmental research studies by UW science students.  It is also an outstanding recreational area and a place to simply sit and meditate. I have done other photo essays on the UW Arboretum and taken other shots of Lake Wingra, but on this visit to Madison, I decided to concentrate on the multitude of activities that occur on the lake and at the adjoining park.  It is a place, small as it is, for many people to enjoy the benefits of warm summer days.

Concert in Olbrich Park, July 14: Whiskey Farm Band
My friends, affectionately known as the Badgerinos, a name self dubbed by our fivesome on a  trip to Italy in 2013 where we first met, attended a concert in one of the true gifts in the Madison area, the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.  It is a magnificent place to walk, reflect, and enjoy the beauties of nature within the hustle and bustle of surrounding communities.  Here are some photos from that concert.

The Mallards and the Duck Blind: July 17
Brad and Ann Larson treated us to a night at the Duck Blind where the Mallards of the Summer College Baseball League play their games.  We had special tickets in the Duck Blind where the inhabitants mostly eat and drink the refreshments that come with the ticket (all you can eat and drink) while discussing the issues of the day and rarely watching the game.  It was a lot of fun.  We arrived after the first game of a doubleheader (makeup for the rained out game the previous night) started and left just after the seventh inning of the second game.  In between, we ate, drank, watched the people, and I even took a few photos of the game and of Maynard the Mallard mascot as he traversed the 180 foot zip line.  Maynard's photos are a bit grainy; but then, so was he.  We had a grand old time at the ball park, but I left convinced that the Duck Blind was more a social event than a place to watch the local baseball team.

Paddle and Portage, An Annual Event of Physical Exertion in Madison: July 18
My original intent was to go to James Madison Park around 9 AM to catch the beginning of the Portage and Paddle competition, an event I had never witnessed before.  This competition demands a great deal from the participants, but they appear to have great fun, since the intent of most of the participants is only to finish, not to win.  The officials of the event organize the participants in to various starting groups based on perceived competency.  The "Paddle" part begins on Lake Mendota for about a 1.5 miles, then becomes a portage of the boat, regardless of style, up to Capital Square and down to the shores of Lake Monona near Monona Terrace and concludes with another paddle across Lake Monona to Olin Park and the Finish Line.  The photos below attempt to tell the story of the various stages of the Paddle and Portage Competition.  You will note that many of the participants dress up in costumes as part of the facilities.  Group A began the competition with those folks that really new what they were doing and had the best equipment for moving through the water and placing a lighter burden on the shoulders of the portage during the up to Capital Square and down the hill to Lake Monona.  I will add some captions when it is important, but I hope the photos give the true flavor of this fun event in downtown Madison on a warm, sunny day in July, 2015.

Pride and Prejudice at the American Players Theater: July 18
Sally was the instigator of this event on my calendar of special events in Madison.  After enjoying a delicious dinner of grilled steaks and salad at Sally' place, Ann, Sally, and I drove to Spring Green, famous for accommodating Frank Lloyd Wright's spectacular home and grounds known as Taliesin East.  On the crest of hill along the Wisconsin River just outside of Spring Green is the American Players' Theater, an outdoor drama center that is the home of a marvelous repertoire company called, you guessed it, The American Players Acting Company.  Tonight, they performed a captivating performance of Pride and Prejudice, adapted from the novel by Jane Addams that we all know and remember from our high school and college years.  It was a warm Wisconsin evening, but the actors decked out in their period costumes dealt with the heat of the night and the lights and told a great story of finding love between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy.  I was not permitted to take photos during the performance even without the use of a flash.  However, I have provided a few photos of the venue and of the faces that were present that evening in the audience.  I tried sneak a forbidden photo, but alas the theater gods intervened with a blurring effect.

A Sunday Visit to the Olbrich Gardens and Butterfly Fest: July 19 
I decided on my last Sunday morning in Madison that I would go to Olbrich Park one more time later in the afternoon.  I had been there for the folk concert on Tuesday night and I had taken extensive photos there in a previous visit in the summer of 2013.  Photos of that visit are posted to an earlier blogging effort of mine using Google Blogspot.  It was time for the Butterfly Festival, and I was intrigued with trying to capture the small creatures in action.  I also want to take some more photos of the beautiful flowers that grow in the spacious gardens of this Madison area treasure.  So without much comment or many captions, here is what I observed on my walk in the Atrium and outside gardens on that pleasant Sunday afternoon.

An Evening with Punxsutawney Phil, July 22
When I began my trip home just before sunrise on July 22, I had no idea how far I would get the first day.  I knew that I wanted to make it home in two days.  I soon found that stopping every two hours or so and taking a short break from driving was sufficient to keep me fresh behind the wheel.  Every second stop, I would fill up with gas.  Somewhere in eastern Ohio, around Cleveland somewhere, I stopped and made a reservation in Brockville, PA, about 80 miles into Pennsylvania on Hwy I80.  I estimated that I would get there around 5 PM EDT, and I did.  


Brookville is a quiet little town in the high rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, not too far north of Pittsburgh.  I stayed at a Quality Inn, which was much better preserved on the inside than on the outside, which at least made for a comfortable stay this last night on the road.  I checked out the local bistros, and decided after consultation with the nice woman at the front desk that I would wander on down to the Courthouse Pub and Grill right on Main St. in Brookville.  In fact, it was right across the street from the County Courthouse, hence its name.  While enjoying a Courthouse Pub burger and brew, I inquired of the waitress, Charlene (I think that was her name) some questions about the menu.  She had just started working at the pub that week and could not tell me much.  However, when I asked her about how far Punxsutawney, PA was from Brookville, she and the young man at the counter were quite obliging in telling me how to get there.  When I left the pub, I was headed back to the motel; but the final call of the open road was too much for me on this sunny, early Wednesday evening; and I soon decided to head south to Punxsutawney, home of the famous Groundhog named Phil, who predicted the length of winter each year in the early days of February (Now there is a sentence that is perhaps too long).  If Phil sees his shadow, woe for Pennsylvanians and for the rest of us.  It means six more weeks of winter.  The photos below after those documenting by dinner at the pub present my view of Punxsutawney in the middle of July, when Phil is but a wooden statue on the pleasant grounds of Barclay Square Park where the tent and podium remind us all of next winter's special day.    I am sure that the real Phil is hiding somewhere nearby, but I had to be content with a "Selfie" with the stationary statue of Phil.

The ride to and from Punxsutawney was a pleasant way to spend this last evening before returning to my home in Connecticut.  It was an unexpected pleasurable experience, a bit serendipitous--you might say ending--to a most wonderful trip.