Madison, Wisconsin

This is Tracey's and my favorite vacation spot. Madison is the capitol city of Wisconsin and the home of the Badgers, The University of Wisconsin's home team. I've been to Madison three times, once on job related training, once on vacation with Tracey and finally in July of 1998 to marry Tracey. We chose to "Elope" after many happy years together and I scheduled everything - a four star hotel, air line reservations and reserving a Madison Court Commissioner to perform the wedding service.

Madison is located between two large lakes. The capitol building is located centrally between these two lakes in the center of Madison. The exact location between two masses of water is called an Isthmus.

A great day trip is to Madison's Henry Villa Zoo. This FREE TO THE PUBLIC zoo has towering cliffs and massive pools to naturally display the many animals both native and foreign to the region. It's a wonderful place to take the whole family.

The largest attraction to the city is State Street. A magically quaint area of shops, museums, restaurants and live bands performing on stages near the college campus. Madison claims that State Street has more eateries per capita than anywhere else in the United States. I wouldn't doubt this after eating at many of these fine and casual restaurants.

Without exception our favorite place to eat is Dotty Dumpling's Dowery. This noisy and crowded burger joint serves up the best grub in town. It was strange to see the 8 ft long Hindenburg model hovering over our heads as we munched down a Dotty burger and a 22 ounce screw driver. The same Hindenburg that crashed less than a mile from our home.

Madison is about 40 minutes from Frank Lloyd Wright's home Taliesin. And five miles further is The House On The Rock. These attraction along with the Wisconsin Dell's Mighty Duck Tours - a boat tour which also travels across land throughout the hills and cliffs of Baraboo, make your stay in this area of Wisconsin memorable.

The years single most blow-out event is Rhythm and Booms, the Midwest's largest fireworks display. With three hundred thousand onlookers, live bands and 10 thousand fireworks in shot off in just 40 minutes.  It is the most awesome display of fireworks that you will ever see. We have been to the Display on the Mall in Washington, DC and it is pale in comparison to Madison's show.  You're unlikely to see such a display anywhere this intense.

A good place to find out current events in Madison is the Isthmus Newspaper which is a local free entertainment newspaper.