Memories in Madison (or, Kids, Are You Seeing All This Detritus?)

I almost married someone from Madison, WI. For almost four years, we made regular trips here to visit her family. We broke up in 2012 and after that I did not retain the name of even one restaurant in Madison. I mostly remember the layout of her parents' house and the fact that the cemetery near it is the final resting place of Chris Farley. I remembered thinking that capitol building is beautiful and I remember where her dad's office building is (right across the street from the capitol). Our break-up devastated me, but I still enjoy coming back here. It's a college town and I fondly remember attending a Badger football game against Penn State, right as the scandal that brought down Joe Paterno was unfolding, with my ex and my daughter and doing the "jump around."

This morning I sat outside at the Brunch Club and ordered the breakfast nachos. The waiter was a skinny, friendly, bespectacled and unshaven young man who seemed surprised to learn that I had never been to the Brunch Club before and encouraged me to order their doughnuts, which I did not. Apparently they put meat on the doughnuts, I am pretty sure I saw slabs of bacon on the doughnuts of the next table over. I ordered the breakfast nachos and they were good enough while I had not eaten all of the avocado off it, but once I had, midway through the meal, the rest was unimpressive. The chicken wasn't warm and a bit dry, and the whole thing overrun with BBQ sauce, which is not what I think or like when I eat breakfast.

I wish I knew architectural terms as any attempt at travel-writing feels feeble in the face of my ignorance. I can through around vague color terms, and the words "brick," "modern," "old," "English," and that's about it. Those are all words that came to mind as I wandered the campus of UW-Madison and streets near Lake Mendota.

In the way that a bad day at the beach is better than a good day at the office, I find it hard to imagine a big lake being a bad lake. Lake Mendota tries, though. One scenic overlook was littered with anthills and long flies buzzing around them... I mean impressively, I had the thought that I felt swarmed by a universe of ants and flies, not a colony. Another spot was littered with litter, in good college campus fashion. Empty cans of Natural Ice, vodka, and an old tub of whey protein were among the detritus.

The horizon is not much to look out on, either, from the downtown Madison/campus end, anyway. Again, though, it's a big lake.

Maybe the Minnesotan in me just gravitates towards shitting on Wisconsin. Also, my parents grew up in the stunning Finger Lakes region of New York and I have inherited a little snobbery about lakes.

Really, I still like Madison a lot. It has a vibrant college atmosphere with all the attendant quirky shops and restaurants you would expect and without the big-city claustrophobia. The Wisconsin capitol building is a sparkling pearl of a city centerpiece. The lakes are still lakes.

I believed two things about Madison before this visit which have been dispelled. One was that the Wisconsin state capitol building had been lowered in height because it was once taller than the U.S. national capitol building. It is indeed currently taller than the national capitol building, Wisconsin's capitol building has never been lowered. I also believed Wisconsinites don't eat fried cheese curds. They are non-fried purists who scoff at Minnesotans like me who like our cheese curds fried, fried, fried, baby. No. Nein. My crewmate at at Cooper's and her meal included cheese curds which, unbeknownst to her, were prepared fried. Maybe this is to accommodate the tourists?

I paid two visits to Ian's Pizza on Frances St as it is one of my favorite pizza places to visit in the country. Madison has two superb locations. For my late lunch at 5pm I had a slice of the Vegan pizza and a slice of the Penne pizza. For my late dinner at 11 p.m. I had a slice of the Portobello Pesto Blues and a slice of the Florentine. Despite my recent half-hearted attempts to reduce caffeine intake, I had a can of Cherry Coke Zero with both. I love a good pizza place and in Madison, Ian's is it. My very first overnight stay as a flight attendant was in Madison, WI and we arrived late. It was a pleasant surprise to discover a pizza place still open after midnight and the two Ian's pizza locations in Madison are open until 2:30 a.m.

After my late lunch at Ian's I walked Basset St. to the bay of Lake Monona. I liked it more than I did Mendota Lake earlier in the day. The wind rippled the waters, rush hour traffic bustled down John Nolen Dr., there were train tracks, and sexy people were out jogging, walking, bike-riding, and roller-blading. Though the smaller of Madison's two famous lakes, Monona was compensating well for its (lack of) size, like Dustin Pedroia.


PICTURES: A TALE OF TWO LAKES:

Look at the bay of Lake Monona. Lookin' lovely.


Aaaand, then there's Lake Mendota:

Kinda boring...

Lake Mendota shore detritus. Kids, are you seeing all this detritus?