A Year On Monona

Northwestern University is two and half hours away from Madison through the thicket of highways, freeways and tollways that is the Milwaukee to Chicago route, but two and half hours closer than from the La Crosse area, and for that we are very appreciative.  To have a kid in college while only a sophomore in high school takes some getting used to, but then again, as you enter Evanston, a beautiful and well manicured college campus town just far enough away from Chicago to forget some of the more gritty parts of the big city, you can see the appeal not just for a good high school student, but a

prospective collegiate and parents as well.  Julias program is a three week rigorous dive into what surprisingly has become the state of inter nation migration, a very important and trendy subject in modern society.  Reading is late, the writing is challenging, and the subject, even though important, is no doubt a lot to take in and confront for anybody let alone a sophomore.  Luckily at this program Julia is allowed more chosen free time, so that she doesn't have to try to fit in every field trip then get to the homework.  It rained torrentially the day and night before I was able to visit her on sunday for a short allotted hand full of hours, but cleared by morning, ninety by 11.  Playing tennis was a bit like standing

in the shower but the water was invisible, it just appeared as sweat.  A brief drive and walk around downtown Evanston, to Einstein bagels, then to Barnes and Noble to pre-order the release of the new Harry Potter book this weekend to be sent….to Madison.  We hope the book fits through our mail slot in the front of the door!  Back into the cool dorm for a slow day, hoping to put to use the guitar books that her new guitar instructor Chris Allen has fired her up to get started on so that one day she can study guitar in college, he hopes.

A Year On Monona

One of the easiest things to verify living on the east side of Madison is that two bike wheels are faster than two walking feet...and sometimes four car wheels.  You might check the weather in the morning and gather enough information to fill your day's calendar of hopeful events -- tennis is easier to get to by following the path along the Yahara north for a quarter of a mile to Tenney Park, which comes to

look out over Lake Mendota where, on breezy days, the sailboarders zip across the chop so fast that they, if it were possible, could probably traverse the city quicker than the bike wheels themselves.

The need for groceries and a late lunch might float up to the top of the mind after tennis.  Festival, a mile away, will gladly pack your bike bags, no paper, no plastic, just make sure to avoid a gallon of ice cream for ride home.

What is that across the street?  A nice looking place, Sujeo, what is called a Pan-Asian restaurant open by 4 and ready to serve a wonderful concoction called Japchae, made of sweet potato noodles,

marinated steak, bacon, a batch of spinach, all tossed in a sweet soy sauce.  Riding across East Washington by bike is no paradise, but a block past, heading east, and parallel to Williamson street is the great city bike path which happens to pass the four day French-tilting music festival called La Fete de Marquette.

Hundreds of bikes line the entry ways and you know by this point, passing another fifty bikers, that you may not have been the only two to think of the circular route from exercise to food and back through a cloud of Creole music that you can still hear from the house courtyard.

A Year on Monona

The UW-Madison campus is a fairly magical place to walk around in the summertime -- summer school is in session, and a few students can be seen sitting on courtyard cafe chairs typing away at laptops with sunglasses on, but for the most part it all quiet historical buildings and much open green space for the time being.  We happen to get Abby's dorm room assignment for upcoming fall semester while in Madison for the weekend, so we gathered our stuff and scooted across town (around 13 minutes from our house), to check out Tripp Hall down along the lakeshore on campus.

Tripp Hall is something out of 16th century England, courtyards and steel Romeo and Juliet balconies overhanging.  When we entered into the main meeting room two copies of Midsummer Night's Dream sat on a counter anticipating any newcomers observations of the architecture.

On one side of Tripp is a main and popular cafeteria and a la carte cafe; to other side, one small plot of open grass and then the great Lake Mendota walking / biking / jogging path, which we are pretty sure she will be able to see from her third floor room.

Food to the left, classes up the hill, the lake and path to the within eye sight...and alone by room assignment, Abby has figured out that we have gotten very lucky in the dorm assignment...plus laundry done by a mom and a dinner done by a dad only a few minutes away.  We celebrated by heading to an old reliable classic of Madison afterward, Dotty's Dumpling Dowry, a funky restaurant name borrowed from an old Sherlock Holmes story, and serving, now, the greatest burgers on earth, and a place that Abby will no doubt track on maps a few times until she realizes she could walk in ten minutes if ever in a pinch for a great burger or a malt fix.