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.