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.