Memorial Day Trip

We decided to take advantage of the 4-day weekend and headed to Madison, WI, and Chicago.  We left Friday afternoon and stayed in a hotel in the heart of Madison.  We got there late Friday night, so we waited until Saturday to explore the city.  We ate a delicious breakfast at Sunroom Café.  David has told me that Madison is the Austin, TX, of the North, and he was correct.  Across the street from our breakfast restaurant was a store called Sunshine Daydream full of flowy, tie-dyed broom skirts, peace signs, and colorful headbands.   

We walked through UW’s campus, which was beautiful and then headed down State St towards the Capitol building.  We took some tips from a book that Rachel and Nick gave David for Christmas called 36 Hours, which goes through cities throughout the US and Canada and what to do on a weekend trip there.  We headed towards Monona Terrace, which is a community events center that Frank Lloyd Wright designed but was not build until after he died.  We walked through the farmer’s market that is around the Capitol building and tried some cheese.  We ate lunch at Old Fashioned (another tip from our book) and enjoyed delicious brats, cheese curds, and local beer which were all delicious.

 

 The kegs at UW's Union Terrace right next to one of the lakes that borders Madison.  All of the students favorite place to hang out on campus.

 Of course, you can't go to Madison without a protest....this one was about Monsanto.

On a dock next to Monona Terrace. (on the other lake that borders Madison)

We loaded up the car and headed down the Interstate towards Chicago.  We checked into our hotel (Hotel Allegro…another 36 Hours tip) and walked around Chicago until our dinner reservations Saturday night.  We woke up Sunday, grabbed breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and walked to Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower).  We beat the crowd which was great, so we made our way to the top and had a great view of the city since the weather was perfect.  

 We then walked over towards Michigan avenue and decided to visit the Planetarium.  We’ve both been to Chicago multiple times, so we enjoyed doing things neither of us had done before.  We finished at the Planetarium and made our way up the Magnificent Mile and had dinner at Lou Malnati’s for some Chicago-style pizza.  We then headed towards Millenium Park for a free concert that night and then walked to Navy Pier since David had not been there.  I got my Garrett’s popcorn and we made our way back to the hotel. We walked 10 miles on Sunday and saw the movie Divergent being filmed. 

Monday morning we woke up at headed out of the city towards Logan Square and had breakfast at Longman & Eagle (36 Hours) where David enjoyed chick and waffles with sweet potato and pork belly hash and I ate smoke salmon eggs benedict on pumpernickel bread with thousand island hollandaise sauce.  It was AMAZING!

It was a great finish to the weekend.  We drove back to St. Paul Monday afternoon. 

It was a great finish to the weekend.  We drove back to St. Paul Monday afternoon.