Madison WI & environs
 

My daughters (11&13) wil be in Madison July 8-14 for a music camp. My wife is going and wants me to come. I've been to these kinds of events and find them boring but I'm wondering if I could spend some time visiting other interesting places in the area.

Any ideas?

rent a kayak or canoe or other type of boat on Lake Mendota www.608area.com/recreation/boating

drive out and visit House on the Rock www.thehouseontherock.com
or Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin: http://www.wrightinwisconsin.org/Wri...ringGreen.aspx
(or a local Madison building: http://www.wrightinwisconsin.org/Wri...seMadison.aspx )

The food scene in Madison has good variety.

Tour Capital Brewery http://www.capital-brewery.com/capitaltours
New Glarus Brewery www.newglarusbrewing.com

It might depend on what kinds of things you are interested in too...some ideas:

Henry Vilas Zoo is free and pretty decent (http://www.vilaszoo.org/)

The University of Wisconsin Arboretum has many nature trails (http://uwarboretum.org/)

Walking down State Street (a pedestrian, bus, and taxi only street with lots of shops and restaurants) is another good Madison idea

The University of Wisconsin Memorial Union Terrace is on Lake Mendota and often has live bands and always has reasonably priced food, ice cream, and beer (http://www.union.wisc.edu/venue-muterrace.htm)

If you want a pretty-authentic Wisconsin meal, The Old Fashioned is a favorite of many (http://www.theoldfashioned.com/)

If you don't have set plans of where to stay, the Best Western Inn on the Park is the only hotel on the Capitol Square and within walking distance to a lot.

The Farmers Market Saturday mornings on the Capitol Square is great during the summer - definitely try the spicy cheese bread (http://madisonfarmersmarket.com/)

Also, since the University of Wisconsin won't be in session, the campus-area should be less crowded.

Thanks for the food ideas, SweetWillie. Are there any cheese boutiques with tasting bars?

I didn't know about Taliesin, so that is a good tip. Lake boating is good, too, for a day. I'll be there 5 days, so three to go. I'd rather not go shopping all the time.

Lewko

thanks for posting, I drive past Madison frequently, looks like it is time for a stop in.

I'll second the House on the Rock recommendation, having been there a week ago. I'm hard-pressed to think of a more unusual or eclectic collection of ... stuff. "Kitsch" is often used in accounts; I think "nightmare" is more appropriate. But the history (or fabrication thereof) of the place is interesting in and of itself. Show up at opening to avoid what crowds there are; there were maybe 10 people there at 9am on a Friday, but by the time I left at 3pm, there were at least 200. As cheesy and otherwise-unimpressive the animatronics on the "Music of Yesterday" automata were, I still got a kick out of watching and listening to them "play."

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...11704954c5.jpg


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a9162bf5b7.jpg


For breweries that have sprung up in recent years in Madison, there's Funk Factory if you like tart, traditional beers; they're among the best in the country at that style today. I also really liked Young Blood Beer Company for their IPAs and fruited sours, and the food menu at looked great for small brewery nibbles. The beers at Karben4 were also pretty good, if not quite at the same level as Young Blood's.

There are a couple wineries within about an hour of Madison, including one (Wollersheim) that claims to be the oldest in the state. It can be interesting to taste wine made from "northern" grapes, but you probably want to avoid wines that aren't made from grapes.

I think of Wisconsin Dells as a place for kids, but it has a circus museum and a space museum.

OOPS: I just realized that this thread is about a decade old. I started thinking that it was awfully late in the summer for any sort of camp and too early to make specific plans for next summer.

Yeah--my bad on that. I was looking for an existing thread that mentioned House on the Rock to share some experiences, and saw this one also had Madison-area breweries and as such figured might as well bump rather than start a new one.

That's quite the interesting blog for those familiar with Wisconsin. I was curious about what it would have about Devil's Lake since I was pretty familiar with the place back in the day. And where else would I come into a mention of Ed Gein at the same time!?!? :eek:

If into outdoors stuff near Madison, Devil's Lake can be interesting.