On “Mornings With Dave & Natalie,” we asked for your help compiling a bucket list for my first summer in Madison – and boy, did you deliver! I plan to check off many of your suggestions throughout the summer – and beyond – and write about my experiences. You can also follow along on Life 102.5’s Facebook and Instagram pages, where I’ll be posting as I go. Thanks for helping to make my first Madison-area summer a memorable one!
Another beautiful lake view for today’s bucket list item: exploring downtown Madison!
I’ve been downtown lots of times since moving here – most recently to experience the Dane County Farmer’s Market – but I had no sense of place or how things connected before now. Thankfully, Cristina from weekends is a local and had time to show me around.
We parked by the university and walked up State Street, past the Capitol building to Monona Terrace. The view from there is stunning. We then walked back to State Street and popped into a few of the shops, including a cheese store because … Wisconsin.
The whole time I was thinking about how the experience reminded me so much of living in Washington, D.C. My husband and I lived in the city for four years before having kids and would often take evening walks or Sunday afternoon strolls from our apartment to the Capitol a mile away.
Cristina and I capped off the morning’s activities with lunch at Old Fashioned, where we split the best cheese curds I’ve had since moving to Wisconsin – hands down. The soup descriptions here also made me laugh: Wisconsin Beer Cheese Soup garnished with … popcorn (?!) and Green Bay-style chili with spaghetti noodles. (I stuck with a burger and fries.)
I’ve still got a lot to learn about living here, but this experience was definitely a step toward becoming a full-blown Madisonian!
Where should I go next?