400 miles for lunch

On Thursday, I drove to Madison to meet Coors friends, Mike & Debbi Murphy, for lunch. It was a beautiful day for a drive and the first time I had been to Madison since Brewing School which was 1986. We ate lunch on the lake at Paisan's, yummy Italian food, and a very nice place, inside and outside on the veranda. (Thanks to Luck classmate, Debi, for this restaurant tip.)

After lunch, I walked around at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monoma Terrace, http://www.mononaterrace.com/


What a spot, if you look one direction you see a spectacular view of Wisconsin's Capitol building,

and if you turn around you can see the beautiful Lake Monoma.


Many of the government buildings in Madison are historical monuments and the architecture is beautiful. I loved this brass work on these lamps located outside the Health and Human Services building. Cool art deco.

So, what about Otis Redding, did you know he died in a plane crash in Lake Monoma? A vase of fresh flowers was sitting by this memorial plaque.

It was about a 400 mile round trip drive. I saw lots of Wisconsin that I had never seen and enjoyed the day. The drive from Rice Lake to Madison is not bad at all, all nice freeways with pretty scenery. I took a less direct route on the way home and saw a few smaller towns.