Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Spring Break Part 3: Madison


Madison was actually the nucleus of our Spring Break plan. Everything else radiated out from that, starting with "let's go to Madison!" as the impetus for the whole road trip. (Thanks to a "hey, you know you could come to Madison" from that lovely gal holding that other lovely gal up in the photo above.)  If you know the history of the eldest two of the Four Schneiders well, then you know we love us a road trip.  And we would never miss an opportunity to visit Molly. Madison, Wisc here we come!

After the morning at the Water Park, we hit the road with the Lake at our backs and headed in to Madison. The last time we were there was for the wedding of our dear, dear friend Molly to sweet, sweet Dave long before perfect, perfect Jane showed up on the scene.  (Coincidentally, if anyone wants to do the math, 40 weeks before Miss Beatrice made her arrival comes darn close to that last trip to Madison...if anyone wants to do the math.)

We were all really excited to meet Jane! And, you know what else, I was really excited to see Molly with Jane.  It is really fun to see a friend transition into motherhood and Miss Molly Moore, you are a natural!  Our family had a great time hanging around a house so obviously filled with love. It was truly a thing of beauty and a special trip we can't wait to repeat!

Even though the playtime at "Jane's house" got the blue ribbon from our girls as the best part of Madison (and Molly's "homegrown Wisconsin strawberries"), we did venture out.  I love visiting a city with local guides. We had the BEST meals, hit the BEST parks and had the BEST time.

Here's the proof.

Insanely good garlic bread, ice cold beer and all things Italian here:


Scenes from a morning at the zoo:












Ice-cream at the Chocolate Shoppe then lattes on State Street (before dinner - hey, it's vacation):






Delicious dinner at The Weary Traveler - where the girls shared a rootbeer (vacation - remember?), and we ate our weight in Acorn Squash with goat cheese and avocado and enjoyed our first Lake Louie beer.



Like I said, the adventures were great, but my favorite part of the trip was definitely watching our three girls play together. We are worlds away from 1995 in Reid Hall at Miami U, or our visit to Molly in England when Lou & I were barely dating.  Life is beautiful. Truly.





Before leaving Madison and heading back South to Cincy, we did one last tour of the Capitol. What a trip it was!


But, we weren't heading home just yet....