Wisconsin Weekend!
Since our a/c is broken we decided to leave the house, wander around the lovely state of WI and sleep in the air-conditioned bliss of a Hilton.

First stop: State Street in Madison for the Farmer's Market and shopping. We had yummy scones, bought cashew brittle from Mennonites and used the restroom in the state capitol building. Let me just say the capitol building is really nice and golden on the inside and I loved the old school revolving doors. There was some sort of weird musical concert happening when we were visiting and there were quite a few barefooted stinky homeless men wandering around. Not sure why they were barefooted, but that could have contributed to the stink.

I bought a nice green hat at a cute hat shop. It's one of those hats that can be six different styles of hat. I look forward to making everyone thing that I have six green hats in six different styles. When I was buying the hat, the girl in the shop asked me very seriously, "Would you like to purchase any bandanas today?" Just so you know, the hat I bought is not very bandana friendly. But, maybe she knew that I liked to wear bandanas when I'm working in the yard or trying to modestly cover my head?

Later in the afternoon we wen to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, which ata cost of free was the best deal all day! We donated a couple of dollars and wandered around. They had little nooks and crannies of wonderful ideas for our yard, including native plants, a sunken garden and a shady crek to walk beside.Our favorite by far was the Sinister Garden of dangerous plants.

Saturday evening we had a late dinner at a place called Ella's Deli. If you have never eaten there, it is a wild psychedelic ride full of animated critters, superheroes, carousel horses and pastrami sandwiches. It's a kosher-syle deli and ice cream parlor full of every thing that kids love. Every table has something encased in it to look at - ours had PEZ containers. There were birthday parties all around us, most of the kids being in middle school it seemed. We, of course, had fried pickles and yummy deli sandwiches. So if you're in Madison just look for the gaudy place with a carousel out front. The place is chaotic and fun and I'm so glad we found it!

On Sunday we drove towards Baraboo to see Dr. Evermore's Forevertron. It was supposed to open at noon. At 12:30 it hadn't opened. It was disappointing to say the least, but the next stop on our adventure did not disappoint. The Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb was a delight of the yellow variety. Walls of collected mustard jars and 100s of mustards from around the world for sale. They even have a tasting bar! We were also lucky enough to have the owner ring up our sale! The place was packed and this coming weekend is their big Mustard Festival. They're going to have the Weinermobile, mustard custard and all kinds of fun stuff.

Our next to last stop for the day was New Glarus, the little Switzerland of Wisconsin. I bought some yummy smoked Swiss cheese and took a few pictures of the Swiss-chalet style buildings. It was all very odd looking in 90 degree heat surrounded by Asian tourists! From there we headed to Beloit to buy fireworks and head home.

All in all a great weekend of new sights! We really liked Madison and we will definitely return. For the most part we thought taht a lot of the ruralness of WI reminded us of Mississippi. Who would have thought? But don't tell either state I said that!