Meetup in Madison

On Friday 10/15, Todd, Tom, Peppermint, and I piled into our rental car and headed down to Madison (3 hour drive) for the weekend. We had never been to UW Madison before, so we were excited. Madison is the capitol of Wisconsin, so we got to see the sights as well.

Todd in front of the state capitol.




State Street


More capitol shots




We happened upon this popcorn store called Clary's Old Fashioned Gourmet Popcorn. We had to stop in!


So much popcorn... a dream come true for Todd!

We all got some different flavored popcorn and snacked on it while checking out the scene on State Street.

Monkey business.


Then we walked on the campus of UW Madison and saw the cool buildings.










Camp Randall Stadium


We walked a lot, probably 3-4 miles in uncomfortable shoes (especially for Peppermint, in her high heels), to tour around and to meet up with some friends at Blue Moon Bar and Grill. Peppermint's uncle had told her Blue Moon had good burgers, so we put it on our "Best Burgers of the USA Tour" stop.

One of the highlights of going to Madison, for Todd, was to meet up with one of his friends from way, way back. Todd and Chris's dads went to medical school together at Univ of West Virginia. At that time, Todd and Chris were very young and were best friends. When Todd was five years old, Todd's dad graduated and they moved to Akron, Ohio. Todd's family and Chris' family owned vacation condos together at Hilton Head Island and St. Augustine, so Todd and Chris continued to see each other periodically until around age 10. That was pretty much the last time they saw each other!

Look at them now!


I also got to meet Chris' whole family. There was much reminiscing going on. Todd has talked about Chris occasionally, so it was neat to finally meet him. The last time the two of them saw each other, their voices hadn't even changed yet! Through the magic of Facebook, they reconnected about a year ago. For as long as I've known Todd, I know he doesn't remember too much about the specifics of his childhood before five years old. Chris seemed to have a better memory and filled in some gaps! He even remembered Todd's orange cat named Rosey. He said Todd was very particular about his bread. He would put it in the toaster, but got the bread out when it was warm but not really toasted. (He's not like that anymore, LOL!) Chris remembered that Todd used to rock himself to sleep when they were little and sharing a bunk bed on sleepovers. They used to play Batman and Robin and made "batcaves" out of cardboard boxes. Oh and the funniest part was Todd once laughed so hard that he peed his pants, and he didn't even care! Ah, good times.

After dinner, Todd and I caught a ride from Chris to get our car from the parking garage a few miles away, so that we didn't have to walk so far in the dark back. Then we picked up Peppermint and Tom and headed back to our adjoining suites at the hotel. It was a fun day with good friends and good food.

Stayed tuned for more Wisconsin adventures, including Todd stalking Brutus the Buckeye.