Spending some unexpected time in Madison

I am so glad I was able to go home for five full days! But the major downside to going was not being able to see a taping of Anderson Cooper’s new daytime talk show in New York City, which I had tickets for.

Wednesday and Thursday I ran some errands, worked out, and played tennis with Mom. For dinner Thursday I went to Tempest, a restaurant that opened a few months ago downtown, with Dad and Tyler. It is an oyster bar and they have their oysters flown in everyday, which is extremely rare to see in a restaurant in Madison. The atmosphere was really cool – we sat in a “shell” in the bar area – and the food was delicious. I had four oyster, three of which were fantastic, and razor clams, a new dish to me that was long strips of clams.

For lunch Friday I went to The Great Dane with Dad, Tyler, and Tyler’s girlfriend, Heather. That night Mom, Mark, Brittany, and a friend of the family, Bobby, went to a corn maze. I had really wanted to do one for weeks, so I was really excited to go. It only took us 58 minutes and it was in the dark!

Saturday morning I woke up early to visit one of my favorite coffee shops, Firefly, near my Dad’s house in Oregon (a suburb south of Madison). I then visited the Farmers Market, the last one of the season, to pick up some cheese curds and a spicy cheese empanada. That afternoon we went to the Badgers football game, where they killed Purdue, and later the Badger men’s basketball game, where they also won.

Sunday we went to Daisy’s Café for brunch and had a relaxing afternoon. I had dinner with my Dad’s side of the family at Bunkey’s that night. The next morning I woke up at 4:15am and Mom drove me to Milwaukee, so I could fly back to Boston.

I learned the hard way, but always check rates for parking at airports! I am quite mad about how much I had to pay for parking at Logan Airport and I should have looked online for other options.

Even though I went to Madison and will be back in only 11 more days and saw some of my family just 3 days before, I am so glad I was able to go. It was really good to spend time back home.