Madison is the capital of Wisconsin, and is also home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Politicians and students crowd the Madison isthmus between Lake Monona and Lake Mendotta and this makes for a very interesting town. Situated only 120 miles northwest of Chicago, it makes for a great weekend getaway from the Windy City.

We left around 10am from our home and after 2 plus hours on I-90 West we caught our first glimpse of the majestic Capitol building. Being located right in the middle of the isthmus and having laws prohibiting building heights within one-mile of the building, ensures that its grandeur is visible from most locations in Madison. We were just in time for the "Food for Thought" festival and got a glimpse of famed Madison art and culture scene. Our tour of the Capitol building started at 1 pm (there are several during the day) and in the next hour we learnt about the different rooms and their functions all infused with a little Wisconsin history. The Capitol is 284 feet, 5 inches tall, making the building 3 feet shorter than the nation's capitol in Washington D.C but the
dome's volume is the largest in the country.

Around the Capitol on Dayton Ave. was our hotel, The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor's Club. Since it was the one weekend that the Badgers were taking a break, we got accommodation and we chose a room with a beautiful view of the Capitol in the very private Governor's Club. We checked in and immediately headed to State Street for lunch. State Street is a diagonal road that connects the Capitol to the University of Wisconsin and is pedestrian and bicycles only. The street is lined with the most diverse set of restaurants and shops though we saw an unusual number for Asian cuisine. We found later that almost 6% of the Madison population is Asian. We decided to make this weekend an Asian Weekend Getaway in Madison, and ate at Himal Chuli a Nepali restaurant. The Katahar Kebabs (Cooked Green Jackfruit), with momochas (vegetable dumplings) and Chiya (Masala tea) brought back fond memories of cold winter days in Himachal, India.

We headed back to the hotel to rest and enjoy our romantic package - champagne and strawberries and chocolate with soothing body lotions and scents. Two hours later, we left for the Monona Terrace overlooking Lake Monona. The smaller of the two lakes crushing Madison it is a great spot to view the lake and the Capitol. As dusk set in the views got more colorful and the purple and pink sky mixed perfectly with the white of the Capitol. After lounging in the terrace we walked to Williamson street to Bandung, an Indonesian restaurant. Extremely popular and reservations certainly recommended, it was our first attempt at Sambhal Goreng Papaya and Vegetable Curry. The spices and candlenut paste are very different from the Southeast Asian cooking we are used to. We ended day 1 with a brisk walk back through Capitol Square to our hotel and a round of free cocktails and desserts in the Governor's Club lounge.

Our plan was to begin Day 2 early but being Sunday it became quite late. Nevertheless we squeezed in a late morning walk on the shores of Lake Monona. We checked out at 11am and walked back down State Street to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We headed to the Memorial Terrace overlooking Lake Mendotta and the student population eating slices of pizza brought back so many memories and a sudden urge for greasy delivered Papa Johns pizza. The colorful chairs on the terrace is almost a university trademark. We also visited the Chazen Museum of Art and saw an excellent exhibition of pencil portraits by Robert Schultz and heard part of the Sunday afternoon free classical concert. The university campus is well spread out and seamlessly integrated with the city.

We walked back through State Street and keeping with our Asian cuisine theme we ate at Kabul, an Afghani restaurant. Afghani bread is soft, and the fusiliya (Green beans and yellow dal with rice and yoghurt) and the couscous were again different but very tasty. Around 3:30pm we decided to head back, and we drove one last time through the university and by 6pm we were back home. Madison is our new State College and we are looking forward to many more trips to the city.