Good morning, a good night’s sleep. Managed to do a half hour on the treadmill first thing this morning. Walked up to Michelangelo’s for my morning coffee and brioche. It had just gone seven when I arrived. People were setting up for the Dane County Farmer’s Market, which is held on the grounds around the capitol building.
First some fun facts about the city of Madison, Wisconsin, the capitol building and the University of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Capitol building was built in the Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts style. It was built one wing at a time and designed by architect George B. Post. The building was completed in 1917. It has five-floors, and stands on a 13-acre square on top of a hill which lies between Lake Monona and Lake Mendota. The Capitol building stands tall at 284-feet. It was built with 43 different types of stone from six countries and eight states.
The building was dedicated in a ceremony on July 7, 1965, by Governor Knowles, 48 years after its completion! Apparently, the dedication was delayed by World War I.
The split of land on which the University of Wisconsin was built sits at the base of Capitol Hill between the two aforementioned lakes. The first classes meet on this site in 1849. The first building, North Hall, is opened in 1851. Harry V is not currently in the business school but taking general education courses. It isn’t typical for freshmen to enter directly into the business school at the University of Wisconsin. It is hoped he will get into the business school next year.
We had ten am reservations at The Statehouse Restaurant in the Edgewater Hotel with the Rodins. So, we stopped back at the hotel to check on Nonna. She was “doing fine” and wanted to continue resting, so the rest of us, Harry IV, Grace, Oliver, Harry V, Morgan and I walked the half mile down to the lake’s edge.
Now being fully indoctrinated you ask – which lake? Good catch, there two, well three, but Lake Wingra isn’t big enough to count. No, we are looking at the lake on the north side or Lake Mendota. We walked down Langdon Street, also known as “Greek” row, past all the fraternity and sorority houses.The Edgewater is a had been one of the premier hotels in Madison since 1948.
It should be obvious that the Edgewater is located in the heart of downtown Madison. It is next door to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and, again obviously, within walking distance of the Capitol Square and downtown, The Edgewater Hotel offers 202 rooms and the finest in luxury hotel services and amenities. The Statehouse restaurant, where we had brunch, offers breathtaking views Lake Mendota.
We met Sydney and her parents just inside the hotel lobby. Sydney, like V is a freshman at UW. We had a wonderful brunch. The food was great, even better since Harry IV and Jay split the check. A couple of us had the “classic eggs Benedict” although it had a slight twist by using a rosemary ham instead of the traditional Canadian or back bacon. Morgan and Sydney got the brioche French toast. They could have gotten one order and served almost the entire table. It was very good, accompanied with fresh blackberries, strawberries and blueberries.
Oliver and Rochelle got the huevos rancheros, which must have been good because they completely devoured the rather large dish. The “extra” French toast was passed around for everyone to enjoy. It was really great seeing Jay, Rachel and Sydney again, it has probably been five years since I last saw them. We’ll be seeing them again in Rome and/or Torino. I know they will be there for George’s Bar Mitzvah in Torino.
After brunch we headed back towards the campus. I split off from the group to head back to the hotel to check on Nonna. The plan was to connect again and do the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Walk, which is part of the parent’s weekend activities. The starting point was the University Book Store, and the Ending point was Fromagination, a cheese shop, near the capitol.
Silly me, I suggested we start at the end, which is closer to the hotel, and walk back to the starting point at the bookstore. I suggested this because we wanted to end up on campus at 4 so Oliver could walk on to the football field. There were twelve stops between the beginning and the end. I didn’t know that the point of having the Fromagination at the end was to sell the cheese which would have been tasted along the way.
Looking over the list of stops I now realize that the whole point of this was to get us to visit the little shops on the way. In the shops we could taste the various cheeses. Then to end up in a place where we could actually buy cheese. Each stop or shop had a different cheese to taste. On the way back towards the bookstore we did stop in a couple of the shops and re-tasted the cheese we tasted at the Fromagination.
The truth is we never made it to the bookstore. Along the way towards the book store it became know that the Wisconsin game was the TV in one of Harry V’s local haunts. So, he invited us to join him. His mother and grandmother joined him. Grace, Oliver, IV and I did a little more shopping before returning to the hotel for a rest.
The plan is still to go to Randall Field at four so Oliver can walk onto the field. The entrance to Randall Field is dominated by the Camp Randall Memorial Arch. The arch was dedicated in 1912 as a tribute to the more than 70,000 soldiers who received military training at the site during the civil war, between 1861 and 1865.
Camp Randall was named for Alexander W. Randall, the governor of Wisconsin at the beginning of the war. The encampment included barracks and officer quarters that could accommodate up to 5000 soldiers at a time. For a brief period in 1862 the site also served as a prisoner of war camp for 1300 Confederate soldiers captured along the Mississippi River. While at Camp Randall 140 rebel soldiers died and were buried at "Confederate Rest" at nearby a Forest Hill Cemetery resulting in the northernmost Confederate cemetery burial site in the United States. Union soldiers are in an adjacent but separate section of the cemetery.
The arch, located near the intersection of Dayton St. and Randall Ave. serves as the entrance to Camp Randall Memorial Park - a historic site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's also the entrance to Camp Randall Stadium for the UW Marching Band on football Saturdays.
Two statues flank the front of the arch - a young solider ready to march off to war and a veteran returning to Camp Randall nearly 50 years after the war. The "1912" inscription on the veteran's pedestal refers to the dedication date of the arch, and the "1861-1865" inscription on the enlisted soldier's pedestal marks the years our country fought the Civil War.
As the game was entering the end of the third quarter Grace, Oliver, IV and I met up with V, Rochelle and Nonna. We then starting walking towards Randall field. Nonna was getting tired so the group dropped us off at Peet’s in the South Union on campus. There are two unions for the students, V said this one is too far away for daily visits.
Nonna and I had a snack and waiting in the comfort of the Union. After their visit to Randall Field we started walking towards The Nitty Gritty. The Nitty Gritty would be described by me as a typical college town berr and sports bar. Way too noisy for anyone to old a conversation. Typical beer and burger joint.
The Nitty Gritty has been around for more than 55 years. It was established in 1968 during the turbulent times of the social and political unrest of the Vietnam War era. In the late 60s and early 70s. The “Gritty” served as the informal headquarters for the campus subculture which led to many anti-Vietnam War protest demonstrations and marches. In fact, the 1970 bombing of Sterling Hall was planned by four anti-war activists within the walls of the Nitty Gritty.
Despite its early beginnings as a counterculture college tavern the “Gritty” was reformatted into Madison’s Official Birthday Place in 1985. Since that time, the birthday bell, birthday board, Gritty memento mug, birthday balloon, announcement and songs have become staples of the celebration tradition. Since its inception, the downtown Gritty has averaged 57 birthdays a day, and about 20,000 birthdays each year. The oldest celebrant, Hortense Sperling, celebrated her 108th birthday here in 2006. The youngest, Megan Spude, was here just 24 hours after being born. The Widder quadruplets started celebrating their third birthday at the Gritty in 1992, and haven’t missed a year since. In 2019, the birthday total surpassed 775,000 birthdays.
Tonight’s menu however was the Nitty Gritty’s the award winning Gritty Burger: Six ounces of ground chuck, bathed in their own special sour cream based sauce, served on a honey wheat sesame seed bun. Since the start, the Gritty has been known the Best Burger of Madison and has won that award year after year.
All of that sounded great, however the noise was just too much for me. After the large brunch I wasn’t really hungry. The others were watching the football game, Grace was on her phone and Oliver was wondering about. Not being concerned with the football game, and unable to hear anything, I excused myself and returned to the hotel.
Now that I think of it, the Nitty Gritty reminders me of the old Alpine Inn or Rosotti’s on Alpine Road above Stanford University. Of course that involved Bikers, horses, and underage kids partying in the late 60’s. Perhaps that is another story or another time.
I took the solitude of the evening to have a cup of tea and watch 007 Thunderball. Nonna finally got back to the room after it has just gone 7. I am glad I didn’t hang around for several hours of beer and football at the Gritty. The KC Falks return to KC tomorrow. Apparently Nona and I are watching football and relaxing with V on Sunday and Monday is reserved for washing V’s clothes. Me? I am looking forward to the Wisconsin History Museum.
Ciao, Enrico
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