Adventures in Madison

Well, she did it! Baube left her apartment fairly willingly. No cajoling necessary! (Just realizing some may not know who or what Baube is - Erica's maternal grandmother, Baube is Yiddish for Grandmother. She is a spritely 90 year old lady who can't hear well, tells great stories, and admits to "always saying 'no' the first time you ask me to do something.")

We took a lovely jaunt over to Olbrich Gardens, the local botanical garden, over on the east side of Madison. Baube was pretty quiet the whole ride through town, just taking in all the changes to the town since she has lived there (roughly 1938 - right Mary?). Once we arrived we hopped on the stretch golf-cart for an amateur tour of the gardens. The highlight for Erica was the Thai Pavilion with it's amazing structure, a gift from the Thai government, as well as different animal statues, pools, and manicured juniper bushes! After that Baube was still eager to see more so we commandeered a wheelchair and went to get a closer look at some Hibiscus plants with humongous flowers, Baube's favorite thing we saw. She kept talking about returning to the garden at midnight so she could steal a cutting from the Hibiscus so she could grow it on her own. A funny image, if you know her. She is quite the green thumb, though!

Another memorable moment was today when the whole family headed out for a canoe excursion on Lake Wingra. Lake Wingra, you should know, is a pretty murky, algae-filled lake. Rory, Erica, Dani and the kids, Audrey and Drew, set off for what would be an hour long journey. It was Audrey and Drew's first canoe trip so there was much discussion of paddles, remaining seated in the boat, and different lake wildlife. Audrey really started to get into the trip when she got her hands in the water and touched some seaweed. Drew was hopeful about finding froggies, but wound up disappointed. Once we were clear of some of the grosser stuff Audrey decided to jump in and swim along. She was in and out of the boat, twirling in the water, and swimming after dropped sponges. Drew thought he wanted to swim too, but every time Dani had him in the water he basically screamed bloody murder....


But that is not all, by any means.
After a picnic lunch the fun really got started!
Picture this: serene lake with a short dock. Rory and two small kids out on the dock, trying fishing for the first time. Audrey, 3.5 years old, takes an unannounced flying leap off the dock and hooks herself with her own line. Rory jumps in after her to fish her out. No serious injuries, just a lifelong aversion to fishing. Wait, wait, it gets better. As we are all standing on the dock comforting Audrey, Drew, almost 2 and a non-swimmer, tumbles off the dock into the water. Again, Uncle Rory jumps in to the rescue. Again, and thankfully, no serious injuries, just another lifelong aversion to fishing.

In the end it was nothing that a little Michael's Frozen Custard couldn't fix. Ice cream fixes everything. (Also of note is that Rory fell into the lake at that exact spot when he was younger too! Except he took his plunge some time in late winter so there was ice involved! Rory also went out for ice cream then to aid in his recovery).

Also, for those of you concerned with our ability to get things done now that we are on a 5 month vacation you should all know we checked off all the items on our list of Madison things to do. Linda took care of the kids while Dani, Dave, Rory and Erica all headed out to Dotties for some amazing burger goodness. Then it was off to the Union for some beers.

Tomorrow we head west!