The Children's Museum

We spent one afternoon at the Children's Museum and then headed over to State Street.  It's one of the main streets downtown that is full of shops, bars and restaurants.  There is ALL walks of life in Madison.  I didn't realize that is was a fairly liberal town and full of hippie's :)

This was really cool.  We drove up Washington Avenue to the capitol square.  Pretty view.

This was a giant hamster wheel.  The faster you walk/run, the faster it goes.  It worked best when both girls were in there.

This was a giant climbing play area with stairs and slides, it was so unique and fun for the kids.

On the rooftop of the museum was this cool garden and a club house learning center with snakes and frogs.  Lauren touched the snake but Elise would have no part of that. (Even I touched the snake.)

I don't know what this flower is but it was so cool and I MUST find out what it is.

The view of the lake.

This was a spaceship and the buttons all made different sounds.  There was a voice over the speaker giving directions from planet Earth.

This payphone would talk to you and ask you questions.  It's the first time Elise has seen a dial phone.


Lauren checking out the television that makes you roar!

Grandpa Hubbard joined us for dinner at The Old Fashion restaurant for dinner.  He was just 5 days
post-op and feeling good.  We had real cheese curds, beer cheese soup and great burgers.

After dinner we went down to State Street to see the shops, bars and restaurants. 
The girls got their first view of beggars and street performers.  This guy was
playing his guitar on his head.... an interesting place for sure.

The view of State Street from campus.  The campus is really nice and the
Union sits right on the lake and has a huge patio to sit by the water and watch
the view.

After dinner and walking around we found this ice-cream shop called Ella's Deli.  It was the
coolest place.  There were mechanical figurines all over and fun music.  A good old fashioned
soda shop.  There is a big carousel out front too.  We found some Blue Raspberry Italian Ice for Elise.
She was in heaven!

A tad blurry but it's the only one that turned out of Elise.

Hangin' at the hotel...

On the road again...

Our next leg of the trip after Dad's was on to Madison, Wisconsin.  Eric was out there for his dad's surgery so we went to visit and see the town.  It really IS a cool town.  I am surprised that with all of the high school friends I had that went to the University of Wisconsin, I had never been there.  Our first stop was the zoo.  They have a free zoo there so we thought, why not?

Dad is measuring up against the primates arm length... even the smallest chimp has longer arms than he does.

This was fun watching the giraffes reaching for the branches with their creepy long tongues!

I think camels are the mangiest looking animals, not really sure why I am putting this photo in...

Lauren, the scary baby polar bear.

Elise the happy baby polar bear

This grizzly bear was so fun to watch.  He was hangin' out in the pool then just toodled around.  i love bears, they are so cool.

Check out the claws on this guy!

This was a play area for the kids and it was insane in there, Elise wouldn't even go in.  Of course Lauren did for a few minutes.