A Cheap, and Final, Day in Our State’s Capital

Earlier in this rather lengthy description of our 2008 vacation to Madison, Wisconsin, and the countryside to the southwest, I slammed the famous House on the Rock for being too big and too commercial and just too too. Here’s an alternative location for you to visit at a much cheaper price. Ella’s Deli on East Washington Avenue. It has animated bears and clowns, a miniature train running all around the ceiling, the Beatles, the Green Bay Packers, and its own 1927 carousel that you can ride on. Oh, and the food? It is ok, a little expensive for what shows up on your plate, but you have to remember that there is a show going on all around you.

After lunch our last day in Madison that year, we trekked over to the Henry Vilas Zoo. This would be totally free, except that everyone needs to buy a t-shirt or something to drink or something to feed the barnyard animals. It is a small zoo, on only about 28 acres, but it has the usual critters – orangutans, polar bears, giraffes, etc. It is a nice family-friendly place to visit, great if you have kids and not too bad if you are just an old married couple like my husband and me.

And last but not least, with our country’s Independence Day celebration looming on the horizon, I have to bring up the Capitol building in Madison. It is so cool. Three feet shorter than the United States Capitol building in Washington. I still can’t believe that, even after 9/11 when security tightened, they still let just about anyone wander around. It is, after all, a building of the people, for the people and by the people, just like our great country.

Pictures from inside the Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin