An afternoon in Madison

I spent the afternoon of 9/17 in Madison, WI. It was nice, relaxing, and reminded me that I don't get out much!

The day started out pretty mellow, getting ready for my onsite trip to Meriter on 9/18. I had to sort out some medication refill issues so I requested 4 hours of personal time off. After getting the prescription sent/refilled, I took off to go check into the hotel. I knew I was staying at the Hilton on Monona Terrace, but sort of thought I'd wind up in a 2nd floor room looking at the street. What a pleasant surprise to find out that not only could I check in early, but the room was on the 8th floor and looked out over Monona Terrace and the lake! Glad I brought my camera. :) The view from the room was really nice. I went out walking around on the terrace and got a bunch more pictures. The air was warm and the sun felt good, so I sat out there for about an hour, enjoying the peace and quiet.

I wanted to go to Restaurant Magnus for dinner. Highly recommended by Heather! She's been there several times and loves the food. The restaurant was just 2 blocks from the hotel, so I walked over at dinnertime - only to find out they were booked for a banquet that evening and the only seating available was outdoors. I didn't really want to sit out there because their outdoor seating is right next to the sidewalk and street. So I walked back to the hotel and went into the restaurant there. It was very pricey! Thankfully I hadn't used any of my food budget for the day and was able to get the sesame-encrusted seared ahi. Very tasty!

After dinner I went outside and sat at the front entrance to the terrace and watched the sunset on the Capitol building. I've been to the Capitol building before, but somehow this seemed different that night. Maybe it was the sunset, or maybe the great food I had just eaten. Maybe it was because I was finally taking it easy for a few hours and doing something different. Maybe it was all of the above! Whatever the reason, it was a very nice night.

My visit to Meriter went well the next day. There are some updates and edits for the summary document, but basically now I am ready to begin setup of the new system. So I really really have a lot of work to do!

Here is a link to the gallery of pictures from the 9/17 day in Madison:

Madison, Wisconsin and Lake Monona

And now I have to get some work done... Enough fun and games with my pictures and blogs!

Bye...