Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Troll capital of the world (and Madison)

Mica and Harrison were kind enough to invite us along on their Spring Break getaway to Madison. So, we set off on Sunday morning and soon arrived at the Edgewater hotel, which is the self-proclaimed hotel of choice among "visiting celebrities to Madison." Alas, we didn't see any celebrities, perhaps because it's the off-season.

We explored downtown and the campus area and then enjoyed dinner at The Old-Fashioned, where we had amazing cheese curds, and I had the mac and cheese. Then, because we hadn't had enough dairy, we enjoyed some delicious Madison ice cream from Chocolate Shoppe.

Me and Darby

Harrison and Mica. They're way cooler than us.


Mica and me at dinner. On a whim, I got my hair cut short again.

Saturday, we had breakfast at Magnolia, then wandered around downtown in the rain before deciding to drive to the Cave of the Mounds, the "premier cave of the upper Midwest." I'm not sure how many caves it's competing against, but it was pretty cool. Mica dazzled us all by correctly answering all of the guide's questions.

Me and Darby under the stalactite "chandelier." It was pretty cold in there.

While there, we saw advertisements for the Wisconsin "Trollway" and were too curious to pass it up. So, we drove a little ways to Mount Horeb, which was the cutest little town. It has a large Scandinavian population, and there are tons of cute shops and restaurants. Plus, there are like 15 troll statues scattered across town. We never found the elusive "bonus troll," although I'm sure we made some bank employees' day when we wandered into the lobby in search of the troll. I've decided that, if we can't live in Texas, I'd like to live in Mount Horeb, where I would spend all day eating cheese curds and ice cream and visiting all of the trolls.

One of the many trolls. It looks a little creepy, but we were assured that they are friendly trolls.

It was a great getaway and made my Spring Break not completely boring. I always feel a little nervous before going on a trip with other people, but it worked out marvelously. We all love to eat, and we've now discovered a shared passion for spotting troll statues. Who knew? Perhaps the most amazing thing about this trip was that I didn't plan it! Mica and Harrison made our hotel reservations, drove us there, navigated the city, etc. We were just along for the ride, and I loved it.

2 comments:

Mica said...

Yay!! Thanks so much for coming along with us! We had a great time, and I'm so happy to have found traveling buddies!

Hopefully, we can do another fun trip in the fall!

Kalyn Gensic said...

My husband is a cheese curd fanatic. Your sort of becoming a Midwesterner.