Madison Summer

I'm continuing to have a rather amazing summer break. Super glad I get to keep having these for my professional life as a teacher! Rock on, summer vacation. I wrote before that I've had a lot of visitors- my grandpa, my dad, and my high school besties all visited me for a couple days in Madison, which means great company for all the staple Madison going-ons: lots of art museums, capitol tours, and terrace beers.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has three amazing amazing galleries right now. Their exhibits are American Photography Since 1950, Paintings by Leslie Smith III, and Los Grandes Del Arte Moderno Mexicano. It always kind of shocks me when people haven't been to MMoCA or the Chazen so let me take a quick second to say: Madisonians, these are free museums! Go to that gorgeous glass triangle building on State Street and spend an hour. The museum store is beautiful as well and I bought an amazing blown glass sphere of the expanding universe for my uncle's birthday from there. 

My favorite piece of the current MMoCA exhibit of Leslie Smith III paintings.

There's a political group on Madison abbreviated as A.L.E.C. and there's always really foul side walk chalk about them. I think it's funny (sorry, Alec). 

A Badger under the Badger overlooking the Wisconsin Supreme Court ;]

The state of my dry erase board post-Toledo visitors 

My family tries to go on one big vacation each summer and forgoes traveling during winter and spring breaks. I've got another blog post brewing just about my time in Tennessee and North Carolina (where I am currently!). I took the Van Galder bus to Chicago as always, but then my cousins Bobbie and Michael picked me up in Chicago to drive me to Toledo. The timing was so perfect- they were on their way to Manhattan to visit their son and grandkids on the same day I was heading through Ohio as well. In exciting family news, my cousin Ben is working on the new Michael J. Fox sitcom and the new Billy Crystal show. His sister, my cousin Julie, is working for the Food Network, and her husband Todd is the head writer for a 120-episode series based on the new movie Turbo. I wish them all the success! 

Bobbie and Michael are from Skokie and brought the most delicious sandwiches from their favorite local deli. Tuna and pastrami and turkey and corned beef. It was the easiest Madison -> Toledo travel day I've ever had and really fun to catch up with some Chicago family. We had my favorite Lebanese restaurant for dinner and it was also super delish. 

"In this family, we only travel with the best sandwiches."