Eatable Madison

I grew up in Wisconsin, the land of closed vowels and stretched words (as in, ooooh, suuuure, which you hear frequently there, as everyone is naturally accomodating). It's curious to turn a stranger's eye upon the place where I grew up; I find myself asking silent questions like was that always there? And I'm starting to see other sides of Madison, like the meant-for-tourists side, and the legal-drinking-age side, and the this-town-is-actually-pretty-cool side, all of which were hidden to me during my earlier years.

If you're expecting to see a fair amount of cheese in these pictures, I'll tell you now that you may be disappointed. Maybe it's because I still have some shrink-wrapped Wisconsin havarti in my fridge, or maybe it's because the last time I was in Madison I ate gooey fried cheese curds, beer and cheese soup, and a grilled cheese sandwich in one sitting. Whatever the reason for my temporary cheese avoidance, you can rest assured that it won't last long (I am from Wisconsin, after all).

But this time, the dairy came in the form of ice cream. The biggest cone is mine, surprise, surprise.

But there were vegetables, too! Including my mom's own recipe for pumpkin latte (hey, pumpkin is a vegetable!), served in a patriotic cup for the fourth of July.

Madison is home to the largest farmer's market in the country, up around the capitol square. The vegetables are fresh, and colorful, and there is bumbleberry pie (which, if you don't know, is a mix of blackberries, blueberries, red raspberries, and strawberries, all in one pie)!

And after a stroll at the farmer's market, we ate our fresh-picked strawberries by the lakefront.

And then we come to the reason that I was in Wisconsin in the first place, which involved a lovely grey bridesmaid's dress (that, embarrassingly, had to be let out an inch! I think it was all that ice cream.), and four lovely co-bridesmaids, and one exceedingly lovely bride. And on the eatable side of things, one entirely vegan and entirely delicious bridal luncheon.

If I saw the city with stranger's eyes, I saw with those eyes even more markedly at the wedding of my dear friend. How marvelous! How grown-up! And how strange it is to stand up beside someone who, I could have sworn, just last week was in high school with me, talking about boys and laughing at our history teacher. Returning to Madison made me think on my past, but her wonderful wedding brought thoughts of the future—a happy one, with good luck, hard work, and hundreds of blessings. 

 Best wishes, dear friends.