Wisconsin, America's Dairyland: A Photo Dump

This week little Will and I got to accompany husband Will on a recruiting trip to Wisconsin. Basically, the USAF paid for gas and the hotels, so why not take the opportunity for a little family time? We loaded up the car Monday afternoon and headed north. Neither of us really knew anything about Wisconsin going into it, so color us surprised that we ended up having a really great time. Wisconsin is a pretty cool place that we definitely wouldn't have made the effort to visit otherwise. The following is a photo dump documenting our trip, so scroll and skim as you wish.

Madison

We arrived in Madison Monday night, and after checking into our hotel, we headed downtown to a local spot called Graze. 

And experienced cheese curds for the first time. Heaven.

While little Will HATES (I mean . . . HATES) the carseat, he otherwise does really well with all other aspects of travel. Here he is fresh and fancy-free after a great night's sleep in the hotel. 

Will had to speak at the UW ROTC detachment Tuesday morning and then conduct informational interviews at the law school all afternoon, so little Will and I headed to the zoo. 

I dressed little Will up in his monkey outfit and took pictures of him with the gorilla.

I should really be stopped. 

But I won't. Never.

Mr. Gorilla gave us the cold shoulder, which is fine because . . .

We were walking away from the lion's den, just the two of us, when we heard loud roaring. I thought it was fake. Maybe it was a recording indicating they were about to feed the lion or something, I don't know, but I decided to turn around and walk back. Lo and behold . . .

It was the real life lion all like, Hey get back here. 

Staring at us so intently, she was literally fogging up the glass.

This was definitely one of those amazing memories I'll have where I experienced something cool just because I was with my kid. I mean, there's no way I would have been at a friggin' zoo if I wasn't with little Will. And he won't even remember it. But I got to hang out with a lion, just because I was hanging out with my baby. Priceless memories, people. I also met up with some Internet friends from this forum, so I should probably also be thanking Mary Clare and Heather, because they're the ones to suggest a zoo visit.

After the zoo and lunch, we were kind of just killing time. I walked and walked and walked all around campus. (The zoo is right next to the campus, so we walked everywhere. Including up this GIANT hill that overlooks the water. Yeah, a lake. I didn't know there was a lake in Madison, WI either.) Will and I hung out in the law school lobby for a bit while we waited so he could crawl around, you know, without eating dirt or grass or cigarette butts. I just kept thinking to myself how very different my life is since was the last time I set foot in a law school. Over here lugging around 20 pounds of books rather than 20 pounds of baby. 

The campus Mall is right outside the law school. Thus, a UW selfie:

"Go badgas."

Little Will even picked me this lush bouquet. Ever the thoughtful son.

He later tried to eat it. 

When Will was finally finished with interviews, we headed out to dinner at the Ale Asylum Brewery (obsessed with their Belgian Style Ale called "Kink") and then set our sights toward Milwaukee.

Man in uniform carrying a chunky baby. A very attractive combo, if I may say so myself.

Milwaukee

Just your typical classy drive-by stadium pic:

Will again had informational interviews at the Marquette campus. And, once again, little Will and I had lots of time to kill. Luckily, there are plenty of places to get your Catholic nerd on at Marquette. We started at the Church of the Gesu. We couldn't get into the upper church, but judging by the lower church, I'm sure it's amazing. We hit up confession, my first one with little Will strapped to me, who started waking up just as soon as I kneeled. Quite possibly the quickest confession I've ever had. I then tried my hardest to get into the upper church, but found that every door was locked, and I just went to confession, so I wasn't trying to do some breaking and entering. Maybe next time . . . before confession.

We went to Starbucks for a PSL because white girls in the Fall cannot be stopped.

There were obviously a couple Marquette selfie fails:

And then we ran into Blessed Mother Teresa while we waited for the St. Joan of Arc Chapel to open. I was like Mother Teresa, I am also mother Theresa. Pleased to meet you.

She didn't think my joke was funny.

Then we made it inside the St. Joan of Arc Chapel. It's a medieval chapel that was transported from France by way of Long Island and reconstructed on campus.

Then there were more cute baby on campus in the Fall pics to be taken. What can I say?

We ended our Milwaukee visit in Bayview (I think what the area is called---I just follow wherever Yelp! takes me) at a little restaurant called Cafe Lulu, where, naturally, we tried more local beer!

This one's for Tess. 

After dinner, I got a milkshake at a little ice cream shop across the street and had the best whipped cream I've ever tasted. I'll never be able to enjoy any other kind of whipped cream ever again.

Then we drove the 6 hours back home.

The end.