- Private key-access floors
- Complimentary continental breakfast, top-shelf cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and desserts in the Governor’s Club Lounge
- Complimentary wireless Internet access
- 42” flat screen TV
- Compact refrigerator
- Granite top furniture
- Spacious bathroom with a glass walk-in shower
- Comfort Collection™ bedding and bath towels
- Terrycloth robes
- Complimentary in-room bottled water during turndown
- LodgeNet Digital Interactive TV system offering hit movies, DIRECTV® Sports, digital music, games and more
- Turndown service
Here's a picture of the room,
ours wasn't facing the Capital, it was facing Lake Mendota which was nice too.
So after we jumped up and down on the bed we commenced to "the square" for the Farmer's Market! OK we didn't really jump on the bed, but we could of we were so flabbergasted at our good fortune!
The farmer's market was wonderful. We walked around to check out the prices and see all what the vendor's had to offer. I bought some fingerling potatoes and some purple carrots!!! I've seen them on TasteSpotting and now I have some of my own! Bought some jerky for my brother for his b-day that's coming up. He's a persnickety one, but I've never seen him past on homemade jerky! Oh I also bought a handful of "cosmo" flowers, a handful for $3!!!!!! I gave them to the wonderful women at the front desk of the hotel that helped us, she was also the one that picked our name for "quest of the day". The price's at the farmer's market were really good compared to the one's in Barrington, I was surprised though, that most of the vegetable vendors were asian.
Next we walked around State Street. Popped into Pop Deluxe and bought some cool gifts. Bought some cool paper and more gifts at a scrapbook store. Bought a sweater for $36 at one of those hippie type shops, I know it won't last long but it will be fun to wear until it starts to fall apart. The DH was so nice acting like a "girlfriend" as I ooh'd and aah'd at everything, and just shopping with me in general. It could of been that he was just grateful to step out of the wind, because it was coming off the lake with a good clip! But he told me he was having fun looking at all the unique things too, and I believe him!!!
We when back to the hotel around 4:00. Took a short snooze before dressing for dinner. Ok DH snoozed, my mind was whirling with all the fun we had! And we'd only been there 5 hours!!!
We used our special "gold" card to go upstairs to the "Governor's Club" for FREE cocktails! We each had 2 cosmopolitans, they were small, plus we were walking to the restaurant. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Dinner was at "Restaurat Muramoto". We were a little confused how to order at first, then we realized it was like a japanese tapa's restaurant. The first thing we had was kobe tartar with a raw quail egg. Wow, now I see what my dad means when he told me that fresh eggs taste so much better that the ones you buy at the store. It was one of the favorite things we had there.
"My" second favorite thing was fried sweetbreads with apple puree and apple chips. This may not seem like a big deal to you, unless you know what a "sweetbread" is.
It's the pancreas of a pig or lamb under one years old. That died of natural causes. OK I don't know that for sure, I don't know if it was lamb or pig either. I do know if you ate it without anyone telling you, you would say thank you may I have another, cause it is delicious! It tasted like really tender italian sausage. Really, tender "expensive" italian sausage, which is why I tried it as a small plate, that and because I wasn't sure I'd like it. I was also surprised I ate the fish eggs that were peppered around the rolls that we ordered. OK, OK "caviar"! All I know is the first time I ever saw "caviar" was when my dad would gut the coho salmon he caught. If you would of told me then that someday I would eat it and like it, well I probably would of stomped on your foot and called you a snaggle toothed liar, and now I'd have to join facebook so I could find you and apologize.
On the walk back to our hotel the Capital building was lite up like a christmas tree, unfortunately the batteries died on my phone so no picture. (It looked just like it does in the first photo of the room, so click on that to enlarge it.) It's OK though cause on the way to the restaurant I got in this shot for JW.
Tesla Roadster! An electric car, the car of JW's dreams. It is a beauty, and as you can see they have beautiful men in Madison too!
Day Two tomorrow!
