Family Fun in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Part 7: Madison

This is the seventh post about our family's visit to Minnesota and Wisconsin. I suggest that you begin by reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth posts before this one. Because I am a travel blogger, I received media rates, complimentary admission tickets, discounts, and other perks for some of the places we visited. Many attractions we toured are free to everyone. I paid full price for the others. How much I paid has no bearing on my reviews; every place I share is something that I absolutely recommend.

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Family Fun in Madison, Wisconsin 

Is it weird that one of my top priorities when planning our Minnesota and Wisconsin trip was visiting the National Mustard Museum? (Important fact: I don't like mustard.)

The answer is no. There is nothing weird about wanting to visit the National Mustard Museum because it is awesome. 

I knew it was going to be awesome and yet it still managed to exceed my expectations. 

The walls and cases are filled, appropriately, with jars of mustard. They are sorted by country of origin. 

An interesting movie about mustard plays on demand at the Mustard Piece Theatre.

There are fun displays throughout the museum to educate visitors about mustard, as well as plenty of mustard memorabilia.

It's a strange place, in the best possible way. I've never seen a mustard vending machine before. 

Upstairs, there's a mustard tasting bar and an extensive gift shop.  

Remember how I said I don't like mustard? Well, after tasting 20+ varieties, I learned that I DO like mustard when it is combined with sweet ingredients. I absolutely LOVED this raspberry mustard and this praline mustard (affiliate links). YUM. Turns out I'm a fan of root beer mustard, too. Steve and Trevor already knew they liked mustard, so they found plenty of new varieties to enjoy. 

Our next destination was Henry Vilas Zoo. This charming zoo is free to all. 

My favorite animals were the porcupines... 

... the capybaras...

... and the badgers. 

I don't think I've ever seen an American badger in a zoo before. I'm certain I've never seen them in the wild. So this might have been my first time ever seeing badgers. As Wisconsin's state animal, they had a prominent exhibit at the zoo. 

I also enjoyed this exhibit about record-breaking fish in Wisconsin. We learned that Trevor is slightly taller than the largest muskellunge recorded in Wisconsin. 

Lunch was at Ian's Pizza by the Slice. They are famous for their Mac n' Cheese pizza. That's what I had and it was amazing. Literally among the best pizzas I've ever had. 

Ian's has other pasta-topped pizzas as well, including Drunken Ravioli (Steve had that), Penne Alfredo, and Baked Penne. They have traditional pizzas, too. Trevor had a caprese-inspired pizza that was delicious. I would love to eat my way through the menu at Ian's!

Next up was the Wisconsin Historical Museum. 

Like most state history museums, there were exhibits covering the major events in their history, both before and after statehood.

Overall, I thought the museum was fine. Most exhibits were interesting and well-done, while others could use a refresh. I particularly enjoyed this exhibit about Native craft and clothing. 

  

The Wisconsin Historical Museum is conveniently located across the street from the Wisconsin State Capitol. 

  

Like in St. Paul, there was no security screening to enter the Capitol in Madison. It's hard to believe after having visited so many with airport-level security. I'm not complaining, of course. It's very nice to be able to just walk into the building. 

We found the Liberty Bell replica right away. Most are on the Capitol grounds; it's unusual to find them indoors. 

After having visited so many Capitols, you'd think there'd be a sense of 'been there, seen that' but each one is different from the rest. I am certain I have never seen badgers featured prominently, like they are in Wisconsin. 

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Don't miss the 6th floor museum and observation deck! They're only open in the summer. 

After a full day in Madison, it was time to hit the road. But first, we stopped at Culver's for cold drinks. Culver's started in Wisconsin and has expanded to 24 states, but it's not on the west coast yet. I can't vouch for the food, but the Lemon Ice Cooler was amazing. I had a sip of Steve's root beer float, made with Culver's signature root beer and vanilla frozen custard - superb. 

The drive to our next destination was only 78 miles, but it took about 2.5 hours due to the double-whammy of an accident and planned road construction. As we crawled along, I got the chance to photograph this sign:  

We don't have a "take turns" sign in California. But I didn't feel like the Wisconsin drivers were any better at taking turns than the California drivers, despite these signs being common on their freeways. I found myself yelling, "Like a zipper!" at the Wisconsites with terrible merging behavior, just like I do at home. 

We eventually made it to Milwaukee, the final city on our trip. I'll pick back up from here in tomorrow's post. 

Family Fun in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Part 6: Pepin, WI and Wabasha, MN

This is my sixth post about our family's visit to Minnesota and Wisconsin. I suggest reading the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth posts. Because I am a travel blogger, I was given media rates, discounts, complimentary admission tickets, and other perks for some of the places we visited. Many attractions we toured are free to everyone. I paid full price for the others. How much I paid has no bearing on my reviews, as everything I share is something that I absolutely recommend.

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Family Fun in Pepin, WI and Wabasha, MN 

From Red Wing, we continued our travels southeast along the Mississippi River, this time on the Wisconsin side. Our destination was the small town of Pepin. If that name sounds familiar to you, there's a good chance that's because you grew up with the Little House on the Prairie (afffiliate links) books. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in the Big Woods region of Wisconsin, seven miles north of Pepin. Her time there inspired her first book, Little House in the Big Woods. There is now a replica of that "little gray house made of logs," open to visitors. 

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum is in downtown Pepin. 

It is packed with artifacts related to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Entering the museum is like jumping back in time. 

Thank goodness for the many interpretative signs. I don't think I would have recognized that gizmo in the upper left as a toaster if it weren't labeled. 

Speaking of signs, something I really like about the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum is that many items are accompanied with a quotation from one of the books. It was neat to read Laura's words describing an item I was seeing in front of me. 

I'll definitely be rereading the books. It's been too long. 

We crossed back over the Mississippi to the Minnesota side. Our destination was Wabasha, home of the National Eagle Center. What a fantastic place! 

The center is beautifully done, with two floors of exhibits and a hands-on area for kids. There's a lot to see, but a good place to start is at the large floor map. It shows the locations of the many known eagle nests around Wabasha. We learned that eagles are loyal mating partners... sort of. They return to the same nest each year, where they meet up with their mate. So it's more accurate to say eagles are loyal to their nests, not necessarily to each other. 

Eagle nests are enormous. They start out pretty big, but they grow larger and larger as the eagles add sticks to them annually. The largest known nest was 10 feet in diameter and 20 feet tall! Lest you picture eagle chicks at the bottom of a 20-foot bowl, it's important to know that most of the 20 feet is filled in. Their nests accumulate a lot of gunk, which they cover each year before laying their eggs. 

There are approximately 60 eagle species found around the world. 

The United States is home to two species of eagles: the bald eagle and the golden eagle. 

  

There are eagles in 49 of our 50 states, Hawaii being the one without. The best place to find eagles is by water, making Alaska, Florida, and Minnesota the top states for spotting eagles. 

The National Eagle Center is full of interesting exhibits... 

... including an enormous collection of eagle-related items. Collector Preston Cook donated a staggering number of pieces that feature eagles. (Watch the video of him on his site.) It's hard to even summarize what's included in his 50+ year collection. Artwork of all kinds. Dinnerware and other functional crafts. Foods. Money. Stamps. Postcards. Games. 

In Cook's book detailing the items in the collection, our Eagle Scout found that award. 

While there's plenty to love at the National Eagle Center, there's no question that the best exhibit is the birds themselves. The Center has five resident birds, 4 bald eagles and a red-tailed hawk. These bird ambassadors cannot survive in the wild. 

  

In case it isn't obvious in the photos, there is no barrier between us and the birds, other than a waist-high rail to keep guests out of the eagles' area. I'm used to seeing raptors through fencing or plexiglass, but that's not the case here. The eagles are on a long tether when they're on display, but they're doing exactly what they'd be doing even if they weren't tethered. Eagles spend the vast majority of their time perching. 

The eagle ambassadors spend part of their time on display, but they also travel (in modified dog crates!) for educational presentations at schools or other locations. You can (and should) watch a live eagle presentation at the National Eagle Center. We learned so much!

The National Eagle Center sits on the bank of the Mississippi River. There's a gorgeous viewing area there. We learned that during the winter in particular, it's a great place to spot eagles in the wild. 

I could go on and on about the National Eagle Center. You should go. You will love it. 

We needed a quick lunch in the middle of our time visiting, so we popped over to The Olde Triangle Pub. The homestyle Irish food was delicious. Get the Irish stew! 

We reluctantly said goodbye to Wabasha. We had a 3.5 hours drive ahead of us, which turned out to be quite pleasant. We're used to 'golden' summers in California, so seeing all of the lush greenery along the sides of the roads doesn't get old.  

We arrived in Middleton, a suburb of the Madison, and had dinner at the outstanding Longtable. Everything was outstanding. 

Trevor and I had very light dinners in order to leave room to try both of Longtable's desserts. The one on the left was entirely new to us: a chocolate karpatka. It was SO good! The maple pecan bar was equally outstanding. 

We checked into our hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott Madison West / Middleton for the night. It was clean and comfortable and in a great location for the following day's first destination. I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.