Saturday’s plan was to meet the older grandkids at the Madison Saturday Market, held on Capitol Square downtown. They live downtown, so that was convenient.

However, the torrential rain early morning was not convenient.  Nevertheless, we made our way downtown with CJ in tow,  parked at the Terrace,, and walked through the drizzle to Starbucks. Fortunately, the rain let up long enough to tour the market.  Lots of fresh vegetables, cheeses, baked goods, and meats, even though the vendors had to set up in the rain.  Ashley had a shopping list, which took one circuit to fill, and CJ talked us into some spicy cheese bread, apparently his favorite…

We had time to spare before lunch, and it started to lightly rain again, so Ashley suggested we tour the Capitol.  There weren’t many tourists inside yet, with the market in full sway outside, so we wandered from the base of the rotunda up many flights of stairs, peering into the locked Supreme Court and Assembly halls through the iron gates, and looking down from the galleries at each level, finally reaching as high as visitors are allowed, the outside observation deck at the base of the dome.

We had a spectacular and windy view of downtown and lakes Mendota and Monona.  We really enjoyed the tour,  and took in the small Capitol restoration and history museum just below the observation deck before winding back down all those flights of stairs to the street level.  We departed just as the market vendors were packing up and the rain returned, so the press of Capitol visitors were starting to gather on the lower levels.

The downtown restaurants were also crowded, so we split up, Travis and Ashley to fetch Travis’s car, and we to fetch ours from the parking garage, and headed east to an Olive Garden Restaurant, where the rest were already seated and waiting for us.  After lunch, we headed back west, for an afternoon and evening of movie-watching at Matt’s.    Sunday promises to be sunny weather again, so we might be back on the trails with the whole family, this time.