This is the biggest arena I have ever been haha its suite service was fantastic ! The food was…read moretypical stadium quality haha but they had lots of options and there was ac yay! Haha

I've been to quite a few B1G stadiums at this point in my post-college career and Camp Randall…read moredidn't seem to have a bad seat in the house, but the lack of food selection diversity was a drag. We waited over 30 minutes for a hot dog in a line with no more that 10 people in it, and the cashier was chit chatting while everyone missed almost an entire quarter of game-play (I'm assuming that's just midwestern culture, but I don't need to chat, I just want my food and then I want to get back to my seat to watch some football). We also jokingly deemed Camp Randall "Ramp Randall" because of the ramp system to get into the upper decks.

Inside, you feel the presence of something ancient and otherworldly. The interior design is…read morebeautiful, simple, yet functional and elegant. One of the most wonderful places I've ever set foot into.

This is a wonderfully preserved Temple. It's a treasure and a testament to the Jewish history of…read moreMadison.

I had been here many, many years ago for a tour so when friends were in town and suggested touring…read moreTaliesin I was all for it. We took the 2.5 hour Highlight tour which included the interiors of the main house, the studio, and the theater. I addition we toured the grounds by the shuttle bus that took us between sites. Our guide, Andy, was exceptional. This was one of the best tours I have ever taken, and we travel a lot! He covered history, architecture and juicy FLW details. The pace was just right and I learned quite a bit even though I have toured close to 20 FLW buildings. Worth every penny (and the gift shop is quite good too).

I planned my Frank Lloyd Wright trip to Wisconsin around visiting Taliesin and it was well worth my…read moretime. Taliesin was Wrights home for much of his life, including when he designed many of his most prominent designs. Taliesin is located in Spring Green, Wisconsin which was home to many of Wrights relatives and was where Wright spent many summers as a child. You get to understand why this location held such a strong draw for Wright. Located just across the river from Spring Green Wisconsin you check in for the tour at the Wright designed building overlooking the river that contains the gift shop and cafe. Even before getting to Taliesin itself you get to experience a wonderful Wright building that provides great views of the river, has the trademark horizontal features and a wonderful geometric ceiling. The gift shop is very nice and has a wide selection. I took the 4 hour Estate Tour which includes all of the major buildings in Taliesin. Our guide started with about 10 minutes of introduction in the gift shop. We then took a shuttle bus to the actual estate we started the tour at the house Wright designed for his sister, which was undergoing renovation; this house is fairly conventional on the outside, yet it has that Wright feel on the inside. Outside we saw the Romeo and Juliet Windmill, which has the story attached that his relatives in the area predicted it would ball over in the 1st substantial wind, yet it is still standing over 100 years after it was originally built. Next up on the tour was the Hillside Home Tour which was originally built for his aunts, but was later converted for the Taliesin Fellowship. We started in the Auditorium, which is unique, especially the way half of the audience is looking at the other members of the audience. The auditorium is still in use, including movies, concerts and lectures. Next up was the drafting room that the Fellowship used. The room is electric with a grid of beams and skylights. You can understand how the apprentices would be inspired by working in this space. We were also lucky enough to be one of the first tours to get to see the hallway and the bedrooms next to the drafting room that were used by the apprentices. We then got a nice break in the Hillside Home dining room with some wonderful light snacks. All of the dining room furniture is Wright designed and the light fixtures were not just Wright designed but then fabricated by the apprentices. A very nice way to actually experiene some of how life at Taliesin was for the apprentices. Back on the bus to take us to the Midway Barn, which provides an idea of how Taliesin was an actual working farm. Eventually some of the barn was used for housing apprentices. Wright designed the barn to emerge out of the hillside, reflecting his idea for organic architecture. We then moved on to the main buildings at the top of the hillside which were the Frank Lloyd Wright house, office and drafting room. This area has significant history both good and bad. This is where the murders and fires took place. Wright managed to rebuild and to make these spaces an amazing place to visit. We got a full tour of the house, the garden and even the kitchen building. It is amazing to see what Wright built for himself and his family. The Taliesin Estate tour is excellent, comprehensive, educational and lots of fun. Our guide was also excellent, not afraid to deal with all side of Frank Lloyd Wright, both the good and bad. He was great about explaining everything, pointing out detail and also separating facts from speculation; he even told us about having conversations with a Taliesin fellow who still lives on the property and is over 100 years old. If you are a Frank Lloyd Wright fan Taliesin is a must visit; I would strongly recommend the Full Estate Tour. I also found it helpful to have read several of the books on Wright and the events that have occurred at Taliesin. Even if you are not a Wright fan, this is an amazing tour and well worth visiting.

An excellent showcase of Frank Lloyd Wright's talent and abilities. While the school is not…read moreparticularly large, it is consistently interesting in its vision and style and therefore can give you a great deal to think about. His use of broken symmetry, contrast in elements, infusion of Asian art, and references to his family abounds here. Archetypal organic architecture indeed. Remarkably the school still functions as a school for architecture students summering from Taliesen West. The gallery showcases many of his great designs, and the theater is a lovely place to visit. Sadly the main curtain from said theater is not on site at the moment. It is currently on loan to the Guggenheim. But if you are in Manhattan, right now, you can see that! Go check out his work -- he was quite the genius.

super gorgeous and nice place to study. Definetly not the most quiet though, not always but…read moresometimes the librarians can be very loud which makes it hard to study if you don't want to use headphones.

The WHS is a beautiful and easy-to-navigate library where you can find old Wisconsin newspapers on…read moremicrofilm that aren't available on the web. The staff is friendly, the materials are very accessible and the equipment is easy to use. The building itself is gorgeous, with vaulted, stained glass ceilings and long, old fashioned wooden desks each with small green lamps. Here's how our visit played out... Growing up as a kid, it was always fun to hear my parents' stories from their childhood in La Crosse, WI. My dad has a couple that he really enjoys recounting: one story is about an epic high school football matchup between his school and my mom's (my dad's team won, which may explain his fondness for the story), and a second story is about a lone gunman who robbed a hotel where my dad worked, my dad subsequently chased into a parking lot, and he got shot at in the chase. You can tell that both of these items of family folklore may be tweeked with a bit of exagerration. My siblings and I always wondered, are my dad's memories completely accurate, or are they big fish stories? Yesterday I convinced my parents to join me on a trip to the Historical Society, where they have a vast collection of past Wisconsin newspapers on microfilm. Tucked away in a back room, you can look up La Crosse Tribune newspapers from the 1960s, organized by month in an old school card catalog or on a new school online database. The library has tons of microfilm machines that are available for open use. You retrieve the microfilm yourself from a shelving system, and you're free to start scanning it on a manual-roller or automatic-digital machine. We quickly found newspaper evidence confirming both of my dad's stories, and his reputation for veracity remains intact. He was very pleased with our findings (I think he may have started doubting his own memory). He also got swept up by all the big headlines on the newspapers' coverpages (Vietnam, Nixon, controversies over interstate construction). The library staff was very friendly and willing to help us along during our search process. The entire visit only took us about an hour, and that's pretty quick, demonstrating how organized they've got things. We tracked down exactly what we needed in a short time amidst an enormous volume of materials and with only a vagueidea of when it all had happened. We were able to make digital, emailed copies of the newspapers for free, and we made some paper printouts of the important pages for 25 cents/page. The Wisconsin Historical Society Library is an excellent resource for the state and a great place to check on family folklore. And here's an idea: You could make a scrapbook gift for a parent, comprised of newspaper clippings that confirm their favorite stories or show big events from their childhood.

After finishing my tour of Taliesin I decided to stop at the Unity Chapel to check it out. Located…read moreabout a mile from Taliesin I found a small building just off of the road, the building itself if nice if unremarkable. It is interesting that the Chapel has a direct view of Taliesin about a mile away. Unfortunately the building was closed so I was unable to see the inside which Wright had a hand in designing at the very start of his career. I did walk through the small cemetery at the side and back of the building which contains mainly the Lloyd family graves. Interestingly there is a marker for Frank Lloyd Wright even though his remains were disinterred in 1985 and taken to Taliesin West in Arizona. Also there is a marker for Mamah Cheney who was buried in the cemetery without a marker. If you are interested in Frank Lloyd Wright and have read about his life Unity Chapel and the cemetery is certainly worth a visit; it is the kind of place that starts and ends Wrights career.

Simple and quaint. The Lloyd Jones family chapelread more

After touring Taliesin and Unity Chapel I figured I would check out the nearby Wyoming Valley…read moreSchool that Frank Lloyd Wright designed. This school was designed and donated by Wright near the end of his life and was used as an elementary school until the early 1990s; it is now used as a cultural arts and community center. There is the opportunity to tour the school which you can book for $150 for up to 4 people; I did not have the extra money on this trip so I could only walk around the outside and look through the windows. The school is fairly small, but certainly is an attractive and interesting building. Even though built almost 70 years ago it looks modern with clean lines, no extra ornamentation and large windows all around. The building is relatively low to the ground especially on the sides and back which helps it to blend into the landscape. Looking in the windows you can see that the rooms are large, bright and have unique shapes being non-rectangular. The floors are the Wright preferred red color and he even provided a large hearth in the center of the building. Even without being able to go inside the building it was very interesting to visit the Wyoming Valley School and see how Frank Lloyd Wright designed a public school building; since this was near the end of his career and near to Taliesin it clearly was very personal to Wright and he did a great job. Well worth a visit if you are visiting Taliesin and they are only a couple of miles apart.

You've probably never heard this story before but here we go: On June 24, 1977, Elvis Presley (yes,…read morethe King), noticed a street fight in progress and while his limo was stopped at a red light, he jumped out and threatened the fighters with a classic karate stance. The young men recognized Elvis and stopped fighting in favor of shaking hands with the star. This plaque to commemorate the event is installed where the gas station once stood. It shows Elvis with a guitar and in a pseudo-karate stance and describes the incident: "On this site, the corner of Hwy 51 and East Washington Avenue around 1 am, on June 24th, 1977, Elvis Presley was riding in the 2nd of two limousines which had stopped for a red light. He was coming from a concert in Des Moines and had just arrived in Madison. Elvis noticed a young teen on the ground being beaten by two other youths here at the former Skyland Service Station. Elvis jumped out of his limo and moved quickly to the fight scene. They admitted later that they knew it was the legendary Elvis Presley who was standing in front of them in his classic karate stance saying "I'll take you on". After a few classic karate moves by Elvis, the youths recognized him, stood and shook hands, and promised to stop fighting. Elvis asked "Is everything settled now"? Elvis was on his way to the Sheraton and his last Madison appearance. He died 52 days later, on August 16th, 1977." There's not much here now and the gas station has long since closed, but you will find parking around the corner next to a quick oil change place. A few trinkets and memorials have been left with the plaque. Long Live the King! [Review 20681 overall - 251 in Wisconsin - 1662 of 2023.]

Poignant and a nice stop for us Elvis fans. The story is told on the other review. It's a small…read moreplaque but you can see where it is from the car if you know where to look. We just parked in a side street and mosied over. Elvis passed away 52 days after this stop.