Such a fun day at the Fall Harvest Festival. The coffee cart had delicious lattes and pumpkin chai…read more The Warm Belly ciders were fantastic...we liked the winter one the best. The fall margaritas looked amazing. We enjoyed the corn maze, live music, sunflowers, zinnias, large lawn games (like pool, archery, beer pong, bags, and high striker), apple cannon, and fun photo op spots. This trip was just adults, and there really was something for everyone to do. Other than the apple cannon and food/drinks or items in the store-everything we did was included in the price of admission which was really convenient and appreciated. The activities were easy to navigate, restrooms were clean, and there was plenty of seating throughout the farm. Everyone was super friendly, especially the people checking our tickets at the car and the person welcoming us and giving us our maps.

This was my second year going to the Fall Harvest Festival at Warm Belly Farms. Last year was so…read moremuch fun, we had to come back again! There are many fun activities for the kids: bounce pads, slides, duck races, obstacle course, candy cannon, apple cannon, and more! There was also live music and a bar for adults. The corn maze is huge and challenging with word and picture puzzles along the way! We completed it in 50 minutes. The workers were all kind and helpful. And I bought a huge mum for only $5! I plan to come back to this harvest festival every year!

Madison Mini-Marathon is what I wish the Madison Marathon was like…read more It's unfortunately run by a group in Indiana rather than a local organization or chamber of commerce, but it's hard to resist this race regardless. Their race course was so well planned out. It hits all the highlights of Madison and ends with a beer on the terrace. It's by far my favorite half marathon in the Madison neighborhood. The half marathon starts at the Memorial Union terrace, runs up Langdon past Frat Row, cuts over to the Capitol via Wisconsin Ave, gets you a nice view of the Farmer's Market in the summer before sending you down State Street. Southwest bike trail, Picnic point, Lakeshore Path, UW Arboretum, and ending back at the Memorial union are all highlights of this course. I really enjoy that the medal doubles as a bottle opener in true Wisconsin fashion. The course is relatively flat. The race is in August so there's always a danger of hot temperatures but it's been in the 60s at the start the last couple of years. Many things about this race reads like a love letter to Madison. Parking is not so easy. But I live in Madison so I sort of knew the ins and outs. Might be tough for out of towners. There's also a 5k event and I believe they also give out medals for that.

Awhile back, I signed up for the Madison Mini after getting in through being a BibRave Pro. It was…read morea plus for me, since I needed to add Wisconsin to my 50 state list, especially before I move out west. Getting to Madison: if you're flying in, you'll likely go through O'hare in Chicago and in up on a little puddle jumper on a quick 30 ish minute flight to Madison. Rental Car companies are right in the airport after you get out past security to get around Lodging: Main partner hotel was the Double Tree and it was about 1/3 mile from the start. I stayed a few miles away at the Sheraton, but it was a quick 10 minute drive to parking Parking: Madison is a college town so there are parking garages all over the place. I parked a little farther out (by the Double Tree), just so it would be easy to get out. About 4 hrs was $4 Expo: I can't' speak to the expo, as a fellow Pro picked up my bib for me since I got in late. Bonus points for making things easy as to having someone pick up your bib for you. If that's not an option, they do offer race day pick up for $25 when you register. If you didn't get to check out gear, they have gear at the finish off the terrace in the post race party. Race day: race starts at 7 AM. Corrals are pretty easy to get into and visible. Expect hills. There are flat parts to the course, but the last few miles had some hills that I wasn't ready for (I was undertrained to begin with). The course (from what I've been told) changed again this year, but I have nothing to compare it to. You go through the capitol, through UW Madison, Camp Randall, the UW arboretum. You get a good amount of scenery and cheering sections, though I wish more people would have come out since it was a nice day. It did get hot towards the end. In terms of aid stations, at the beginning they were spaced pretty far apart and then closer together for the back half (every mile or so). The last mile or 2 was through campus, how does it have hills in it?!? Not a lot of photographers at this race. I saw one around mile 12 and 1 at the finish Post race: Huge post race party on the Terrace and 1 free beer if that's your cup of tee. Banana, water, granola bar, Wisconsin Pop corn and chocolate milk through the chute as you finish. I wish they'd just bag it up and give it to runners so it's less to carry. Pretty decent bling too. If you due the Rock n Sole in Milwaukee the same year as Madison, you get extra bling! Overall: good race. Wish they'd cut the hills at the back half of the race. Hopefully they'll keep improving the course

It's an every year kind of thing and it's just as good as I remember from my childhood! Yay for…read moreholiday traditions

Our Thanksgiving night tradition, after all the turkey, football, food & fun. We all get in the car…read more& head to Olin Park to enjoy the free Holiday Fantasy in lights. The holiday music goes on along with the parking lights through the park. Many displays are the same favorites year to year, but there is usually at least one new display. Every year, the lights are set up a little differently but still a glowing wonder to see, which we love. This year, the glowing tree on top of the hill was a new display along with two drive-through colorful tunnels. Our family favorite is the glowing Capitol light display on front of the actual Capitol glistening on Lake Monona. At the end we give a small donation & in exchange for candy canes. Sometimes, if it's not busy, we drive through again. Happy Holidays

Well organized marathon and half this weekend!…read more Pros: The packet pickup was smooth and entertaining thanks to a bunch of booths set up in the Convention Center where we were picking them up. There was plenty of room to run, since "the administration" made sure we had a lot of lanes in the road coned-off at the start. There were boatloads of aide stations. Refreshments and post-run party atmosphere was great. Minor Cons: Wish the race had started closer to 8am instead of 7am. Would have appreciated poppin' bass music at the aide stations. $100 to sign up for the half marathan any time less than 43 days before race day.

Best ever fireworks! Didn't get a chance to do any of the other activities but heard that Drag…read moreQueen Bingo was a big hit with great prizes.

Great food and family fun! It would be a tragedy if this were the last festival. It is really…read moreour city's crown jewel.

Woo Hoo! My 600th review! And I'm pleased to present one of the most fun things I've done this…read moresummer so far. Dirty Girl is a ladies only obstacle mud run. 5K, 12 obstacles. A non-timed event and meant to be a fun run that you can take at your own pace. It was my first obstacle run and I loved that it was girls only--I ran with a team. I definitely think running this with at least one friend is the way to go. I've done regular 5K's by myself, but it's great having someone supporting you as you climb, crawl and slide. And who else is going to tell you that you still have mud on your face when you're still trying to clean up after the run? The obstacles were not hard physically. But once the day gets started the obstacles get muddier and more slippery. So the hardest one for me was the high cargo net climb, just because of my fear of falling onto hard gravel. Other than that, they were just fun climbs and crawls. Other than running, I trained for this by following my toddler through several playground equipment obstacles and I was just fine. Hahaha. This event was held at the Lake County Fairgrounds and although a few of us on our team tried to run as much as we could to challenge ourselves, some of the areas were not easy to run opon. The grassy areas were fine, but there was some gravel-twist-your-ankle-type areas. So walking was inevitable. They suggest arriving there 90 minutes before your start time. Check in was a breeze and we had a lot of down time before hand. But it was nice to get pics done in our clean team shirts before we got all messy. I loved my swag--t shirt and bracelet with a running girl charm. There was a secure bag check and a "shower area' for us afterward. I use shower loosely as it's just a bunch of hoses and cold water--but the tent is huge and although by the afternoon the ground is full of puddles, but I appreciated the astro turf they did lay down to prevent muddy puddles. Some of my observations: I don't know how full the heats get, but I'm glad we got there early because we got to start 20 min earlier than our team start time. Bring some water in a gallon jug and check it in with your bag. It was nice to have some clean water immediately after the race to clean my hands and wash my face since I was getting mud in my eyes. Don't wear anything you are worried about ruining. Even though we wore matching T-shirts, I knew they'd get muddy so we made sure the shirts were not too expensive. Budget some time for the after party. Paul Mitchell was one of the sponsors and they were fixing hair afterward. Have Fun!

I can honestly say that I didn't expect to have as much fun as I did. What a pleasant surprise it…read morewas! I didn't look up too much info beforehand because I didn't want to be spoiled. The website explained that it was a tablet directed quest game and would take about an hour. However, that's out of date. The time allotted for a single game was two hours. Be warned when setting the parking meter! Basically there are four "realms" that each offer quests. When you see a tablet, you can choose to interact with it and accept or deny a quest. You can accept the quest via your group's tablet by selecting the appropriate symbol. Then the wild goose chase begins. Clues send you all over the place to talk to characters and collect the virtual items. Up stairs, through secret passages, tunnels and more. Rarely did we encounter teams that were following the same quest at the same time we were so that was great. As crowded as it got in certain areas, we were all kind of doing our own thing. I believe there were around 16 quests that could be completed, all with varying levels of difficulty and length of time to complete. We made it through 4, and part way through another in our two hours. I was amazed by the level of detail that went into the planning and decoy of this game and all the rooms. It was more interactive than I had anticipated and also tiring! But what a fun afternoon. I'd love to go into more detail but I don't want to spoil anything. The price was fair for the experience and I highly recommend coming here. I am definitely planning another road trip back!

Not for the faint of heart…read more I have mixed feelings. We went around 11am on a rainy day during spring break. There was a line. It wasn't super long, but it was slow moving because they give each family their tablet and explain how things work. Waiting in a slow line is really hard for kids when they are super excited. I wish the people at the desk just sold tickets and that they had someone in the starting room explain the tablets to a group at a time to speed things up. Some people behind us in line bought tickets in advance online and were annoyed that they had to stand in the same ticket line as everyone else. Buying tickets online does not expedite things at all. There was no line when we left, so maybe late afternoon is a better arrival time. Overall, the design of the questing area is very cool. There is a lot to explore, and there are lots of fun details and secret passageways to explore. My kids are age 7 and 9 and really enjoyed it overall. As a parent, 2 hours was way too long for younger kids. It would have been perfect for teens and adults, but it is way too long for younger kids. We're pretty fit, and we were exhausted by the end because there is a lot of walking and going up and down the stairs. We were also carrying our kids coats and umbrellas as we didn't see the lockers until the end. Tip; Ditch any gear before questing. There are very few places to sit and take a break along the way. This would be a very poor choice attraction for anyone with mobility issues or anyone who can't handle a lot of walking. I wouldn't bring grandparents along on this adventure. We ended up taking a break in the snack area, and they paused our quest, so taking a break wouldn't count towards the 2 hours. I wish we didn't pause the quest because we ended up deciding we were done after 90 minutes of questing time, but 2 hours of being there, and our kids did not want to leave time on the clock. As a parent, this was a lot. My kids were SO excited to find things and explore, but I felt a bit stressed because there are lots of passageways and secret doors, and any time another family exposed some secret entrance, they immediately wanted to run through it. I had to be on high alert to avoid losing them to their impulses to go through any secret passages they stumbled upon. I read everything on their website, some online reviews, and watched videos about Wizard Quest, but I wish I had more info going into this about what to expect. We finished 3 quests. We would have to come back multiple times to complete everything. That would have been nice to know going into it to manage kid expectations. People in larger bodies might have a hard time navigating certain areas because some passages are quite narrow. There are 3 levels. We never made it to the fire area in the basement, and I feel like most of our time was in the earth area. Tip:choose quests that start in different realms to explore different areas. There was a lot of walking back and forth, going back to places we already explored. I wish there was an option to tap for a hint in the app instead of asking the staff. We went inside the tree so many times. When my kids had trouble finding what they needed to complete the task, we had to circle around, come down, and loop around to ask for a hint and then go back up again (and again and again). The staff is helpful, but having to go in circles to get a hint was frustrating for younger kids. They wanted to finish the task and move on to explore new areas. I also wish there was a back feature in the app. When little kids tap through quest details quickly, They miss important information. Both kids had a blast and said it was 4 stars and want to go back. I had fun, but I also feel like I would wait several years before considering a return trip.