What a great little city. You can get anywhere within 15 to 20 minutes. We stayed downtown which…read morewas a perfect location. The Capital Building located in the middle of downtown. Tons of restaurants and shopping in the area. Was lucky enough to enjoy the day the farmers market around the Capital. I did visit in June for a wedding which apparently is the best time of year. Perfect weather on this trip.

Beautiful City of Madison, Wisconsin. Great downtown with lovely restaurants and beautiful lake…read more You can see all the great characters in one place.

Oh how I wish we had some place like this is Chicago! The Wil-Mar community center and the folks…read morewho attend the classes there are so warm and welcoming! I am a healthcare traveler in Madison for an assignment, for 3 months, so I went to an event here last week to try and meet folks. The Thursday night Ecstatic Dance gathering, from 7:30-9:00 PM was exactly what I was looking for and it was wonderful! There were about 40 of us dancing in this beautiful open space with a lovely clean wooden floor, awesome sound system, STAGE, and clean spacious bathrooms. It was only a suggested donation of $5 per person to attend and parking across the street was FREE! I will definitely come back every Thursday while I am working in Madison and I highly recommend this weekly event! Just bring a water bottle and $5 and a desire to dance and get to know folks in this beautiful community. Thank you, Wil-Mar, for offering this event!

When planning a surprise birthday party with more than 100 guest, finding a local, flexible and…read moreaffordable location in Madison can be hard. I stopped looking when I found the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center. The center is an old church, the former sanctuary is the main room. It has a stage, small but very functional kitchen, lots of open space with wood floors, windows and a wide variety of lighting options. There is a projection screen on the back wall of the stage. Other amenities include low and high tables, chairs, coolers, table cloths and a very nice PA system that was super-easy to use. If you hire a DJ, he/she can simply plug into their system, no hauling amps and speakers! There are two other rooms on the main floor, mostly meeting rooms with living-room type furniture. There is a lift to all floors making the building accessible. There is parking across the street, and street parking as well. This is handy, as the center is located in a mostly residential neighborhood The staff I worked with were friendly, accommodating and easy to work with. A few days before the event I put down my key deposit and was given, basically, keys to the whole place. THAT was handy! But one of the very best things is the center allows party planners to bring in outside food with no extra fees or charges. This makes the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center a very affordable option to have a party or event. A few things that would make this 5-star: - a built-in projector - 25 more chairs - reminder photos or floor plans of how the furniture should be put back at the end

Just Go (#42) We…read moredrove through Wisconsin from Chicago to Minnesota, making a few stops along the way. One of the things we like to do is stop and take a photo of the Welcome sign... this one took us on a little loop where we can stop safely and not on the side of the freeway. One of the most photographed and visited signs is this one just past the border with Illinois along I-94 right before hitting Pleasant Prairie/Kenosha. As we entered from Rockford just at the Beloit Travel Center there it is... the "Welcome to Wisconsin" sign. It is worth mentioning because they are pretty and not just a metal road sign. It is a wooden welcome sign in the shape of the state. We stopped at the first food place we saw... Culver's in Pleasant Prairie and ordered their Butterburger with a side of Cheese Curds. First time having both... we don't have a Culver's in California. We enjoyed their yummy burger and we liked the Cheese Curds too! When I think of Wisconsin I think of cheese and I think of this parody song by Eurythmics: "Sweet dreams are made of cheese Who am I to dis a Brie... " We drove to Downtown Milwaukee and across the impressive building of the Pabst Theater, along the Milwaukee River there he stood the larger-than-life -- Bronze Fonz... ahhh! These Days Are Ours... Happy Days. Who remembers? Finally, before leaving Wisconsin we made a "shortstop" (okay, bad pun) at the American Family Field at the Brewers Team Store. At the time of our visit the team was in Miami playing the Marlins in Game 2 of their three-game series so we were able to walk inside without the masses. In front were a couple of their MVP's, Hank Aaron and Robin "The Kid" Yount, and also Bob Uecker, Brewers icon & Baseball Hall of Famer... It was a quick visit but we're not done with Wisconsin yet and we will be back next year. Thank you, Great State of Wisconsin. As The Fonz would say... "Ayyyy" Review #3845

I spent time in Wisconsin for work, working at the Oshkosh Air Show in Oshkosh for a week! I'm a…read morehuge cheese fan so of course, I loved Wisconsin! Thank goodness work was in a giant tent (among numerous giant tents) with our booth having a free standing air conditioning unit because it was hot the summer we worked the Air Show! The air show is typically held the last week in July and is attended by over 600,000 people! Yeah, it's a huge event! Famous folks attend the air show including John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, and numerous astronauts. Everyone I encountered was really nice in Wisconsin! It was fun to see the Green Bay Packard merchandise and the Cheesehead merchandise in the convenience stores! And the Wisconsin topography was peaceful and lovely! Thanks Wisconsin for the kind hospitality!

Excellent space for community groups to meet; at least twice the size of their former location…read moredowntown. So many resources available, and I can't wait to see what plans they have for the new location!

This is a hiddem gem in the Madison area. It's a bit off the beaten path in Verona but worth the…read moretrip. Zero depth entry, salt water, solar heated pool. It doesn't get any better than this. I wear contacts and usually I take them out because my eyes become irritated from the chlorine. Not here though! I can keep my eyes open (without googles) and there are no issues. They take a break for 15 minutes on the hour for 18 and over swim. Otherwise, kids reign free in the pool for 45 minutes. There's a shallow end with some kid features and a deep end. Kids will need to pass a test from the lifeguards in order to swim on their own in the deep end (it's marked off). When you're taking a break, enjoy a freezie pop for 25 cents or a choco taco from the concessions area. If you're looking to cool off on a hot summer day, look no further!

Summer fun. Jennifer Gray move over! This pool was like an…read moreOasis on a hot day. All the other local pools were closing for the summer and they were still open through labor day. Still close to Madison and surrounding areas, it is open to the public and a short drive. Decent changing rooms, large parking lot and then we get to the actual pool. Nice layout of the adult pool connecting with the kids pool. Tons of lounging chairs, picnic tables at actual pool area. Large deep end area and lap pool permanently roped off. Pool was extremely clean, tidy and staff was great. This felt a little old fashioned, in a fun way. Surrounded my big mature trees, rolling hills of Verona, it was a breath of fresh air! The picnic and playground area just north of the pool has a huge wooden playground set in the shape of an ark. There's Zebras, Lions and giraffes in pairs to accompany the ark. Who doesn't love a zebra to climb on? Huge field to play in and more picnic tables. FUN! We will be there next summer, two by two!

If you live in the Town of Dunn, you have been to the Dunn Town Hall. This is where you vote, pay…read moreyour taxes, get building permits, check your assessment and get information on land use policies. The staff has always been helpful and pleasant to deal with.

Madison is indeed fortunate to benefit from so talented a team as current City Clerk, Maribeth…read moreWitzel-Behl supervises. Maribeth really "gets" what her office needs to be all about, and that is very much providing the right kind and quantity and quality of customer service to the citizens of the City of Madison, as well as meeting the needs of government. While many people seem to think that the clerk is just about the management of elections, they do a WHOLE lot more than that. Perhaps most importantly, at least from my personal perspective, is the incredibly important role they play in arranging/scheduling the many dozens of public meetings held in the city by government committees, commissions, and boards, each month. These meetings must be properly and legally posted where the public can know what's happening, when, and where. Agendas must be prepared in advance and publicly posted. That is coordinated between the Clerk and the particular city department which manages the meeting of the committee in question. Those responsible for running the meetings must be familiar with state and local law, and how to properly conduct business, with an eye to being responsible to the public. I've served on Madison's Housing Committee, chaired the Commission on People with Disabilities, chaired the Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award Committee, and been member and officer of the Equal Opportunities Commission and its Executive Committee. All of these citizen committees depend upon the clerk's office to get us into spaces where we can meet and be open to the public. I have also been an Election Officer for the city for more than 30 years, so I've interacted with the clerk's office on an intimate level for a long time. As I indicate above, we're lucky to have such a good group of people working under the supervision of such a great clerk. Kudos, Maribeth! As of this writing, 9 Nov 2016, you can get the current official voter registration as a fillable pdf at this URL: http://elections.wi.gov/sites/default/files/gab_forms/4/el_131_voter_registration_app_fillable_rev_2016__16117.pdf

I had no idea what I was doing, but the staff got me in and out within 10 minutes. They also…read morecorrectly pronounced my last name. A++ would try again.

My beautiful son Jaydon loved this place! Can't wait to go here again and see all the amazing…read morewonders of the world for a second time! Truly is an extravagant experience.