A Great Visit with Christopher!!

Having a really good visit with Christopher here in cold country!!!  Cold my butt!! They are having record HOTs here!!  LOL!  I can't get away from the heat! But the days have been beautiful! I've really enjoyed my stay here with Chris & the Kolden's. They are a fantastic couple and I have really been blessed by gaining a friendship with them!

They have a long haired chihuahua named Jaxi (or Jaxy) that is almost the exact same size as Abbie...and it has been interesting watching them! Jaxi is the "queen bee" here, and she is tolerating Abbie in her domain!  There have only been a couple of flair ups...mostly quiet and actually some play time also! 

Chris has taken me around Madison and the Univ of Wisconsin campus...and the old homes here are just fantastic! They come in all shapes and sizes, colors and lack of color, and, the old outnumber the new by a long bit!

 There are many unique houses here, and many that are just flat gorgeous! I will have a post later that will just be pics of homes in the area, and business buildings...because they are worth the effort to show and also to preserve! There are several of the "corner lot" building downtown that I want to get some better pics of..you'll love them!

Chris took me to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens...and they are gorgeous! And basically free to the public! Awesome!

 There is also a Buddist Temple that was brought over from Thailand and reassembled in the garden! A complete temple...to include the gold overlay! It really is beautiful, but even with signs asking people to not touch...there are bare spots on the posts and even on the "walls". And it is in need of repairs/maintenance..but looks like the garden is not able to raise enough money to do it! Such a shame! It is well worth the investment in the future!!

 The gardens are just a beautiful work of art...really! They are very well kept up, there are several different "types" of gardens for the varied climates...and there is also a fairly large "greenhouse" that has the tropical forest plantings...and it is so well done! I really enjoyed our walk thru the gardens...I might still be recovering from it...but it was well worth the effort to see them! I might even have Chris take me back one more time before I leave!!

They also have what appears to be quite a few weddings in the gardens...a lovely spot for vows!!

    

Chris also took me for a drive through the UW Arboretum...it is a piece of land that will stay in it's "natural" state hopefully for a long, long time! There are a few homes still in the area, but they can't be enlarged or modified any longer, and once they are "empty"...they will stay empty, so it is like being in the middle of the wilderness while actually being almost in the middle of a city of 230,000 plus!! It is so cool...and as we were driving along, we came upon a gathering of wild turkey!! So neat!

I guess that is about all for now!  I need to transfer the rest of my pics to my Surface and then upload them to Pics so that I can do a better job of letting you see a bit more of Madison. 

I'll be here for a few more days, so I'm also going to try to get around for more pics when Chris has a couple of hours to spare! I've got pics of the State Capital from the other day when Chris took me to see it...it really is a gorgeous building. So I need to get all my pictures sorted out and folder-ed up...so I can find them when I need/want them!  Just all in one folder with one date is just not working any longer!!  LOL!

Stay tuned for more from the Trucking Frog!!

 🐸👍🚌⛺🐶🐱🍻  C'ya!!