Wisconsin is Awesome (in case you didn't know)

Tenney Park

People complain about the cold. A lot. I am not necessarily exempt from that, but dude, winter sports are awesome. Thanks to one of my classmates, I am now cross country skiing and skating with some adeptness (and by "some adeptness," I mean like an absolute goober - a goober who's having a blast). We've been skiing quite a bit, thanks to some pretty decent snow. Two weeks ago we had a thaw that ruined the snow, so once things refroze, we went skating at Tenney Park.

The person teaching me everything

Now Madison is wonderful for a number of reasons: the sheer number of microbreweries, one of the highest bike store per capitas out there, the friendliness, the university ice cream, and definitely the parks. You can rent skis/skates/etc everywhere, and while I own cross country skis now (and am working on skates), the ubiquitous-gear-rental-at-parks makes it so easy to get outside. That and the peer pressure from others in my program :)

Going uphill with another novice. In pink pants. Yes, I own pink pants.

Pictures are still slow in coming. Sorry, but I'm having way too much fun outside to stop for pictures. It's a good problem to have. You can imagine Elver Park and the Arboretum (my xc-ski favorites in town) as being slightly rolling toward the edges, with a pretty equal distribution of woods and fields. The woods tend to be more awesome, if ya ask me. The wind doesn't cut through quite as badly, and everything's a bit more quiet/secluded (as might be expected). Tenney Park is the one place I've been skating. I'm pretty sure the water comes from Lake Mendota, and when we went last weekend, we caught the sun setting over Madtown - complete with all those nice pinky-oranges and purples. It seemed like everybody and their brother was out on the ice. There was a large group of hockey people and another large group that was just meandering across the ice, under the bridges, and as far as they could get before reaching a barrier. Gotta say, skating outside is a lot more fun, a lot more challenging, and a lot easier to pick up than skating in zamboni-groomed rinks. The last part may be a function of the hockey and figure skating expertise of the folks I was with.

Not falling. Didn't fall the entire time. Hope to keep that up.

This weekend we're hitting the hockey classic (played on our flooded and frozen football field), Elver park for some skiing, and of course, catching the superbowl. While things have been pretty perfect up here, I think last weekend really cemented the home-ness of Wisconsin. The ecohouse is a tough group to beat, but I've reached the point where my friends up here sustain me. Bring it, snow.

Wahoooo!!