Downtown Madison and Dane County Farmer’s Market {Wisconsin}

I’m about a month delayed in blog posts, here are some of our adventures from the week of August 9, 2015. For real time updates – follow us on Instagram!

After Northern Minnesota (Bemidji, Itasca State Park) we spent a couple nights in Duluth, Minnesota and then headed down into Wisconsin. We were on a bit of time crunch because we had another fresh water tank repair appointment scheduled in Grand Rapids, Michigan in just about week (more on fresh water tank here). So although we would have liked to stay in Wisconsin longer, we were only able to spend one night near Madison, Wisconsin.

We stayed at the nearby Madison KOA. We purposely got into town early so that we could get unhitched and head into downtown for the Dane County Farmer’s Market, the largest producer-only Farmer’s Market in the country. This means it only allows vendors to sell items they’ve produced themselves.

I love farmer’s markets and the setting for this one was beautiful, wrapping all around the Madison capitol building in downtown Madison. We bought lots of veggies – fresh basil, carrots, zucchini, corn on the cob – there was so much to choose from and it all looked delicious.

Being late afternoon we were all ready for lunch and picked a convenient spot near the market, Ian’s Pizza. We couldn’t believe all the types of pizza – macaroni and cheese pizza, curry pizza, steak nacho pizza – it was kinda crazy! We got a couple slices of pizza and a big salad and it hit the spot. Definitely a great lunch spot!

Then we took a tour through the Madison Capitol building. Not only is it air conditioned (awesome on a hot August day), but it’s absolutely breathtaking! The artwork and the structures inside the capitol building are worth a look. They have a free guided tour.

We had discussed going to the children’s museum downtown, but we were tired and a thunderstorm was headed through town, so we headed back to the campground. I wish we had more time to explore downtown – someday we hope to go back through.

Later that night I walked to the cheese store, Ehlenbach’s Cheese, right next to the KOA campground. You can’t miss the signs or the giant mouse on top of the building or the gigantic cow in the parking lot. 🙂 Since Wisconsin is known for it’s cheese, and since it’s probably one of my favorite foods, I figured I better check it out.

Ehlenbach’s Cheese isn’t messing around. I knew it had to be good when, as I was walking over to it, I saw a continuous stream of people going in and coming out with shopping bags. Most all of the cars had local license plates – that’s a good sign. They have EVERY kind of cheese you could imagine and more. They had fresh cheese curds, summer sausage and lots of other local Wisconsin products.

They also have all sorts of cheese hats and accessories. Ha! I passed on these (where would I put a huge cheese head in the Airstream?). . . . but if you’re a Packer’s fan, this would be a great place to get your game gear. 🙂 With some major self control, I bought some Wisconsin summer sausage, havarti/horseradish cheese and fresh mozzarella.

Outside the store they had this great map – showing the distance to various places in the world – 1998 miles from Seattle! We’ve come so far and seen so much. 🙂

I know this post doesn’t do Wisconsin justice – there is so much that we didn’t see! I hope we can circle back at a later time and spend some quality time exploring Wisconsin. But we really did enjoy the time we had near Madison.

What are your favorite things to do or see in Madison, Wisconsin?