Watching Eagles Dive for Food in the Wisconsin River and other activities with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
There
were many activities for families to do in Madison (Wisconsin) that you could
find out about in the community pages of the local newspapers. Other communities might like to build and look
for similar activities in their communities. Some more of the fun places that we went to in
Madison included:
The
Children’s Museum
Viewing
Diving Eagles in Praire du Sac (Wisconsin)
Saturday
Kid’s Day Out
Madison Children’s
Museum
My
little family discovered the Madison Children’s Museum with its great dairy
exhibit during a New Year’s celebration in downtown Madison.
One
of the downtown banks was a sponsor of this event. On our way to the warm bank’s interior, we
met a clown on stilts, who fascinated Florence.
We ate German gingerbread cookies, drank warm cider, and picked up
pamphlets on financial products before venturing outside.
We
went to see the Capital’s Rotunda and walked around in circles looking up. I showed Florence her great-great
grandfather’s name that is engraved around the dome as one of the soldiers who
fought in the Civil War and survived.
We
picked up pamphlets on financial products from the bank on the way out as the
East High School Choir sang The Twelve Days of Christmas.
Then,
we set out for the Children’s Museum.
They were offering free hayrides outside, but it was cold; our blood had
not thickened up for a Wisconsin winter yet.
The
first exhibit room we visited at the Children’s Museum was about the ecology of
lakes called “Leap into Lakes.” Florence
loved playing with a pinball-like machine that demonstrated what watershed was.
Then,
she played inside a model fish and looked upside down at a turtle in a tabletop
pond.
We
continued on to what I called the Romping Room where Florence ran up and down
ramps and under bridges. She was quite
happy there.
We
went upstairs where they had exhibits dedicated to the dairy industry. This was Wisconsin after all.
Florence
loved the life-sized models of the cows.
I think she spent two hours pretending to clean them with a brush. She liked the automatic milking machine, too.
Next
to the cows were a model cheese factory and a child-sized soda parlor that
children could play in. Florence served
my husband and me meals made of rubber cheese sandwiches and ice cream
sandwiches.
We
bought family memberships to the Children’s Museum and went there at least once
a month. I had Florence work with art
supplies after we visited the Children’s Museum and decorate her bedroom with
the artwork.
Viewing Diving Eagles
in Praire du Sac (Wisconsin)
We
went to Sauk City and Prairie du Sac with Florence to see the bald eagles by
Dam Heights Road outside Praire du Sac.
We all liked watching the seagulls and eagles swoop down amidst the
fishermen to nab fish.
My
husband and Florence walked down to the riverbank where Florence threw some
dead fish into the river for the eagles to swoop down at, catch, and eat.
We
went to a restaurant with a view on the Wisconsin River, where Florence’s hands
were thoroughly washed. We had grilled
chicken sandwiches for lunch.
While
we were eating, I told Florence that eagles are the “symbol of the United
States.” I mentioned that fish were
below eagles in the River’s food ladder.
Kids’ Day Out
The
local newspapers’ community sections in Madison were full of free or
inexpensive activities for families to do.
One
Saturday morning, my husband took Florence to our neighborhood park where they
practiced kicking a soccer ball around.
(The US has a great women’s soccer team.)
When
they came home, we set out to see Wayne the Wizard’s Spooky Halloween
show. I was laughing very hard as Wayne
kept running around with test tubes that smelled like farts.
Florence
finally said, “You’re embarrassing me!” which made me laugh even more.
“Who
plans this zany stuff?” I asked myself.
After
the show, we drove around the Sherwood Neighborhood to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Unitarian Church.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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