Town #31 Madison

Monday, October 13, 2008
Ashley's Ice Cream * Sculpture Mile *
R. J. Julia's

The long Columbus Day weekend was sunny and the autumn leaves were lovely. Last week, my friend Amy and I had gone to Madison to visit a closing yarn shop and R. J. Julia’s, so I thought Bob and I would enjoy a closer look. We got there about noon and started with a coffee-and-Oreo ice cream come from Ashley’s. Mmmm. We stopped in a gift shop in the courtyard there and I bought some notepaper; I couldn't resist the strawberry theme.

Then we walked around the whole town center looking for the sculptures in the Sculpture Mile. The 2007 guide to the sculptures we had said there were 44 different pieces, but we only found 36, and we weren’t sure of some of them. Then we found a new guide for 2008 and I think we saw all there were. Some were in front of businesses, on the library wall, in people’s yards, front and back, and in parking lots. They were made of various materials: aluminum, steel, wood, plastic, etc. Some were fascinating, some were funny, and some didn’t touch us at all.

Then we went to R. J. Julia’s Bookstore. It is a very large, well known and well respected independent bookstore with many author events. We browsed and bought two books, one for us and another for a Christmas gift. Then we were really ready for lunch and we ate at the bookstore's R. J. Café. Bob had the fresh mozzarella-and-tomato panini sandwich and I had a chicken-salad-and-mango-chutney on ciabatta sandwich, both delicious. ($6 ice cream cones, $9 note paper, $36 books, $25.75 lunch). (Jan)