Our Day in Madison

We chose to spend this past Saturday poking around the little town of Madison, Indiana, which as I told you earlier, is a very quaint and adorable little town. Lots of amazing old homes with more character than I can possibly explain, lots of really cute little shops, and a ton of history!

One really nice thing to know (if you decide to visit there) is they have a bunch of public parking lots, and they're all free! That's really nice if you're not into parallel parking (me! me!) and if paying for parking isn't part of your budget. We parked in the morning when we arrived and didn't pick our car up until the end of the day!

We started at a little coffee shop. They have three of them downtown, and we visited all three before the weekend was over. :) The first one we visited actually saw us twice that day. It was called The Red Roaster Coffee and Eatery, although Ryan alternated between calling it the Red Rooster and Kenny Rogers' Roasters all weekend. REALLY good coffee there. (We never had food. Just coffee.) Also a special shout out for the clean bathroom, because let's face it: when you're spending a day in town, you need to know where the clean bathrooms are!

In the morning, we just grabbed our coffee and left, but in the afternoon, we actually sat for a while in the comfy chairs, used the free WiFi, and took a break. Lots of college students in there studying, so it was nice and quiet!

When we left the coffee shop, we started our day by walking the entire riverwalk. It is really nice. It's all bricked and paved and gives a great view of the Ohio River. (It rained on us while we were out, so we paused to check out an antique mall until the rain passed, but then we resumed our walk and finished the whole thing!)

 You have to look closely to see it...it looked like a noose to us!

Awkward!!!!

 Ryan was flipping through an old National Geographic when the guy a few booths over let a string of super colorful words fly in his phone conversation. Always interesting while hunting for treasures.

The antique mall was three stories tall. Books? Okay! I'll climb!

 Three cheers for HUMIDITY. (Read: watch Bekah's hair grow.)

When on vacation, you dig out quarters for ridiculously short amounts of viewing time.

Found a pretty fountain!

We paused for lunch at a 50s style diner called Hinkle's Sandwich Shop. I'd read good things about it, so we wanted to try! It wasn't my healthiest meal of vacation, but it was TASTY! They had slider burgers, so at least my sandwich was small! :) Good fries, and my favorite: a little chocolate peanut butter milkshake that was 100% worth every single calorie. It's hard to find a good milkshake, and this was good. Ryan even got one, and he's not a huge milkshake lover like I am. His was chocolate mint, and he said it was delicious! Super friendly people in this shop, and super busy. It wasn't very big, and we actually got the last table when we walked in. We never saw an empty table for more than about 30 seconds the whole time we were there.

Oh, and yes. The hair was in a pony by lunch. SO HUGE!

We resumed our shopping and touring after lunch, and of course, had one more stop at the Roosters. I mean Roasters. :)

Ryan found a sword. No, we did not buy it.

 Back at the fountain!

 Yeah, this reminds me a lot of our yard too. I mean....

The yards all through town were spectacular, but I felt like a creeper taking too many pictures. :(

BEAUTIFUL courthouse.

 And a bell!!! (I used to collect bells, so it felt appropriate to get a picture with this one.

After this, we went on our big adventure for the day, but I'll tell you about it tomorrow! :)