The Start of Our 2020 Road Trip

It's been a tough year. Tough for pretty much everyone with the pandemic, the social unrest, and everything associated with all of that. I'm not going to say that our challenges are worse than anybody else's. But we've had challenges.

We're looking for a bit of a respite and wanted to get away. With the pandemic, we thought it was best to not fly and instead stay somewhat closer to home. And so our summer vacation this year will be a midwestern road trip up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan all the way up to Lake Superior and then back down the other side of Lake Michigan.

As expected, Kai is somewhat anxious about the trip, particularly about venturing out as the Covid rates are going back up again. We're not taking his concerns lightly. We'll be careful to try to maintain social distance and to wash hands and use sanitizers as needed. And hopefully by traveling to one of the most remote areas of the Midwest, we'll be able to stay safe.

Our first destination was Madison, Wisconsin where we wanted to see my nephew and his wife. We met Ian and Susan on the UW-Madison campus at the statue of Abe Lincoln.

Some are calling for the removal of this campus icon.

We walked from the campus to the Capitol building downtown. Most of the shops on State Street were still boarded up from the riots of late May.

Many were painted with the messages of the protests.

It was like walking through a living art history museum.

At the end of State Street is Wisconsin's capitol building.

It was a steamy day in Madison, reminiscent of our summer trips to Japan. We took a break from the heat and found a spot where we could eat Wisconsin brats and cheese curds in a nice shady spot outdoors (where we prefer to eat if possible).

And after that found a place with great locally-made ice cream.

We took a break back at our hotel and then met up with Ian and Susan again for dinner. We hadn't gotten together with them since before the pandemic so it was great to see them again.

Now it is time to move on. Curious to see how the rest of our vacation will go.