Rather than post as a trip report (because it really wasn't) I'll just sum things up here.
Left the house at 3:50pm yesterday and my head didn't hit the pillow until 1:16 this morning, so I got less than 4 hours of sleep before the alarm went off. I'm fried and might even forego tonight's 9pm episode of "Emergency!" to knock off early.
Traffic was lousy. No, JRP, we weren't in the accident and it had been cleared away by the time we passed Hwy 100, but it still snarled things a lot. We made it on time though. Apparently a number of kids from our area went and Kathy did suggest the limo idea, but it didn't fly. I wish it had. $25 to park in a surface lot (the ramp was apparently "permit only") and I'll bet it took 45 minutes for us to get out to the streets (which were jammed all over) after the show. Fortunately I still remember some of the driving "skills" I learned in my 4-1/2 years in the Chicago area and it helped us finally get to I-43, and once we reached it the drive home was smooth, fast, and uneventful.
The Jonas Brothers have a bus you can write on, but only with a Sharpie. If I'd had one people would've been trying to figure out "WTF is wrong with Madison?" meant.
No food pictures as I opted to leave the camera at home so I'd have 1 less thing to deal with/worry about. In hindsight it would've been fine to bring it along, though.
Dinner at Turner was a bit of disappointment but extenuating circumstances may apply. When we got there around 6-ish it was
packed with concertgoers and we had a 15-minute wait for a table, but at least we wound up in a corner by a window that faced the Bradley Center. That at least made for some interesting people-watching, especially later when one of the local "characters" tried to engage a few limo drivers in animated conversation.
We started with 3 potato pancakes for an appetizer. They had just a hint of onion but that's OK because I don't like them too oniony and I had to add salt to mine, but that's better than having them come to the table already too salty. Unfortunately they were just a touch undercooked IMO as I would've like them a little more crisp. Kathy did like the cinnamon applesauce that comes on the side.
I ordered the chicken schnitzel and it came with spaetzle and a vegetable medley that was 40% acceptable (yes to broccoli and asparagus, no to carrots, zucchini, and squash). Everything was pretty much OK but there was a pool of oil on the plate; however, since I have pretty much no knowledge of German food I don't know if this was normal or not. The chicken was pretty good and I liked the breading, but everything was...well, oily. At least the spaetzle soaked up some of it, and the mustard sauce served on the side was very good and helped provide some balance.
Kathy chose the fish fry and didn't particularly care for it. I asked her how it was and she used the term "rubbery" which applied more to the batter than the fish inside, which wasn't too bad. She also felt it was a bit greasy but it didn't seem to bad too me. Nothing special about the fries served on the side. She swiped a good portion of my mustard to use in place of the tartar sauce. The marble rye was fresh and chewy with a nice sprinkling of salt on the top. Her dessert was vanilla ice cream and decaf, which was fine.
By 7pm the dining room was nearly deserted and in hindsight we should've waited until 6:30-6:45 or so before eating. Granted, Turner has a great location and that undoubtedly helps when there's a BC event, but hopefully what we experienced last night was greatly affected by the hectic situation and not typical. Truthfully, I'd like to visit again when things are calmer and less rushed to see if it's better. We saw a lot of fish being served and I wonder if maybe Kathy's order wasn't fresh from the fryer but rather from a held batch. At least service didn't suffer; our waitress (who reminded me of a younger version of the actress Melinda McGraw) was very pleasant and did a good job.
After dinner we walked around outside a bit before returning to the Turner bar, where $5.50 bought a generous pour of Maker's Mark that I nursed for 2 hours. Well, either that or it was $7.50 and the glass of cola was free. By 9pm or so there were maybe a dozen patrons at the bar and at least 8 of us were parents waiting out the concert.
Just before 10 people started trickling out of the BC show and we heard more than 1 parent say that they were leaving in order to get a jump on traffic. Smart. And then the show ended, the door opened, and a horde of screaming teenage girls flooded into the streets. A black SUV with tinted windows came out of the special parking area and the place went into utter chaos; obviously the belief was that the "JoBros" were inside. I can only begin to imagine what Beatlemania must've been like!
I was hoping that the teenagers would be wiped out and rather quiet for the trip home, but no such luck. I should've found some way to slip them some Benadryl.
Brad
PS Al, I don't think it was me that mentioned Asian food in Madison...