Wingra Loop, Vilas Zoo

So while I was looking up the Blues Brothers quote for the last entry I ended up at Google maps looking at the sattelite photo for Calumet City, IL. After that, I headed home to Madison, and at full zoom worked my way around Lake Wingra. I got a lot of use out of that loop when I lived in Madison from 1999-2000. It's where I started running routinely. It eventually led me to run a marathon and was my first 10K loop, and the first I ran with a significant other runner. Looking at the map now I realize what a great area of town this was. I had lived in the area before I was 26 years of age, and it was a completely different period of my life. I was 5, and that is as far back as I can remember. What I remember about the Wingra loop when I was 5 is close to what I remember about it now--you can only drive completely through the Arboreteum on Sundays. All other days the gates are closed and you would have to turn around. My family would drive through it some Sundays. For me it seemed like we were going through a tunnel. We would start out in one part of town and get immersed in this thick, green otherworld and exit in a different part of town. I always loved this ride and that's probably why I still remember it today. I'm so glad I also have the experience of running that same enjoyable route twenty years later. Every year I go back to Wisconsin now I try to run through it. I'm not always able to, but this year I was. I also try to get to the (free!) zoo which is adjacent to it. I'm sure my parents brought me there plenty, but I do remember that it wasn't enough for me when I was 5. I do understand now that going every day would've been excessive, but that's what I wanted back then. Now that I realize that we lived a mere mile away from it, I find it even harder to "forgive" them and I will always be trying to get there to make up for the days I missed!