Madison / Austin / Durham

Over the past two weeks I've traveled to Madison, WI, Austin, TX, and Durham (as well as Raleigh), NC visiting prospective graduate government affairs programs. There are appealing aspects to each of these cities and I enjoyed all of my visits. A smattering of observations and photographs from these places are compiled below.

Madison, Wisconsin
The defining feature of this city on an isthmus is water. It's an ever present characteristic of the downtown cityscape. Another is the stately capitol building which looms large on a hill in the middle of the narrow strip of land and resembles the federal one in Washington, DC. The most beautiful spot on the University of Wisconsin's campus is a terrace with colorful metal chairs on the banks of Lake Mendota. Monona Terrace, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed convention center, boasts equally stunning views of Lake Monona on the other side of the isthmus. I left Madison by way of the Dane County Regional Airport, a boxy, glassy structure inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's signature prairie style of architecture.

Austin, Texas
I flew to Austin by way of Atlanta, where I arrived on my inbound trip at dusk. Since there are already a few posts on this blog about Texas's capital city from my January road trip I won't restate my general impressions of Austin. I will note, however, how much I appreciated the high-eighties April weather. On this visit, I went on my first full tour of the University of Texas's campus, which included a stop at the lawn overlooked by the iconic UT bell tower, the site of a tragic 1966 incident.

Durham and Raleigh, North Carolina
The last destination of interest was Durham, home to Duke University. I spent the past Thursday evening through Saturday morning there, then ventured to Raleigh on Saturday afternoon. Durham wasn't for me. There are nice parts, namely, the intimate downtown which includes streets lined with local restaurants and American Tobacco, an assortment of bars, apartments, studios, and tech start-ups in what were once the storage and processing warehouses of Lucky Strike and other southern cigarette manufacturers. There are also some not so nice parts of Durham. At one point, while driving through one of the less nice areas, I saw someone literally run at top speed across Interstate 85.

I had mixed feelings about Duke University. On one hand, the campus is beautiful and home to the spectacular Sarah Duke Gardens. On the other, it's widely spaced out and didn't have a cohesive feel. I decided to visit Raleigh on Saturday afternoon after determining it wasn't likely that I'd soon be back in this part of the country. Raleigh is a pleasant enough city full of blooming flowers and American history. In addition to walking up and down a few of the city's major downtown streets, I stopped by the state capitol. I found it rather unimpressive. It's in a squat, three-story building with barely a bump of a dome. In the center of the capitol (in which the state legislature doesn't even meet any longer--they convene in modern facilities two-blocks away) is a strange statue of George Washington done up like a Roman Caesar. Outside the modest edifice sits a sculpture heralding the three American presidents to hail from North Carolina: James Polk, Andrew Jackson, and Andrew Johnson. As I walked back to where my car was parked, I saw an odd construction project--what looked to be the creation of the world.