But this year I ventured downtown to a quiet camera shop on the square where I was the first customer of the day, and the only customer for awhile. I bought a new zoom lens for my camera, the lens was on sale.

And then I walked out into a record-breakingly gorgeous late fall morning and snapped a few photos.

The Badger W is flying high, perhaps in honor of the Badger football team’s (so far) unbeaten season.

The observation deck at the capitol puts you at eye level with a lot of flags.

And my new zoom lens brings Bascom Hill a lot closer to the capitol.

The Capital Square is quiet on Black Friday but Starbucks always is busy.

On my way down, I got a nice view of inside the dome as well.

A close-up of Old Abe, the Civil War eagle, in the Assembly chambers. This is a facsimile Old Abe, I think the real stuffed eagle was lost when the capitol burned in 1904.

Also ducked into the Governor’s Conference Room. I used to cover a lot of news conferences here.

The room is filled with history: a bust of the first territorial governor, Henry Dodge, in front of a painting of the territorial capitol in Belmont.

Another moment in history. This mural is: “The Landing of the First White Man, Jean Nicolet, in the State, then a French Territory, in 1634”

Outside the governor’s office, a fierce badger, which once adorned the U.S.S. Wisconsin battleship.

Wisconsin’s capitol is a beautiful building.

It was a beautiful day, a good day to just sit on a bench and talk with a friend.

I also stopped to look at the new St. Paul’s Catholic Center on the UW campus, right next to the Pres House and an unusual architectural style.

And across the mall, another visit to the new University of Wisconsin Alumni Park. I think the UW did a really great job of finally filling up the site of the former UW YMCA, which had been a parking lot for so many years.

Alumni Park heralds the accomplishments of some pretty amazing University of Wisconsin alumni, such as John Bardeen, inventor of the transistor.

It includes some great quotes from alumni in various fields. My field, of course, was media and journalism and I like what A.C. Nielsen said.

The University of Wisconsin motto, in Latin, can be translated “God is our light.” It goes back to the University founders.

On the shore of Lake Mendota, Bucky Badger contemplates. The statue’s name is, “Well Red.”

The Bucky Badger statue, “Well Red,” is adjacent to the Red Gym.

A little way down the lakeshore is my former dorm residence, Adams Hall.

One final memory: I used to walk to class on this path, the one branching off to the left. In student days the green lawn on the right was a brushy thicket. It looks much better today.