Memorial Union and The Terrace is nothing like you've ever encountered on a college campus. And it has the magical ability to turn regular Americans into Europeans. It has to be the largest outdoor cafe anywhere in the midwest, and situated right on a lake. On any given day from spring through autumn, you will find crowds of students, students with their parents, dogs, kids, locals and tourists enjoying draft beer and brats, and other offerings on this splendid terrace. You can sit by the water and feed the ducks, swim off a dock, or hike for miles into an adjacent wooded area called picnic point. There's biking and boating right there, too. The Union is more like a day resort than just a college union.
Indoors, you have the very European Rathskeller, or self-service beer hall. Get a mug or a pitcher. And right next door is a very mod pizza kitchen with a choose-your-own topping bar staffed with friendly, outgoing coeds. There is also a theater and concert venue. an arts studio where you can make pottery and paint to your heart's content-and all of these open to the general public. The outdoor activities group called "The Hoofers" make their home here as well. They will be busy with their sailboats as you walk past their facility.
My favorite thing is a good late morning hike from the Union into Picnic point, and then a leisurely pitcher and brat on the lakefront, pretending I'm on the Champs Elysees. As good as it gets, yes. And uniquely Madison.