Monona's Sylvan Shores

I took a walk this morning to see if I could find out who was playing their stereo loud enough to wake me at six-thirty. I ended up on the shore of Lake Monona at Frostwoods Park, where the sun was just beginning to shine down on this idyllic early-morning scene. This is what they pay the big bucks to wake up to.

All the noise, by the way, was coming from the Monona Terrace, where the Iron Man was getting underway. From the opposite shore of the lake I could just make out a couple thousand people teeming across the terrace. The near-calm on the lake must have been perfect for carrying the sound all the way to Monona, five miles away, where I could clearly hear the announcer and the background music.