Phil, Grace and Edward

If you see Phil, Grace and Edward and they appear to be walking around a foot off the ground, don’t be alarmed. They are on Cloud 9 after a visit to the Capitol last week.

Phil and Grace are in Janesville for two weeks. They will return to their home in Beijing, China. Their son, Edward, will stay in Janesville to attend Craig High School as a junior.

And why are they on Cloud 9?

During their State Capitol tour; Phil, Grace and Edward were invited to meet with Gov. Scott Walker in his Capitol office.  Why is this a huge deal? We need to take every opportunity we can to highlight our initiatives and successes that we have. Meeting the Governor is yet another way to let him know what great things are happening in Janesville. This allows him to use Janesville in his speeches as he tours the state informing people about the great things are happening in our schools.

“We are so excited,” Phil said after the meeting. “I can’t tell you how honored we are to have met with the highest public official in Wisconsin.”

The meeting was a case of luck and the old axiom “You’ll never know unless you ask.”

While touring the Governor’s Conference Room, the receptionist was asked if the governor was in the Capitol. One thing led to another and Walker’s Executive Assistant, Dorothy Moore, said the governor was between meetings and would like to meet the Beijing visitors.

The rest is history.

Phil, Grace and Edward were also able to meet with Sen. Tim Cullen and Rep. Deb Kolste.

The same day as their Capitol tour; Phil, Grace and Edward visited the Madison Club and the historic Wilson Street State Office Building, the state’s oldest office building.

After lunch at Paisan’s in a booth with a Lake Monona view, the tour continued to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. While at the historic Union; Phil, Grace and Edward sampled Wisconsin’s finest ice cream – Babcock Hall ice cream from made on campus with milk from the school’s happier cows. By the way, Grace prefers Blue Moon.

Ice cream was followed by a tour of Bascom Hill from the Science Building at the bottom to Bascom Hall at the top and a look at the famous “sifting and winnowing” plaque.

Phil summed up the day with the following statement:

“It was really a big day for us. We feel greatly honored meeting Governor Walker, Senator Cullen and Representative Kolste. We are so lucky to have our pictures taken with them.”