text: The Terrace is simply the heart and soul of the UW campus and Madison itself I have got to throw in my five stars too There is nothing more relaxing that sitting by the lake splitting a pitcher of fine beer with your friends Seeing a band you love play the Terrace is an experience unto itself The beer the pretzels the popcorn the Babcock ice cream I could go on and on The best graduation present I received was a lifetime membership to the Union from my parents It has been consistently used ever sincennI was around when they switched from the big paper cups to the pitchers and I have been on both sides of the longrunning argument on that issue Of course I loved getting a giant cup and trying to drink it all before it got warm which usually led to a bit of trouble if you upped the octane with a stronger beer Now with pitchers it is a bit more convenient if you are splitting with your friends but I almost always forget to take it back for the deposit And that there is basically the only gripe that I can even think of with the Union There is something about the place that just makes you a nicer personnnLast night I went there for a friends birthday and it was a typical perfect Terrace experience We got a pitcher of Two Hearted and ambled around for a bit scanning the crowd I said hello to a couple of old acquaintances from bygone classes people I had not seen in five years or more Another friends cousin happened to be there playing euchre on the side tables We then moved down and sat on the grass in front of the stage as the band started up Some of us went for ice cream cones I went for a pitcher of Hoppalicious We ended the night sitting on steps near the lake watching the sun set and the little kids tossing pebbles in the lake The bugs were not bad at all but a few sprinkles led us to call it a night around On the way out I ran into a coworkers sister and waxed rhapsodic about the Badger football games we all had been to over the last decade I cannot think of a better time to be had