Sonya's Blog - Day 33 - Touring Milwaukee
Sonya’s Blog - Day 33 - July 25th - Touring Milwaukee
We decided to hang around the campground in the morning because our tour did not start until 1:30 and leave around noon so we could grab some lunch before we started our tour. I took Kizmet on a long walk around the fish pond and into the surrounding woods and she loved it, as did I.
We took off just after noon and were making really good headway until we tried to exit for downtown. There was a ton of traffic because it turns out there is a ton going on in Milwaukee this weekend. There is a boat and airshow on the waterfront, a German festival at Summer Fest (which is basically grounds much like the Stampede Grounds, where they have festivals every weekend during the summer, culminating in Summer Fest at the end of summer - they host 200 bands at Summer Fest), a beer festival, a street festival and Slide the City - just a ton going on. The big draw was the Boat and Air Show. Luckily we were not trying to get to the waterfront, just to city hall which was just beyond the exit. We finally made it down and found parking right away for $3 for the day. Perfect! It was still a few blocks to city hall, but we didn’t want to try a parkade, so we settled for the walk. The traffic hold up made it tight for lunch, but we found a neat fresh food restaurant and got some great salads and wraps. We ate a bit and then had to pack up to make our tour, but the tour guide told us we could finish our lunches when we got on the bus. Cool!
We started our with walking a block or so. First we talked about City Hall, which was the tallest building in the USA when it was built sometime during the 1800’s. This record was quickly shattered by a building in New York. It was a beautiful building with a massive clock tower that contained a very heavy bell. The bell was made of parts from bells from all sorts of churches. Furthermore, the area was kind of swampy land because it is so close to Lake Michagan. They had to sink massive piles in the ground to support the structure. It must have worked because the building has only shifted about 3 inches since then, over 100 years. It was a cool building, unfortunately we couldn’t see the inside because it was Saturday and it was closed up. We then walked across the street and saw the Pabst Theatre, supposed to be amazing inside, but we couldn’t see that either. We then went around the corner where there is a bronze statue of The Fonz, lifesize. Henry Winkler, not a very tall man. We got our picture with him, Isaac is wearing a replica jacket:
This is all along the river walk, which is a trendy area of Milwaukee with lots of cafe’s and restaurants. It was a nice area.
We then got on the bus and headed down to Lake Michigan, which was crazy busy due to the air show. We had some good views of the fighter planes doing tricks. They had all sorts of military aircraft there and were ending the show the the Thunderbirds. We saw a whole bunch of massive houses, which were not so expensive to buy (considering their size - between 1 mil to 4 mil), but the property taxes were in the $45,000 range per year. Wow, and I bitch about my property taxes! We made it down to the Lighthouse and got out to check it out. While there we had a fabulous view of a plane doing tricks in the air. Lots of spiralling, diving and steep climbs. It was a bit crazy, but a good perfomance.
We then headed over ot the Art Museum, a very unique building that had wings on it which could spread out. They had wind senors on them so that if the wind picked up too much they would automatically close. When spread out they were larger wider than a Boeing 737’s. It was a neat building, we didn’t get to see much of it, but we got this great picture:
They were setting up to host a wedding reception, what a setting. There were a ton of weddings going on, along with everything else. We saw about 10 bridal parties while we were driving around.
We headed over to a cheese factory, which was in the Historic 3rd Ward. It was a really neat area and the cheese curds were fantastic and so squeaky! They were made yesterday, so they were going to be extra squeaky. The fresher your cheese curds, the squeakier they are - who knew. They also had Quart, a German cheese similar to ricotta, but a little smoother. It was super tasty on a wafer with a dab of Quart and Raspberry Jam. We bought some Quart, Cheese Curds and the Raspberry Jam - which was from a local business. We got back in the bus and started to head over to the Brewery. We drove through the 5th Ward, which is the foodie ward. The brewery we were touring was Lakefront Brewery. First we had a beer tasting, they had a maple rootbeer for the kids. When I got up to the counter and asked about the kids I was informed that in the State of Wisconsin my kids could have beer if they had parental consent! The guy said he wouldn’t recommend that, but that is the law. We opted for the rootbeers. They did not have any cider, but they had a gluten free beer that was similar to cider. It wasn’t so bad. The tour started and wow what a different tour than the Budweiser one! Budweiser was very professional and low key, while this tour guide was loud, obnoxious and very funny. He gave a little history of how beer was discovered in Mesopotamia and by women! He went on to describe the short history of the Lakefront Brewery and how it all started. We could not stay for the whole tour, unfortunately, because we were running out of time on our tour. Too bad:(
We headed back to City Hall and ended the tour:
We had bought tickets for the Harley Davidson Museum (they were from Milwaukee), but decided to do that tomorrow. Off we went back to the campground to rescue Kizmet, have supper and hang out for the night.
Kizmet was very happy to see us and to get a walk and attention. Isaac wanted to play mini-golf, but first we had supper, which Natasha prepared. She made tacos and they were yummy. Natasha decided she was going to do the dishes as well so that the rest of us could head off and play mini-golf, which she had no desire to play. It was an 18 hole course and it took a really long time and I did not play well. I won one hole, Isaac had a great game and was very proud of himself.
Blake ran to get Natasha and Isaac and I headed ot the ice cream parlour. The internet is a little spotty here again and we cannot get it at our campsite at all as we are too far away from the main gate. I tried it at the ice cream parlour, but it was so slow I couldn’t even load a page. Hopefully I will be able to on Sunday night after the campground clears out, which I am sure it going to happen. After, ice cream Blake and Isaac went to watch Yogi Bear cartoons on the outdoor screen and Natasha and I headed back to the RV. Kizmet was also watching cartoons, but she was happy to come walk with us instead.
Sonya