East...to Milwaukee

This past weekend Andy and I went to Milwaukee for an early anniversary celebration. It was supposed to be a surprise, but a benefit for a friend was scheduled for this past weekend. Andy was all gung-ho to help out at the benefit (which was planned after I made our reservations and got our tickets) so I had to tell him we were going and that he couldn't help out. That's what I get for planning a surprise, I guess.

We set off Friday afternoon from Andy's work. It is a long drive, considering we were going from the NW corner of the state to the SE corner--350 miles. We saw some beautiful scenery in southern WI...

And got excited when we were only 100 miles from Milwaukee...

Notice anything different with my hair? I got it cut and highlighted on Friday and didn't tell Andy. Once it was all said and done, I took off about 7". It took him about 50 miles to notice it.

Once we got into Milwaukee, we checked into our motel and got settled in. We were on the top floor of our building, floor 12. It's an old, historic building that was cool, but the elevator rides were a little scary. We survived. Here's the view out of our window, looking south. There was a Native American Festival in town, so there's a pic of the fireworks from our window, too.

Saturday morning we headed to Lake Michigan. We passed by this building that was being restored and Andy, being my carpenter husband, had to have a picture of all the scaffolding covering the building. It was cool in a scary kind of way.


At the end of the road, we literally couldn't drive any further without running into Lake Michigan. This is the entrance to the Milwaukee Art Museum (or something like that) It sits right on the lake. We walked around it and next to the lake for awhile. We were a little disappointed that we never found a place where we could actually get to the lake. All we had was a cement pier to walk along with the lake about 10' below us. See the lighthouse in the second picture? We tried everything to get to the thing and we still don't know if it's even possible to get there or not. We think you had to drive through a park to get there, but said park was closed for above mentioned Native American Festival and was paid admission only. Thanks, but no thanks.

Eyes up, Andy. After the Lake and driving around Milwaukee trying to find a way to the lighthouse, we parked back at the motel and walked to the RiverWalk a few blocks away. The buildings of downtown are built right up to the river and there is a nice walkway with cafes, restaurants and shops that goes on for blocks. There is also....The Bronze Fonze. It's actually kind of chintzy looking but hey, it's the Fonze. Everyone say it with me...."Ayyyyyy."

After a fabulous lunch on the patio at the Rock Bottom Brewery (totally recommend both the club sandwich and the Sonoma Chicken Wrap) we did some shopping at the Grand Ave mall and found souvenirs for the girls. Then we walked back to the motel, changed our clothes and it was...Miller Time. We went on a tour of the original Miller Brewery. I don't remember all of the numbers, but the amount of beer that they bottle and can in a day is insane. Their warehouse is over 220,000 square feet and that's all turned over and replenished in 36 hrs. Yikes. The history of it all was pretty cool, too. Frederic Miller came over from Germany after having served as the Royal Brew-master. He started up the Miller Brewery in Milwaukee over 150 yrs ago and it still stands in the same place today (just a heck of a lot bigger) We toured the production and shipping areas, saw the huge 5 story tall fermentation vats and went into the caves that originally were the cool storage for the beer. Then we were treated to free samples in the Miller Inn.

After the brewery tour, we headed to Miller Park...the home of the Milwaukee Brewers. It was a beautiful night for baseball and the roof was wide open. It's really quite the stadium from both the inside and the outside.

Here's Prince Fielder getting ready to bat. I believe this was right before he hit his triple that brought in the only score of the night.

Brewers WIN! Ben Sheets pitched the entire game for the Brewers and earned himself a win. The team files onto the field to congratulate themselves. It was the fastest game in history, I swear it (okay, this was, but still). Total game time was only 2 hours and 7 minutes. Yeah, I know. I kind of feel jipped.

Sunday morning we hung out a bit and then headed home. It was supposed to rain in Milwaukee in the afternoon, so as we headed past Miller Park, the roof was already closed for the afternoon game. Goodbye Milwaukee...we'll be back next year with the kids, so get the zoo ready!