Milwaukee City Portion

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So here's the Introduction to where I live...if you want to get technical, here's the building I live in.



If I had to pick one thing Milwaukee was known for, I'd have to say the Miller Brewery. I still rank the Coors & Budweiser brewery tours as better, but this is a good time and you get 3 free beers and a small bag of pretzels at the end.



Here you see myself and Tim Workinger, who felt his career in accounting was too intense for him to join me for a game in the NBA tour, at the start of the Miller Tour.



Here, Shea Sterner shows us that people can wear skull t-shirts and act civilized in the Miller Caves.





All of this beer will be displaced within 24 hours.



Production





Honestly, if you want some good brewery tours, check out Lakefront Brewery. For only $5, you get the tour, 4 full glass samples and you get to keep the glass you drink the samples out of.





Another tour, I've yet to try is the Sprecher Brewery.

Or you could try one of the much smaller tours...

such as the RockBottom Brewery (national chain).

Or the Milwaukee Ale House...



Or the Water Street Brewery...

Unfortunately, there isn't much Schlitz around anymore.



The Pabst Brewery is becoming a residential area...



Forgetting the breweries, you could just go buy your beer at one of the local watering holes. Water Street is the home to most of them.





Or if you don't want to walk for a tour or sit in a bar, why not take a boat?
The Milwaukee "booze cruise" stops at 3 different breweries along the Milwaukee river, with lots of sampling at each.





Probably the landmark of Milwaukee if the Art Museum. This is most interesting because it changes throughout the day. 3 times a day, the wings rise.









Of course, there is Miller Park, which never experiences a rain-out.



Where the tailgating is the best I've experienced (here we see Nate Bollinger participating in Lasso Golf/Blongo Ball).



Of course the big celebrities are the Sausages. The Bratwurst, The Chorizo, The Hot Dog, and the Italian Sausage.



But with a last name like Cieszysnki, my loyalty is with the Polish Sausage.



Individuals that have never seen a one of the 5 Great Lakes often fail to understand the immense size of the them.







How about some of the Milwaukee architecture?



The Milwaukee Hilton, featuring a small indoor water park.







Milwaukee Theater




The Midwest Airline Center. Apparently this convention center could hold 555 city buses, end to end.





The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel building




Milwaukee Historical Society



Milwaukee Public Library



From Memorial Day through Labor Day, you can bring a bottle of wine and a blanket and experience Jazz in the Park.





Time for all of America to inherit these. Why do we need parking meters anymore when more people carry credit cards than change.



Street signs...



The US Bank building



There's even skyscrapers on the parking garages.




You may notice the skywalk crossing the river and connecting the buildings; typically a way to deal with the winter.Notice the skywalk below; it's the only skywalk in the United States that spans a river used by boats.



The Milwaukee Riverwalk





It's great to rent kayaks for the day and go up and down the river, stopping at restaurants and bars along the way...



I can't really talk about it too much, but make sure you try out the Safe-House in Milwaukee. It may be a bit tough to find, but ask around and you'll get there.



Many visitors come to Milwaukee every summer for Summerfest, the World's Largest Music Festival.









Upon the Summerfest grounds, there are several concerts going on at once. There's the US Cellular Stage -



The Harley Davidson Stage (currently in construction) -



The Miller Lite stage -



The Potowatami Bingo & Casino stage (by the way, you may want to check out the Casino during your visit) -



The Briggs & Straton stage -



Then there's the headliner stage, the Marcus Amphitheater.





Big Ben? The Allen Bradley Clocktower is recognized by the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest 4-faced clock in the world, with each face nearly twice the size of the faces on Big Ben in London, England.



It would be really bad luck to kill these ladybugs.



Then there is Brady Street on the east side of town. It's a bit quieter than the downtown & a bit more personality. Bars, restaurants and non-chain shops typically line the streets. Every year, the street holds a few festivals, a pet parade, and Festivus (the Seinfeld holiday).













US Cellular Arena, home of the Milwaukee Wave and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers.



Near the Arena, you can find the Wisconsin Athletic Walk of Fame - where you can read about Vince Lombardi, Oscar Robertson, and Robin Yount.



You may not recognize the name "Pick N Save", a regional grocer, but you surely know the name Harley Davidson, with its corporate headquarters in Milwaukee.



What about the Mitchell Domes, often sparking curiousity from visitors that see them from afar?



Each dome has a different environment, one a desert oasis, one a tropical jungle and one a floral garden.





This little park is fun...each one of the "fans" has a dial that allows the user to rotate the fan 360 degrees. The benches each have a mallet attached and can be played like a xlyophone.



Marquette University







Possibly my favorite part of Milwaukee is the Historic Third Ward. I enjoy it because you don't see a large of large corporations or advertisements pasted everywhere. Shops, restaurants, and more up and down the streets, including a pet bakery & the Museum of Advertising & Design. I enjoy looking at all of the local art along the streets and the old buildings sprung back into life w/ residential living.














Gertie the Duck statue...many stories behind this duck...




Take a trip down Humboldt Street and you may see some unique landscaping.





After months of fast food on the NBA tour (the best of which is In 'N Out Burger), I need some healthy food when I get home. The Milwaukee Public Market is a great remedy.



The Milwaukee Public Museum



Here you can take a glance at the planets,



see the largest dinosaur skull in the country,



or tame a butterfly...




Oh yeah, a lot of people up here wear those ridiculous cheeseheads (shown here by Andrew Westhafer).



One thing that Milwaukee seriously misses the mark on is their smoking policy. Beercity USA is one of the few big cities remaining that still allows smoking in public places. I've visited a couple of the cities across America & I can't even begin to explain how much more I enjoyed myself in California or Colorado because I was able to go out and not have a sinus infection the next morning nor have my clothing stink of cigarette smoke. It's feasible to allow smoking in the southern cities where you can leave a window open, but not in Milwaukee. I also understand the thought process that businesses will suffer, but if NYC, SF, and many other big cities are pulling it off, isn't that evidence enough that it works?

Here's my argument - Milwaukee is one of the coldest cities in America, so obviously the residents are inside the most. There are only 3-4 months a year where non-smokers can go out and about in open-air bars, otherwise they're confined to staying in or being miserable in a smoky environment. My friends in California, Philadelphia, New York refuse to visit Milwaukee during Sept-May because they don't want to deal with cigarette smoke. Are there people out there saying , "Gee let's take a vacation to Milwaukee so we can smoke in a public place!" Probably not, so a smoke-free environment would help to bring more tourism dollars to the city. Please help this city grow up, & get smoking out of Wisconsin.



So that's my current hometown - who want to come visit?

Thanks to the city of Milwaukee for many of the fun facts!