Milwaukee a-go-go
Jul. 25th, 2010 16:45![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyMy dad and I met my sister in Milwaukee for a Family Visit last weekend. (Aside from my immediate family and three cousins, all of my relatives live in Wisconsin.) We wound up having a pretty good time, since we were only going for my grandfather's 81st birthday rather than Christmas or a funeral or some high-stress occasion. Despite the fact that I have been visiting Milwaukee since I was six months old and I have been there nine times in the past seven years, there are still things I haven't gotten around to doing. Which, much as I like Milwaukee, says more about our style of visit than the amount of things to do in Milwaukee (though, note, if 1/3 of your party is a vegetarian, some constraint in things to do is unavoidable, because Milwaukee Is for Meat Lovers).
# The Mitchell Park Domes! Were begun in 1959 and dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson in 1967 and are so, so Space Age, it goes right through not funny and comes back around again. My dad remarked several times that the domes hadn't changed since the last time he was there 30 years ago, but my sister and I had never seen them, and they are definitely worth a visit, though the tags on the plants and the style of botanical gardening itself are horribly dated, particularly in comparison with the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, where I went in May. Apparently my grandfather did electrical work on some of them at one point, which is cool.
# Renaissance Books! I go to the airport branch of this store every time I step outside security at MKE, but we'd never actually been to the main branch downtown, right near Marquette, and, wow. Three stories of used books. There isn't a terrible amount of organization, particularly on the first floor (for which reviewers on Yelp hate it), but there are so many books (for which reviewers on Yelp love it), it's awesome. I got a first edition of The Door into Fire and a couple other great books for $7.50 plus tax. Must go back, and if you're in the area, you should go.
# Kopp's! The perennial debate in Milwaukee is whether Kopp's or Leon's is better; I'm just about the only person in my family who prefers Kopp's. But Kopp's is more convenient to my grandparents' house (Leon's is right across the street from my parents' high school, however), and this visit my nefarious plan succeeded, and we went twice: I had red raspberry and then the grasshopper fudge. The red raspberry was superior, and I got my Sprecher's root beer (best root beer in the world) on tap, yum. And the burgers are pretty good too.
My uncle also took us out on Lake Michigan in his boat--it's the first time I'd seen his new one, though he got it like three years ago. Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes are gorgeous, and so was the weather. And it's a good thing we went last weekend, because apparently this weekend there were flash floods.
P.S. For those of you keeping score at home, we were delayed on 2 out of 4 flights. That's actually pretty good.
# The Mitchell Park Domes! Were begun in 1959 and dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson in 1967 and are so, so Space Age, it goes right through not funny and comes back around again. My dad remarked several times that the domes hadn't changed since the last time he was there 30 years ago, but my sister and I had never seen them, and they are definitely worth a visit, though the tags on the plants and the style of botanical gardening itself are horribly dated, particularly in comparison with the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, where I went in May. Apparently my grandfather did electrical work on some of them at one point, which is cool.
# Renaissance Books! I go to the airport branch of this store every time I step outside security at MKE, but we'd never actually been to the main branch downtown, right near Marquette, and, wow. Three stories of used books. There isn't a terrible amount of organization, particularly on the first floor (for which reviewers on Yelp hate it), but there are so many books (for which reviewers on Yelp love it), it's awesome. I got a first edition of The Door into Fire and a couple other great books for $7.50 plus tax. Must go back, and if you're in the area, you should go.
# Kopp's! The perennial debate in Milwaukee is whether Kopp's or Leon's is better; I'm just about the only person in my family who prefers Kopp's. But Kopp's is more convenient to my grandparents' house (Leon's is right across the street from my parents' high school, however), and this visit my nefarious plan succeeded, and we went twice: I had red raspberry and then the grasshopper fudge. The red raspberry was superior, and I got my Sprecher's root beer (best root beer in the world) on tap, yum. And the burgers are pretty good too.
My uncle also took us out on Lake Michigan in his boat--it's the first time I'd seen his new one, though he got it like three years ago. Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes are gorgeous, and so was the weather. And it's a good thing we went last weekend, because apparently this weekend there were flash floods.
P.S. For those of you keeping score at home, we were delayed on 2 out of 4 flights. That's actually pretty good.