Milwaukee, Wisconsin

My favorite piece in the Milwaukee Art Museum

I arrived in Milwaukee in the early evening after leaving Madison. I met one of my 2 hosts, Laura, who was a friendly young girl studying at a local university. We walked to the local liqueur store where we bought some local Milwaukee beers.

Side note: Has anyone seen the web show Half in the Bag? Well if you like detailed movie reviews you should check it out on Red Letter Media. It's done by the same guys who were responsible for the fucking amazing 90 minute Plinkett Star Wars reviews.

Anyway, my point being is that they drink a very specific beer on the show with a cow on it. Turns out the beer is from Milwaukee called "Glarus Spotted Cow Beer", which I had in Milwaukee and it was awesome!

Inside the Milwaukee Art Museum

Anyway after chatting to Laura, I find out she is super into tea. She eventually aspires to having a job relating to tea, whether that be growing or otherwise. Her ultimate dream is to own a small piece of land in Hawaii and grow tea on it. There is a little section of their lounge room that has floor coverings and cushions which I thought was a "cat area", turns out it is a place to drink tea! Laura really loves tea.

That night I was pretty whacked so after Laura cooked us some egg noodles I excused myself for bed at like 10:30 PM.

The next day I headed to downtown Milwaukee to go see the art museum. Unexpectedly it has a fairly kickass selection of art; as judged by a person who knows shit all about the subject.

Afterwards I rode down to the Pabst Mansion for a tour. Frederick Pabst was a German immigrant who worked his way up on the ships sailing the great lakes to eventually become a captain. He then bought part ownership of the Best brewing company and expanded to such a level that he became extremely wealthy. He is celebrated today by his beer being drunk by hipsters around the country - the (in)famous PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon).

Outside the Milwaukee Art Museum

Pabst Mansion.

The mansion itself was pretty spectacular, however I was not allowed to take photos of the interior. It had a room for entertaining women (which was all pink décor  and one for the men. Most rooms all had independent colour schemes where the furniture matched the walls. The restoration of the mansion is still under-way  the historians use old photos to try and get the rooms looking how they were originally 100 years ago. At some stage the mansion was home to various Archbishops for over 60 years after Pabst has died, and in some rooms had painted a cream colour over the once very bright and busy wallpaper used inside the mansion. Because the photos are obviously devoid of colour  they chip of small sections of paint to try and restore the room to it's original state.

One of the first Harley's.

What I thought was interesting was that there was an entire other half the house just for the servants.

Once the tour had ended, I headed back to my host's place were I finally got to meet my other host, Veronica. We all then walked down to the Harley Davidson Museum. The museum was pretty massive, as Milwaukee is where the company started. As someone who is not really "into" Harleys - but enjoys motorcycles nonetheless - it was still an interesting place. They have a lot of old bikes there from over 100 years ago, plus some oddities like Harley Davidson bicycles, uphill racers and track bikes. What I found fascinating was a video about the buy back from AMC who owned the company for a while. During this period the quality control went downhill - which they admit to in the video - something that they are trying to resolve now.

From the Captain America Movie

Actual WWII motorcycle.

At the end of the museum you get to sit on the current generation Harley's from the trike to the Sportster. The only one I still like is the V-Rod, mainly due to its more modern style. This doesn't seem like a "true Harley" though.

Afterwards we all had dinner at a burger place called "AJ Bombers", sort of famous because it was featured in one of those foodie shows (not Man vs Food though). I'm guessing it got the name because they fill these little blimp things up with peanuts, where they run along the tracks built into the ceiling and "bomb" the booths from above with the contents. The burger was pretty good, although not what you would call giant. Oh and I finally got to try deep fried cheese curds, another Wisconsin must-eat.

Deep-fried cheese curds.

Laura and I outside of AJ bombers.

Downtown Milwaukee.

Afterwards Laura and I went down to a local bar to play with darts with one of her friends. The dude was really hilarious, we were about the same age and bonded over the crappy 80s and early 90s music some guy had put on the jukebox. Oh and I finally learnt how to play darts! Really bad at it though.

Beach in Milwaukee

The next day I think I might have blogged? It's actually a bit of a blank. However I know that night Laura, her friend and I went on a tour of the Lakefront Brewery. Laura had already done the same tour with her work a couple of hours earlier, but was kind enough to do it a second time. The tour was way less formal than the Coors one I did in Colorado. We all drank free beers at the start of the tour, including the guide. He then took us through the process, but the brewery was very small so I guess you could call it more "intimate".

The next day Laura and I got breakfast down at the restaurant Veronica worked at. Since Milwaukee and particularly this restaurant is know for Bloody Marys, I ordered one with my weird savoury pancake things. I guess they try and jam as much as they can into the "garnish", because it had salami sticks, asparagus, pickles and prawn on a stick in it! Laura and I then walked around downtown Milwaukee and back to her house, where I got to see their beautiful beach and house architecture.