WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH, 2011

After serious consideration of whether to travel to Milwaukee today or not, we decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. The forecast is for 1 to 3 foot seas increasing to 2 to 4 later today. After today the forecast is not good until at least Saturday. We fly home on Sunday so feel a bit under pressure to get to Milwaukee.

The wind and the waves were coming from behind. Once in a while the boat would suddenly speed up as we found ourselves “surfing” down a large swell. That was actually kind of fun. But the waves were getting larger and at one point we felt we were losing control of the boat as we surfed along the edge of a swell. Not fun. We slowed our speed and all was fine.

We made the right decision to travel because the wind continued to increase and blow to beat the band. We are staying in the municipal marina and it is next to a large park and walkway.  The walkway took us up and over the road. Once at the top of the hill we were in what was once the Italian district of Milwaukee.





Now it is occupied by fun little coffee shops, restaurants and retail shops. Don’t you love the sign this hardware store has? We needed a few things so went in. Our clerk was wearing a Hawaiian shirt under his store vest. Fun neighborhood.



















We stopped for a cup of joe at a funky little coffee shop. We sat outdoors and watched the locals walked by. I would describe the neighborhood as full of young, hipster type people.












One of the shops we went in had juggling equipment and lots of gag gifts, among other things. Many other things!






Rubber chicken anyone?













The area was originally the section of Milwaukee that was predominately Italian. There are still many Italian restaurants and a fabulous Italian family operated grocery store called Glorioso’s.

There's not much Ross enjoys less than grocery shopping…usually. I actually had to go looking for him in this place. He kept saying “this place is so great!” Can you believe it? Ross?








We had planned to eat dinner out but picked up some fresh sauce, sausage/broccoli raviolis, bread and a bottle of Chianti. It was fabuloso.

This building is so beautiful I decided to take a photo and figure out its history. Well, its history is that it is and always has been a bar. During the 1880’s to 1907 Milwaukee’s leading breweries went all out in competing for outlet sites for their beers. This building was built by the Pabst company and it would have served only Pabst product.  Not many of the original outlet buildings of the breweries remain.