5 days in Milwaukee, WI

[oldschoolguy]

My wife and i will be traveling to Milwaukee where she will attend the National Native American Conference. She goes every year-part of her job. Pretty cool really, meet lots of interesting people. It's in a different city every year--only proviso is that it must be in "Indian Country". We've never been in Milwaukee. Discovered there is an Indian casino nearby and so....that's where I'll be spending some time. So, anything special to do besides checking out the breweries which i just might do anyhoo? Any cool guitar stores that anybody frequents?

[19rick52]

Milwaukee is the home of Harley-Davidson and there is a new Harley-Davidson Museum ,opened last summer. Don't have a clue about guitar stores tho'.

[DaveF]

some decent music venues:

http://www.shankhall.com/
http://www.pabsttheater.org/

art museum:

http://www.mam.org/

[UMT]

Cascio Music in New Berlin (suburb of Milwaukee, near the Milwaukee County Zoo which is a really good one! ) is a HUGE store. I haven't been there for awhile but the Combo Section used to be huge and I can't imagine it's changed much. Great selection of guitars and equipment...

The casino is the only 'Native American' action in the whole city.

Make sure you avoid 'The Core' areas. More people get shot there than in Iraq every day.

[DaveF]

Make sure you avoid 'The Core' areas. More people get shot there than in Iraq every day.

:jo

[rob2001]

Fooooood!!

http://www.sazs.com/Restaurant/index.html


I'm quite a bit north of Milwaukee, but I grew up there. The only things I can think of of the top of my head have already been mentioned...Harley Museum, Brewery tours, there is an art center on the lakefront but i've never been there.

[UMT]

:jo

Geez, Dave! What would you tell him? "Hey, ask where they are and then make sure you visit the areas of Milwaukee known as 'The Core?' "

Be real!

[22µf]

Good guitar shops - Wade's and Cream City Music are the best of the bunch around here.

Make a trip to Discovery World (next to the art museum) and check out the Les Paul exhibit.

[HoboMan]

If you're there on Saturday take the one hour drive to Madison and hit the Farmers Market on the Capitol square. One of the best in the country.

[rreiser]

I believe Discovery World has Les Paul exhibit.

[snarkle]

I'd poke around the pawnshops and try and find some Milwaukee-made Flot-A-Tone accordion amps...great tweed tone on a budget.

And if you find two, let me know...

[Smakutus]

Do you skateboard at all? I used to drive to Milwaukee to skate this bowl at the 4 Seasons skatepark, back in the early 00's when there wasn't but one indoor bowl in Michigan..

http://skateboardpark.com/park_photos/4seasons3.jpg

It is way bigger than it looks in this photo.

Jeff

[telecopter]

Cheese Museum
Packer Museum
Muskie Museum
Brat(not children) Museum
Deer Hunting Museum

There, you are covered, my man!!

[Cpt. Picard]

Usinger's sausage.
Miller Brewery tour (free! with beer!)
Hit the bars on water street.
Outstanding zoo.

[The Golden Boy]

What 5 days are you going to be in town?

The Casino is right downtown- in the valley. Awesome buffet. Just happens to be right by the Harley Museum.

Tons of restaurants.

Plenty of cool neighborhoods and architecture and parks and all that stuff.

[dougb415]

Make sure you avoid 'The Core' areas. More people get shot there than in Iraq every day.

Things sure have changed. Two of the neighborhoods I used to hang in all the time was 27th & Capitol (practically lived there) and 3rd & North - the lead guitarist from the band I was in back then and his brother lived with their dad in this huge dilapidated mansion. They used a grand piano for an ironing board on the 2nd floor. Crazy!

[The Golden Boy]

Things sure have changed. Two of the neighborhoods I used to hang in all the time was 27th & Capitol (practically lived there) and 3rd & North - the lead guitarist from the band I was in back then and his brother lived with their dad in this huge dilapidated mansion. They used a grand piano for an ironing board on the 2nd floor. Crazy!

If you go a few blocks south- that used to be "hood." With all the Vicki mansions that had been turned into 2-3-4 family houses. Around 13 years ago people started buying up those Vicki mansions in Brewer's Hill and fixing them up- and painting them all period correct (gaudy pastel pink and purple! :D). I had a friend that lived on 1st & Vine- you could see how beautiful those houses once were. The brother of a friend of mine bought 2 adjacent Victorian mansions in Brewer's Hill for $80K. That would have probably been 93 or so.

That area of the city was all the upper management from the breweries in the area. Brewer's Hill is just north of the old Schlitz brewery, and about 6 blocks away from both the Pabst and Blatz breweries. Miller is a fair amount away.

Taking a drive down Highland is also really cool- those are MANSIONS. It's sad seeing some of those gorgeous houses that are now in the "hood" and used as daycare facilities. But I know of one of those places that's west of 35th that's a fancy-pants bed and breakfast...

[The Golden Boy]

Do you skateboard at all? I used to drive to Milwaukee to skate this bowl at the 4 Seasons skatepark, back in the early 00's when there wasn't but one indoor bowl in Michigan..

Jeff

Did you ever go to "The Turf?"

[Smakutus]

Did you ever go to "The Turf?"

No that was probably after (1979) and for sure before (1999) my skating time.

Jeff

[The Golden Boy]

Late 80s-mid 90s...