Top Five in Milwaukee

I thought it would be fun to share a different type of "Five on Friday" with my top five from our recent trip to the midwest.  We spent last weekend (Memorial Day weekend) in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Madison, and I can't wait to share more about the latter two cities next week.  For now, here were our Milwaukee favorites:

1. Milwaukee Public Market: Right on the edge of the Historic Third Ward, the market is definitely the food destination in Milwaukee.  They have a fantastic variety of made-to-order meals and prepared items.  Upstairs there is tons of seating where you can check out the market (aka people watch) and look out onto the Milwaukee River.  If the 15+ options there aren't enough, or if you visit in the morning before most of the vendors open, right across the street is also a Colectivo Coffee location, a fantastic local chain across Wisconsin.  We grabbed coffee there both mornings to start our days, and with the waterfront right outside the market, it was the perfect location to walk after eating our weight in fresh juice, Thai, burritos, homemade cupcakes, and cheese.

2. Miller Valley: We always love visiting any brewery we can when we travel.  Everything from local microbreweries to huge operations have unique stories to tell, and with the history of Miller in Milwaukee, we knew we wanted to check this one out.  Like the Coors tour we took in Denver (did you know they're the same company now?), this tour was free and didn't require any advanced sign up.  We were guided from building to building to see everything from the brew kettles to the bottling plant.  Of course, the tour ended in the Miller Inn, a pub where we were treated to free samples of Miller, Redd's, and Leinenkugel beer.

3. Lakefront Brewery: When we told people that we were headed to Milwaukee, everyone said that we HAD to stop by Lakefront.  It did not disappoint; for $10 we were treated to a tour and received four tokens for beer samples.  The tour took about an hour, and our tour guide, Ryan, was hysterical.  We stopped multiple times on the tour for beer fill-ups, and he even had us sing the Laverne & Shirley theme song at the end.  The view of the Milwaukee River is fantastic, and there's tons of indoor and outdoor seating.  If you go, I highly suggest the Eastside Dark or the new tea beer they're currently testing!

4. Miller Park and the Brewers: We checked another stadium off our bucket list!  This one is great because it has a retractable roof, so even though it was cold and rainy, we were still warm and dry, fully enjoying the game.  I have to admit, I've been looking forward to seeing the sausage races in the 6th inning since we booked this trip this summer.  Yes, giant Klement's sausages race around the warning track from the left field foul pole, past home plate, and down the first base line.  They keep the year's running total of winners going, and it's pretty funny to watch.  While there wasn't a huge variety of food (they had the same 4-5 options at each station on all levels), they definitely made up for it in beer selection.  We ate fried cheese curds, too, and were pretty happy.  The best part was definitely the free souvenir - everyone was given a free baseball tee for going to the game, and I looove free shirts!  Tip: buy the cheapest seats you can ($20 in the 400s), and move around the stadium throughout the game.

5. Waterfront at Milwaukee Art Museum: I want to thank a couple of awesome Milwaukee bloggers, @mindykaysl and @jomariemke, for both suggesting this walk and Colectivo.  I found them by searching the #milwaukeeblogger hashtag on Instagram, and asking local bloggers for advice/suggestions really is the best way to learn about a new city!  On our last morning, we parked at Veterans Park and walked South on Oak Leaf Trail, along Lake Michigan.  If we had another day, I would have loved to see the exhibits, especially "How Posters Work."  This whole area is beautiful, and perfect for walking, running, or biking.

Well, that's it!  We did enjoy Milwaukee and were happy to travel to a new city, but I think we both agree that there are a bunch of other cities we'd rather check off our list before we go back.  The one thing in this post that you might see is missing is where we stayed.  Unfortunately, we did not have the best experience at our hotel, so I don't feel like I have enough information/experience to share accommodation suggestions with you.  It was a warm bed and the staff was nice, but the place we chose did not live up to the expectations on their website.  Now, not to end on a bad note, I'm excited to share another post with y'all next week about the second half of our trip up to Green Bay and back down to Madison!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Linking up for Oh hey, Friday, Five on Friday, High Five for Friday, and two doses of Friday Favorites