Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy. Not my words- the words of Benjamin Franklin. I think hot wings fall in to the same category. Root beer does not.
So why am I starting here? Well we have now just left Milwaukee- billed as a city built on beer. And beer, hot wings, and root beer, pretty much sums up our time there.
Personally, I wasn't overly taken with the place. But before we get to that, I think last time I blogged, we were looking at staying in Chi town for longer?- well we did indeed end up staying 4 more nights in Chicago, in the same hotel, and really enjoyed the place. We found a really cool bar called Finn Mcools, which had different special offers on every night. We went there about three nights in a row! It was on a street full of bars, so the first night we had a few in there, and then tried all the other bars- we got rather drunk trying all different beer specials, from local brewed beer called Honkers Ale, brewed in Chicago, to pitchers of Miller Light for $7, plus other stuff inbetween! I loved it, as each bar had free bar snacks- Finns had free salted popcorn, then another had free peanuts in shells (so no jokes about bar peanuts contains germs etc!- they were in shells) then another had free pretzel sticks, so that was basically our tea that night- free bar snacks and lots of beer!! All good! We ended the night in a drunken blur tho- neither of us can really remember the last bar!! I do remember puking in the hotel toilet tho! Doh!! Good times.
We had a good time looking round Chicago; it's a really cool place to go to. We went to an Aquarium type place, which was free, so all good! Saw lots of fish, a crocodile, an Anaconda, which was maaaasivveee!! And randomly a monkey! Lots of turtles, and piranhas, and sting rays too! We walked through Millennium Park which is a really cool place too. We went back to Finn Mcools for tea- they had a steak dinner on special- steak and choice of potato's (I had tater tots!!) for $7, about half price- so bargain, and even better- miller light for $1 a pint!! Had a lot of those too!! So all good!! The next day was Mardi Gras, so we wandered around Chicago in the day, looked in some shops, saw more sights, and then headed out to Celebrate Mardi Gras!! Started in finns again- table tappers for $10- basically big table top beer things (see pics!) full of beer with a tap on the end, so your pour your own beer- we had Budweiser in ours- we ended up having 2, which was probably a mistake, as we worked out you get about 6 pints out of it, so we basically had about 6 pints each, before we even left there! Oops! They also had half price appetizers, so we shared some onion rings, chicken wings, (not hot tho) and mini Kobe burgers things. All good. Then went to a few more bars, which were giving out beads, and then ended up in a random club!! Another rather drunken night!! Great fun tho!! Think we got back to the hotel about 3am! Oops!! Was a really good night tho, met a few locals (well Lisa did, mainly, I was too drunk!) The next day we relaxed a bit, and surfed the net, researching what our next plans were, and decided on Milwaukee- more on that later! The next day, Lisa wanted to get a haircut, she had being saying for a while it needed doing, so we went out into Chicago, to find a place to get that done. We started the day with some American pancakes, as we realized we had missed pancake day, the day before! They were good pancakes, too!! Then we found a Supercuts (apparently we have them in England?! I know nothing about hairdressers!) Lisa got her haircut, whilst I wandered round the area for a bit. Apparently the hairdresser wasn't very talkative, or that good, but it only cost $15, so was quite cheap! That night we went to a show called Jersey Boys, which was really good! It was about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and how they got started etc. It was really interesting. I think that was our last night in Chicago, and then we headed off to Milwaukee, Wisconsin!! Oh, I think I mentioned The Pump Room, the bar in our hotel earlier- apparently its had a lot of celebs in it, and it world famous- and based on The Pump Rooms in Bath- well we tried it, and it was crap!! Full of old people, and was really expensive! Load of hype over nothing!! We left after 2 drinks!
Ok, so on to Milwaukee.
It kinda sucks!!
I think so anyway. It was billed (from our research) as a university town, built on beer. They have the Miller Brewery there- apparently the biggest brewer in the US, and a lot of little Micro-breweries there, so we were expecting it to be quite hip and funky. It wasn't! It is quite built up, and industrial! First thing we notice though- Its freezing cold!! And I mean cold!! They had skywalks there, which are really good, and cover most of downtown, so that people don't have to walk outside as its so cold! That's how bad it was! (It didn't help that it took us 2 days to discover the skywalks, and realize that they even led directly into our hotel, so we didn't need to be walking outside at all- doh!) Anyway, Milwaukee just didn't seem to have a decent vibe, or atmosphere, and there really wasn't a lot to do there!! Our first day started well, we got the bus from Chicago, and there were only 5 people on it, including us, so lots of room, and quiet! So all good! Only took 2 hrs too, so a short journey for once! We checked into our hotel- we had found a really good deal on a Hyatt Regency hotel- so felt chuffed- til we got there and found out it was cheap cos it was in the midst of renovations!! There was noise and drilling from 8am-5pm! And dust everywhere, and it smelt!! Not good at all! Once we get to our next destination we are going to try and complain, cos it was really bad. But anyway, after checking in, we went to see Milwaukee! Had a nice walk around (in the cold!!) looked at some shops, saw some of the local sights, and then found a micro-brewery called The Water Street Brewery, and tried some good beers- had a honey lager, and a raspberry beer, plus a pale ale, all were good. We also ate there- Milwaukee was originally founded by Germans (hence all the beer!) so it has a lot of German roots, including a Sausage factory, and other sausages places- so to fit in, I had the Sausage platter!! It was good! After that, we went to a group of Irish bars, called Trinity, which was 3 different Irish bars, all joined together- which was really cool!! We got there around 5ish, and it was empty! So we sat at the bar and chatted to the barmaids, who gave us some really good tips on where to go in America, and some cheap websites to use! So that was cool. One of them also taught us 'bar dice' which apparently is played a lot in Wisconsin. It's a really good game, and easy to pick up, and makes the night more fun- but the best bit about it, is the barmaids will play too- and the loser has to buy a round of shots- If the barmaids lose tho- its just paid for by the bar, so it isn't out of their pocket, which means they don't mind losing!! It also meant we had about 5 free shots of Pomegranate Vodka mixed with red bull as they kept losing!! It was very nice!! The bar started to get busy as the night went on, and we got chatting to a really cool guy, whose name we didn't get- we were a bit disappointed about that the next day, as he was really friendly and helpful, and talkative- so it would have been nice to stay in touch. We chatted to him for ages. Can't remember what he did, but he had to travel all over the US for work, so gave us a lot of good advice. He travels the world a bit too, and had been to Bristol, I think, and other places which he gave us info on. We also played some bar dice with him too- and the barmaids lost again- so more free shots!! (as you may have guessed, we were getting rather drunk by now!!) They had a 'bar pong' tournament at 10, and we were meant to take part, as the barmaids were telling us how to play, and we had seen people playing in Chicago, and it looked fun! We were so busy drinking, chatting and playing dice tho, we totally missed it! We even got into a discussion about American politics, which was interesting too. Then we found out our drinking buddy had been in the south tower of the twin towers when they were hit- which was quite amazing to hear, and quite a humbling story, as he was saying it still haunts him now, and he lost colleagues and friends that day. It kinda hit home even more had bad that was for America. Anyhow, next thing we know, the lights have come on, and its 2am and the bar is closing! We'd been there drinking since 5pm!! Oops!! So another drunken night!! Getting home was scary, as all the roads and pavements had iced up, so we were slipping everywhere! We even saw a few cars skid in the road, and spin on the ice, scary. The next day we were feeling a bit rough, (unsurprisingly!) so chilled again. Gave us another good chance to plan our next course of action too, and too look at some of the websites we were given, and to take up some of the advice from the night before!- We managed to get a good plan going, so we have a plan sorted for the rest of the US, pretty much now!! We are going to the Rocky Mountains next, to Colorado (on the train as I write this!) we are staying 3 nights in Denver, Colorado, and we have a suite/apartment booked, where we will have a kitchen, which will be good, and laundry facilities so we can clean some clothes! Bliss! Then we will probably head to a place called Boulder, just an hour from Denver, which looks cool. We then have flights booked from Denver on the 11 March, going to Rapid City, in South Dakota, so we can see Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills area, which should be cool. Don't have anywhere to stay there yet, but have plenty of time to find somewhere. After that we plan to head towards Yellowstone National Park for a bit to see that, then its up to Seattle, in the North West, and work our way down the West coast, through Portland, and into San Francisco, where Lisa's brother Rob is coming back to join us for the last 2 weeks in America, where we hope to do San Fran, LA, Vegas and San Diego- depending on time. Its kinda weird to think we have been gone a month already, as it doesn't seem that long, but it will be cool to see Rob again, and hear some stories from home.- I did look on the BBC website the other day, and saw that City were in the playoff positions, and Rovers were doing well too- Football is probably one of the things I am missing most- its all baseball and basketball over here- nowhere near as good! ;- )
Anyway, back to Milwaukee!! The best part (for me!) was on our 3rd night, we found a restaurant called The Buffalo wing grill!! So you guessed it, more hot wings and beer! All good! I had 18 wings, which meant I could have 3 sauce choices- I had hot, Mango and habanera pepper, which was lush, and honey BBQ. They were all really nice!! Lisa was being good, and had a salad- who goes to a wing place, and has salad?!! We also did a historic Milwaukee tour- which took place solely in the skywalks!- that's how we found out how impressive they were, and how far around Milwaukee you can get on them- bit late for us, but oh well!! We went to another micro-brewery on our last night- The rock bottom brewery, which was ok too, but all in all, I am not sorry to be leaving Milwaukee, and think it was probably a bit of a mistake to go- cos we had to go back to Chicago to get the train to Colorado, so it feels a bit like we could have just skipped that bit, and gone straight to Colorado from Chicago, and saved ourselves 4 days. We did have an ok time in Milwaukee tho, and it was nice to try the beers, and was good to have the time to plan our route a bit more. We also went to the Milwaukee Public Market, which was pretty cool, selling all local produce etc- which is where I bought the root beer!! They rave about root beer over here, so thought I would try one- it sucked ass. It tasted like Cough Medicine! I was told root beer tasted like Dr Pepper, which I really like, so figured I would give it a go- bad move!! Never try it, it tastes evil. The market was cool tho- had some home-made chicken soup which was lovely, and another local favourite- frozen custard!! It was quite nice, tasted similar to ice-cream really! Then we bought some bread and cheese, and a fresh tomato, which Lisa made into lush sandwiches for our train journey- ate some just now, they were good! Lovely fresh tomato, and good bread! So not all bad in Milwaukee!
So now we are on our way to Denver, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains. Another 18hr train journey, but the trains are pretty cool- nice and comfy, lots of legroom, and big windows with lots of scenery, so it isn't too bad really- beats the buses! Will upload more pics soon- keep in touch- its good to hear from everyone!

Ok- quick update; wrote all the above on the train, we arrived this morning, after another long train journey- slept for a lot of it though, so that was all good- trains are deffo the way to travel over here, roomy, great scenery as the trains go through the greenery etc, whereas the buses go just along built up freeways.
Anyway, I digress, We are now in Denver, and the sun is shining, and its hot! 72 degrees today! woohoo!! t-shirt and short weather for definate! our apartment/suite thing is really nice, cooked some omelettes for tea, and all good. Bit of a walk from the main downtown area, but not too bad- its just so nice to have some sunshine!! Oh, and we are now on "mountain time" another hour behind, so now 7 hours behind you guys!! I feel like I am slowly time travelling some how, as we are getting further and further behind the UK!!! weird!!