Last night's baseball game went for over 4hrs! The locals are so passionate about their team. There were whole families decked out in Brewers gear. There were over 41k people there and it was a school night! Some people left before the end which makes it a bit pointless to go.
We had brilliant seats - the 5th row from the front, slightly to the left of the batter. We were behind the net so no balls came our way. Plenty were hit into the crowd and heaps were thrown over by the bat boys. Next time we have to sit behind the home team dugout!
We were lucky that Miller Park has a roof as it was a wet night. It must have just been drizzle because the car park was full of people having tailgate grills. They all had tiny Webers and chairs and stay there for the whole game. Bizzare.
It was raining for most of our drive into Wisconsin yesterday. Although we saw plenty of corn, we also saw wheat or maybe hops. There are lots of brewers in Milwaukee. But, the biggest difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin was the autumn trees. It was really pretty as they were starting to turn.
Wisconsin is known for its dairy. It is the 5th largest cheese producer in the world. There were lots of cheese tasting/buying places along the freeway into Milwaukee.
The rain continued today. We had quite a few places we wanted to see today. We started at the Harley-Davidson Museum. It was really interesting to see the original motorbikes and hear the stories about the beginnings of the company. They had a huge number of bikes and memorabilia in the museum. It was interesting even for a non motorbike enthusiast like me.
After a couple of hours we moved onto the Milwaukee Public Market. This is a fresh food market where foodies go to get spices, chocolate, seafood and cheese among other things. There are also tastings so we tasted a couple of Wisconsin cheeses which was good as we missed the Wisconsin Cheese Mart. While we were in the city we went to the 'ladybug building'. This is an office block that has 3 giant ladybugs coming down the front if it. I have no idea why.
We also went to the Art Museum which is the funky white building shown at the beginning of Bridesmaids. After taking some snaps we drove along the Lake Michigan foreshore and then turned up a hill. This took us into the ritzy area of the city. The streets were full of mansions with water views. We drove around a bit more to get a feel for the different areas.
We also saw the world's largest 4 faced clock. It wasn't very attractive but probably looks better when it's lit up at night. Then it can be seen halfway across Lake Michigan.
From there we visited the Pabst mansion. It was built in 1892 as the retirement dream home of Captain Frederick Pabst who was a beer baron. The mansion is being restored room by room. The first floor is finished and now the second floor is being done. We saw a couple of the men working on the ceiling. They were scraping back layer after layer of paint to find out what colours the original ceiling was.
The tour was very interesting. The guide had been working there as a volunteer for 30yrs and knew heaps about it. There was a lot of original furniture and crockery etc. There was even an original invitation Mrs Pabst had sent out for a dinner party in 1899.
After the tour we headed back to the Riverwalk to find the Bronze Fonz. There is a lot of construction work going on before winter. Lots of roads, bridges and footpaths are closed but we eventually found him and took some photos.
Our last stop was Leon's Frozen Custard shop. It is a drive in and looks like a set from Happy Days. The ice cream was delish!!!!!
The odd thing about Milwaukee has been the lack of people around. Even in wet weather people are generally on the streets but they were deserted today. It has been a hard city to understand as there is 5 or 6 different neighbourhoods. I still don't really know where the centre of the city is.
Tomorrow we catch the car ferry across Lake Michigan. It leaves at 6am but we need to be there at 5.15am. Early night tonight!!!!