So we spent a night in Milwaukee. It was nice. Not spectacular, but nice. Kind of like a first date that ended with a polite peck to the cheek. Not so sure though that there will be a second date.

We took Amtrak and it was pretty cool watching the suburbs turn to small towns then farms and even a few forested spots before it all eventually returned back to industry. It would have been cheaper to drive, but it felt good leaving the car behind. Also we could use the practice for when we backpack through Europe.

There are a lot of museums in Milwaukee including the much recommended Milwaukee Public Museum and the Children’s Museum. We chose, however, the Milwaukee Art Museum (or MAM as the cool kids call it). Sitting pretty on the lakefront in a building shaped like a sail it is an almost dynamic place to be. And pretty family friendly too. There are three separate hands-on kid oriented exhibits including a nifty one focused on Pixar animation. Another very interesting exhibit traced the history of color photography from novelty to conceptual art. The MAM is not big, but it is special and for that reason it is hennacornoeli recommended.

Artist at work

Henna created, hennacornoelidays approved

The Safe House is also hennacornoeliday recommended. For 47 years, this spy themed restaurant has allowed patrons to enter via a secret book case and then leave through a phone booth. You also get to solve this giant Hocus-Pocus like sliding puzzle and pay a lot of money to have your martini shaken through a clear vacuum tube (the kind that banks use in the drive through). To be honest I got a little tired of being called a spy by everyone working there, but the food was actually pretty good.

There’s not much else to do at night other than drink at a bar or watch television in your hotel room. Just before I went to bed I looked down on the deserted downtown streets of Milwaukee and saw a seagull swoop down to pick at something in the middle of the road. It must have sat there for five minutes before a car came and scared it away. In the morning we walked around and ended up sitting at a park outside of a church. It was a nice church and a nice park and everyone we met was, well, nice. Later we looked for an ice-cream cone and walked a good deal of the city before settling on one at a shopping mall. Even when you consider it was a Sunday it all felt too quiet to be a city. The Amtrak station though was crowded. It seemed like everyone was looking to get out of town. Noel