Mug / City of the Day - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

This isn't really the mug for today. I just decided to take this from a previous post and move it here.

I got this Wisconsin mug when I went to visit Mike in Milwaukee in August 2006. I was pregnant with Reed (around 22 weeks?) and Mike was staffed at Miller. I actually really liked Milwaukee. The people were all very friendly. We rented a pontoon boat and went out on a lake nearby for a few hours. To show how different it was from Texas though - it was August and it was way too cold to get in the water! WOW.

Restaurants

We went to some great restaurants while we were there. I think that Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro was my favorite. It's a French restaurant overlooking Lake Michigan. The food was AWESOME! Also, we got lost on the way there - it is pretty difficult to find and I'm actually usually good with directions. But, they were so nice about it and easily accommodated us once we got there. I highly recommend the Escargots de Bourgogne en Croûte.

We also went to Three Brothers - a Serbian restaurant. I wish I had tried the Burek but I had heard (from reviews and Mike) that it was huge. We didn't have a fridge in the hotel to take any leftovers home with us so I got something else. Last but not least, Karl Ratzsch's German restaurant. You can't expect a Gehlbach not to go to a German restaurant! It was REALLY good. I think that the food was better than Bavarian Grill here actually. The service was awesome too.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

On a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, we visited the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum. This place is beautiful!!! It overlooks Lake Michigan and the views are amazing.

From the museum's website:

THE VILLA'S 16TH CENTURY ITALIAN GARDEN

The stunning project that graces the yard of Villa Terrace as it sweeps down to Lake Michigan recreates the classis elements of a 16th century Tuscan landscape, while accommodating the vagaries of the Wisconsin Climate. Rose Standish Nichols designed the original villa gardens in collaboration with the Villa's architect David Adler.

In 1997, the Friends of Villa Terrace along with landscape architect Dennis Buettner created a restoration plan that focused on the classical elements of the original landscape.

Enjoy these Garden pleasures at Villa Terrace:

- A dramatic "water stairway" - the classic Scaletta d'Aqua - flowing down past three terraces of flowering crabapple trees to a Vasca (a fishpond used historically to keep the day's catch free)

- Two secret gardens and a thicket (where, in the past, birds would be caught for a meal) Grassy spaces and benches, bordered with culinary and medicinal herbs, potted citrus tress, unusual plantings, dwarf fruit trees and statuary

- Our monumental wrought iron "Neptune" Gate inspired by master craftsman Cyril Colnik

- A Tram carries passengers from the upper terrace to the lower garden

The Museum's goal is to create an Italian Renaissance Garden appropriate to the architecture, setting and decorative arts mission of the Villa Terrace Museum and to provide education through lectures on topics ranging from landscaping architecture to history.

Milwaukee Art Museum

If I get a chance to go back, I would really like to visit the Milwaukee Art Museum. The building itself is amazing!!

From the museum's website:

The graceful Quadracci Pavilion is a sculptural, postmodern addition designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Highlights of the building are the magnificent cathedral-like space of Windhover Hall, with a vaulted a 90-foot-high glass ceiling; the Burke Brise Soleil,
a moveable sunscreen with a 217-foot wingspan that unfolds and folds twice daily; and the Reiman Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge that connects the Museum to the city.