List Day Five: Places to Go

I'm not exactly Miss Travel Queen. I like spending my vacations sewing, or reading, or simply sleeping late in the comfort of my own bed. That said, I do think my hometown and the State of Wisconsin generally have quite a few places worth visiting.

1. The Milwaukee Lakefront. Beaches, restaurants and park line the shores of Lake Michigan for miles. The beaches and parks are free to the public (though there is a nasty, nasty plan by Milwaukee County to start charging for parking at these places...so far, public opinion is winning, but the county's need for cash to squander use is great). Lake Michigan is really only warm enough for swimming after the 4th of July, but there is still much to do along the lakefront.

2. Milwaukee County Park System. In spite of the politician's determined attempts to destroy them, the parks in the county are among the best in the country. As you can see from the listing, the park system ranges from tiny, neighborhood parks to monster, golf-course included, 350-acre-plus wildernesses.  It includes river parkways, beaches, center city squares, hiking trails, ball fields and formal botanical gardens. Given the length of our winters, Wisconsinites are prone to taking advantage of every moment the weather is clement by spending it outdoors. Our park system supports those activities.

3. The Milwaukee Arts community. When the weather is cold, we take our activity indoors. Whether you are one for art museums, live theater, concerts or specialty museums, we have something for you. For a community our size, we have a wonderful symphony and smaller instrumental groups, as well as several fine choral groups. Why yes, the Midwest is home to some culture.

4. The festivals. Good heavens, the festivals. Summerfest is the granddaddy of them all, an eleven-day riot of musical groups from internationally known supergroups (why yes, the Rolling Stones were here a few years ago) to local bands. All performances are free except for the daily headliners at the main stage, for which there are additional tickets needed. Summerfest runs around the 4th of July, and features massive fireworks over the lake on opening day and July 3rd. This is the 51st year for the festival.

5. The food. Perhaps the best way to sample the great variety of food available in the city is to spend the weekends grazing through the offerings at the various ethnic festivals. We are home to a large Hispanic population, and there are many restaurants in the area offering authentic Mexican cuisine. Honestly, if you name a cuisine, there is a good possibility you can find it in Milwaukee. The possibilities are too numerous to link.

6. The custard. No, not the pudding-like dessert much of the world calls "custard", but egg-enriched ice cream. The addition of egg yolk to the cream and milk gives the finished product a creamier, richer texture. Try Kopps, Oscars, Gilles, or Culvers, or go back in time with a visit to Leons. Note that the custard stands, at least the ones listed, stay open year around. That way, on a forty degree day in early March (like today), we can enjoy a cone before the snow comes barreling back tomorrow.

There is so much more. In the greater state, there are places like Lambeau Field, with its rich gridiron history, Old World Wisconsin, where history comes to life, American Player's Theater in a gorgeous natural ampitheater, Devil's Lake with gorgeous scenery and challenging trails, Bay Beach Park with old fashioned kiddie rides (tickets only 25 cents; most rides take 2 tickets)...and so much more. The bluffs along the Mississippi River near LaCrosse are gorgeous. A sizeable breeding crowd of bald eagles also make their home along that shore, as well as some along the Wisconsin River. There are some incredible wineries in the state (Wollersheim is my favorite).

And, of course, cheese and beer. My linky finger is tired, so I will refer you to Mr. Google. But we produce incredible cheeses, and while only Miller-Coors has a big brewery in the state, our supply of talented microbreweries is impressive.

That's enough bragging. Come visit us in late June, when everything is bright and blooming. Wander through a few festivals. Take in a few parks (did I mention the world-class golf courses at Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run?). Relax with some wine on a terrace overlooking a river. Enjoy our state's unofficial summer sport ("You don't know how to water ski? Come along with us, we'll have you up in no time!").

Sunday drive

Rather than stay in on this raw, grey Sunday afternoon, I'm going to take a ride to the southwestern suburbs.  In a casual glance through the MLS listings, I found a two bedroom condo that looks promising.  It's priced about a third less than what I was expecting to pay (and is consequently a little bit smaller - no "extra" room, but a 2 car attached garage instead of a single one, gas fireplace and a reasonable condo fee). I have the downpayment in hand for this one, and at the moment, I'm almost ready to throw caution to the wind and go for it.

The situation around here is about to become almost impossible. The city is starting a summer-long construction project on our cross street (which I found out about only by calling city hall after the temporary no parking signs went up this Friday; they are sending letters, but hadn't yet mailed them as of 3:40 Friday). The one way streets are becoming temporary two-ways, and there will be (literally, as they will no longer require permits to overnight park) a free-for-all for parking spaces.

The twist here is that the two apartment buildings across the street from my flat have underground parking - whose only egress is to the side street that will be demolished.  Just exactly where are those seventy cars supposed to go?

When my landlord put in a new garage eighteen months ago, his wife suggested putting in a parking slab next to it. The lot is wide, and there is plenty of room. He refused, as he didn't want to uproot the weeds flowers next to the garbage cans.

You see how I rate around here.

I rather doubt this is "the" place, but at least I'll go take a look.  I need to get a feel for distances and routes from that general area, anyway. Maybe sooner is better - it's going to be difficult to get a moving truck down our street pretty soon.

Then again, I could just tell them to drive over the grass.

Slight change in plan

The best laid plans...or God's providential working.  When I got to the Inn (half an hour quicker than I should have - just call me lead foot), we discovered that the fireplace in the room I'd reserved apparently wasn't working.  One of the other rooms, also with a fireplace and whirlpool, was available for all three nights, so I moved...



From the entranceway looking in



Looking across the bed one way...

...and across the other way to the fireplace

The room is called the apple orchard; rather than cabbage roses, the decor is rosy apples and ticking stripes.  The whirlpool is in the bathroom instead of in view of the fireplace; I can live with that.

All things considered, the set up in here is more suited to my needs...and just "coincidentally", five minutes after I got settled, the innkeeper came to tell me the fireplace in the other room had started working.  I'm happy here.

Have I mentioned that there are antique quilts lining the guestroom hallway?  Gale just happened to remark there is a quilt shop just three doors down...yikes.  Keep repeating "that's not why I'm here, I have too many projects going as it is, that's not why I'm here..."

Weather matters

Milwaukee temperature on take off Tuesday: 42 degrees
New Orleans weather upon landing Tuesday:  80 degrees, humid, rainy
Wednesday: Seventies, humid, rainy
Thursday:  Sunny, high sixties, wind advisory, bringing the wind chill down into the fifties after sunset
Friday forecast: Sunny, high in the high fifties, continued windy
Weekend:  Frost warning

If I stay here much longer, I may see snow.  Even so, it is still warmer than home.

Old Man River

Old muddy river would be more apropos.  As you can see, the river level is fairly low, the skies are grey and a light rain is falling, but other than moving the band into the salon instead of leaving them on deck, nothing changed for the nightly cruise on the Steamboat Natchez.

They usually have a crowd of close to two hundred on a cruise; due to the weather and the day (Tuesday), we sailed with just about half that many people.  Boarding and the first dinner seating began at six; the ship sailed at seven for a two hour trip on the Mississippi.

The Natchez (top two decks in the bow shown above) was built in 1975, though most of the engine room came from an earlier steamboat, the Clairton, built in 1925.  The main dining salon is the lower deck on this picture, with another bar and the (usual) band stand a deck above.  The lower deck houses one small dining room, the boiler and engine rooms and access to the paddlewheel. 

I could get used to this.  The trip was amazingly smooth; the only time you remembered you were on a ship was during the couple of minutes it took to turn around at the end of the outbound journey.   The chug of the steam engines, even the slap of the twenty-five ton oak paddlewheel, were remarkably quiet.  The distance from the lower deck down to the water is less than three feet - you truly have a sensation of skimming along the water.

Bad night picture of shoreline taken from the lower deck.  Note to Canon Powershot:  Your "night shot" setting?  Useless.



The engine room is set up for self-guided tours.  The first stop is the boiler room.

Um, yeah.  If boiler #2 is Thelma, can you guess the name of boiler #1?

The engine room itself is the next stop.  Don't ask me for all the mechanical details, but the steam comes from the boiler and eventually pushes these piston thingees that drive the doohicky that turns the paddlewheel.

Very cool to watch, even if I can't exactly describe what happens.  I do know the steam is recaptured and cooled with river water, to be returned to the boilers and reheated, to begin the process all over again.

While we couldn't go onto the platform directly next to the paddlewheel, and the angle (and stupid night shot setting) weren't adequate to get a good picture, I do have a short video of the wheel in action.

This is actually sideways, in order to get the best shot.  Ignore the weird flip at the end - blame a rookie camera woman.

This was a dinner and jazz cruise.  The dinner was standard catered fare, though with a spicy twist - baked chicken, catfish and/or pork tenderloin for entrees, corn with andouille sausage, pasta salad and bread pudding for dessert.  My waitress (the girl from Milwaukee) insisted I try the bread pudding, which I was sure I wouldn't like (texture issues). I was wrong.

The jazz came from the Dukes of Dixieland.  While I drew the line at both filming AND recording them to post here, I did casually focus the camera out the window, to provide you with a taste of the music (as if breaking only part of a music copyright law is not as bad as going whole hog).

All in all, a nice night on the river.

This is Susan's responsibility

My friend Susan was once a travel agent. When she heard I was going to New Orleans, she insisted I had to have a muffuletta sandwich.  "All that salami and ham, the cheese, and then that wonderful olive salad poured over it - incredible!"  Susan raved.

I was aware of the sandwich, surprised that it had Sicilian origins - a part of my heritage I never knew about.

But even though I've cooked with olive oil for years, I don't like olives themselves.

On arriving in the city, though, I was seized with an unaccountable sense of culinary recklessness.  Why not try one?

I did, and actually liked it.  Genoa salami, capicola ham, mortadella and provolone cheese, plus the olive salad, on the traditional round loaf.

I can feel my arteries hardening already.

People, Part I

The skycap at Mitchell, as he looked at my I.D.: "You have the same birthday as the King!"
Me: "Yeah, I'll wave as we pass over Graceland."

A very pretty young woman and her extremely sleepy little five year old boy were in the line behind me for boarding in Milwaukee. While I didn't get their names, I've added them to my prayer list; they have been travelling every two to six weeks since he was fourteen months old - to go to St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis. That made my whole trip seem a bit...insignificant.

My seatmate for the first leg of the trip has a degree in large animal veterinary medicine - and works in the "raw" end of research and development for a meat processing firm in Kenosha. Makes you think of your hamburger in rather a different light.

Louis Armstrong airport is a distance from downtown NOLA, so I joined a ride-sharing van. I was sitting right behind the driver, and may have been the only one who noticed, but he was quietly singing - no radio, no ipod, just singing a capella - the entire half hour into the city. While he was unloading my bag, I thanked him for the concert - and his face lit up. Love of music runs deeply in the people here.

Signs are all over the hotel promoting the USGIF convention.  A woman one table over in the lobby lunch bar struck up a conversation, and was able to tell me it was the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation - they are the ones who analyze all the data sent back by intelligence satellites, apparently. It seems to be an up and coming profession, a convergence of a number of disciplines.  Still, it makes me feel a bit...spied on?...to know they are there. 

Four women in their early sixties waited for the steamboat cruise just in front of me.  It turns out they are old college chums, who went to Illinois Wesleyan years ago, and meet every year somewhere for a reunion trip.  Friendships like that are truly a treasure!

Who knew?  My waitress on board the cruise grew up on the north side of Milwaukee!

Pictures, commentary and, if I can figure out how to upload it, video coming tomorrow, once I've had some sleep.  Two planes, three states, two vans, a couple taxis, a steamboat and an elevator for which you press the floor number before the car arrives...it's been a long day!

Up, up and away

Things I like about flying:

• Early mornings at the airport with cheerful staff
• Short lines at security
• Take offs and landings
• Turbulence (excitement!)
• Getting places quickly
• Meeting interesting people

Things I don't like about flying:

• Aerobic sprints from gate to gate to catch connecting flights
• Announcements that we are "cleared for descent into XXX airport" over half an hour before actual landing
• Travellers with over sized "carry on" luggage