Goodbye Milwaukee

         We had a great last week in Milwaukee.  We had a brewery tour!  We walked to the old Pabst Brewing Company for a history tour complete with free beer.  We had a great guide who was knowledgable and entertaining as he walked us verbally through the history of the brewing industry in Milwaukee in general and Pabst in particular.  The company still owns breweries but this particular facility is no longer functioning and the historical buildings now serve as event centers for weddings and other things.  

Pabst Brewing & Bottling 

Pabst Brewery Offices

        We spent a couple days exploring the older neighborhood of Bay View, stopping in a neat little neighborhood bar - not a true corner bar (ie, it wasn’t on the corner)  but it was part of a residence, so we’re counting it as one - for lunch and drinks.  It’s across the street from where the old American Motors plant was, now a factory manufacturing auto parts.  UAW members were striking, and a few were in the bar with us.  I remarked to Dan that some friends I’d worked with in surgery had lived above a family-owned bar like this one somewhere in this area.  It turned out this was the very same bar.  It’s changed hands many times over the years, but it’s always been a neighborhood bar serving the factory workers from across the street, the owners living upstairs.  We’ve checked everything off Dan’s to-do list.  

Clementine's   

        We had one last dinner with my sister and made our goodbyes with extended family.  We had managed to give river/harbor tours to both my nephews and their families so they all got a chance to be on the Willie Dawes, and we got a little more time with them.  The next night, as if getting in on the warm goodbyes, the Milwaukee Lakeshore park treated us to a short fireworks display right over our anchorage.  We don’t know the reason for the fireworks, as there was nothing happening in the Festival park or anywhere nearby, and there were no crowds gathered to watch.  It did seem like Milwaukee itself was giving us a send-off, even though it was a few nights before we actually left.

Friday we walked downtown to the beautiful historic Warner Theater to see the concert given by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as their opening night of the Milwaukee Pops series.  The MSO took over the old movie theater and remodeled and restored its incredible art deco splendor to provide an exceptional performing arts space just for them. One of the ushers urged us to look around, even to go into the basement where old fireplaces are still part of the men’s lounge.  We spent the pre-concert time and admission time exploring this gem of a building.  The concert was A Night of Gershwin, which included performances by jazz singer Tatiana Mayfield and a special version of Rhapsody in Blue featuring the Marcus Roberts Trio.  It was fabulous.  

It’s Sunday night (Oct 8th) and we are now in Kenosha.  We left Milwaukee this morning.  I entertained Dan with trivia about the coastline as we traveled south, partly because I was feeling nostalgic, partly to take our minds off the swells that were rolling us around.  Now we’re tucked in a quiet berth in Simmons Island Marina.  We’ll be here a couple of weeks, one of which Dan will be spending at home while I keep on eye on the Willie, and Tommie.  

Tommie wants to know why the vacuum is blocking her doorway.