With a full moon setting over
Lake Michigan, a light breeze and temperature of 51⁰, we left the security of our
slip at Great Lakes Marina and headed out on Lazy W’s maiden voyage of the 2017 cruising season. Destination –
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee lies 70 nautical miles across Lake Michigan from
Muskegon. The Lake Express, a high-speed catamaran-style ferry, makes two daily round-trip crossings and makes the crossing in 2.5 hours - top speed 34 knots. Lazy W in 9 hours - top speed 8.5 knots.
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| Lake Michigan was incredibly calm. What a great day to make the crossing!
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| Milwaukee from McKinley Marina |
We were tired after registering
with the marina and getting Lazy W
situated in her new home, but we could not resist a short excursion
downtown. A short Uber ride away and we
were at Riverwalk, a two-mile long pedestrian promenade that hugs the east and
west banks of the Milwaukee River through the heart of downtown. There was a flurry of activity as kayakers,
canoers, paddle boarders, and partiers on pedal-driven pontoon boats turned
into PedalTaverns slid effortlessly under the many bridges traversing the
river. A multitude of restaurants and
craft breweries were doing a brisk happy hour business and we indulged in a
cold one at Rockbottom Brewery.
Scattered along the Riverwalk are
some twenty sculptures. They range from
the abstract to the whimsical to the life-sized bronze Fonz of Happy Days fame near Wells Street - “AYY.”
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Aqua Grylli River Sculpture
And then there is the sculpture
of Gertie, the mallard duck that brought the replacement of the Wisconsin
Avenue bridge pilings to a screeching halt in April 1945. Gertie had built her nest on one of the
pilings and was waiting patiently for her nine eggs to hatch. The local Milwaukee newspapers covered the
story for 37 days; Life Magazine did a feature story on Gertie that
summer. It seems the nation was ready
for an uplifting story as it dealt with the stresses of WWII. As
an editorial in the Milwaukee Journal put it – “She even helps us forget, for a
few minutes, the horrible bungle man has made of his world.” Gertie and her ducklings Black Bill, Dee Dee,
Freddie, Millie and Pee Wee are immortalized in bronze along the Riverwalk.
We ventured over to North Old
World Third Street, an area of Milwaukee settled by German immigrants. So many restaurants to choose from but Mader’s
came highly recommended. Serving fine
German cuisine since 1902, Mader’s boasts a long list of celebrity diners
including JFK, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Paul Newman, Britney Spears, Eric
Clapton, John Belushi, ZZ Top, The Three Stooges and our very own Arlene and
Jim Rich!!! Is the place a tourist
trap? Probably, but the food was
outstanding. The Bavarian Sauerbraten
was prepared to perfection just like I remember my Grandma Buckheit’s. Thanks for the recommendation, Jim!
Being big fans of walking tours
through the many cities we have visited over the years, we hooked up with a
tour guide from Historic Milwaukee. Paul
was an architecture buff who somewhat unenthusiastically shared bits and pieces
of Milwaukee history as seen through the buildings of downtown. Some of the more interesting tidbits:
·
Gimbel’s Department Store. Growing up on Long Island, New York (a.k.a.
the center of the universe), I always thought that Gimbel’s was a uniquely NY
store. Imagine my surprise to learn that
the very first Gimbel’s opened in Milwaukee in 1887.
·
Cream City. One of the most common building
materials in the late 1800’s in Milwaukee was a light yellow brick made of clay
from the Menomonee River Valley. So many
buildings in the city were constructed with this brick that Milwaukee was
dubbed ‘Cream City.’ It has nothing to
do with dairy products despite Wisconsin being dubbed ‘America’s Dairy Land.’
·
Milwaukee, with its large natural harbor, was a
major port shipping grain from the Midwest to the eastern seaboard via the Erie
Canal. From 1880 to 1935 the Grain
Exchange was housed in the Mackie Building.
·
The Iron Block Building is one of the few
remaining examples of cast-iron architecture in America. The pre-fabricated cast-iron units were shipped
by schooner from Rochester, New York and assembled on the corner of N. Water
Street and E. Wisconsin Avenue. When it
opened in 1861, the Iron Block was considered a very prestigious business
address.
·
Northwest Mutual Insurance Company is a major
employer here and its name graces many buildings downtown. The city’s newest and third skyscraper (technically,
Milwaukee has only three), is an elegant glass tower that can be seen from way
out on Lake Michigan. Company employees
are all fed free lunch every work day.
·
Milwaukee Art Museum. Also visible from way out on Lake Michigan,
this white architectural wonder is topped by a movable, wing-like sunscreen
that shades the glass atrium below.
Called the Burke Brise Soleil, the sunscreen has a wingspan of 217 feet
- wider than the wingspan of a Boeing 747-400 airliner. The opening and closing of the sunscreen is
very weather-dependent but if the wind is less than 23mph and it’s not snowing,
the sunscreen opens when the museum opens, and flaps its wings open and closed
at noon each day.
The Iron Block Building
The Mackie Building
The Northwest Mutual Insurance Building - Milwaukee's newest skyscraper
Milwaukee Museum of Art
After listening
to two hours of Milwaukee history, we needed a bit of levity. So what better place to visit next than a
brewery. The Lakefront Brewery conducts the
self-proclaimed most hilarious brewery tour ever. So after lunch at the Milwaukee Ale House (are
you seeing a pattern here?) we hoofed the two miles along the Riverwalk through
Schlitz Park to Lakefront Brewery. By
the way, the brewery is NOT located on the lakefront - it occupies an old
coal-fired generating plant on the western bank of the Milwaukee River. Josh, our truly hilarious ‘beer experience
navigator,’ made sure our plastic cups were fully ‘loaded’ before entertaining the
group with raunchy jokes and an irreverent explanation of fermentation that
referenced farting yeast and asexual reproduction. The tour ended at the bottling station, and if
Josh is to be believed, this bottling station is the very same one that Laverne
and Shirley worked on in their sitcom.
So it was only appropriate that we all joined in a chorus of the Laverne and Shirley theme song. “. . . Shlemeil, schlemazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated.
. .” Then it was back to the tasting
room to exchange our tokens for more of their generous pours.
 
You have to expect some fun at a brewery that prominently displays The Three Stooges out front!
What
trip to Milwaukee would be complete without a trip to the Harley-Davidson
Museum? On a windy Saturday with
unseasonably warm temperatures in the upper 80’s and winds blowing at a steady
23 mph, we hopped on our bikes and rode along the lakefront bike path to W.
Canal Street and immersed ourselves in everything Harley.
Outside Harley-Davidson Museum
Harley-Davidson
has been an integral part of Milwaukee culture since 1903 when William Harley
and Arthur Davidson built their first motorcycle in a 10’x15’ wooden shed, a
replica of which is located on the campus of the museum.
A few of the hundreds of Harleys on display
Elvis Presley’s first Harley purchased in
1956 for $903 on a $50/month payment plan!
Perhaps the most interesting motorcycle
on display is the Tsunami Bike, the Harley-Davidson that drifted over 4,000
miles across the Pacific Ocean! In March
of 2011, a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the coast of Japan. An
estimated 20 million tons of debris was swept out to sea including the storage
container/shed housing the 2004 Night Train model H-D that belonged to Ikuo
Yokoyama. Just over a year later, the
storage container washed up on the Canadian shore of British Columbia with the battered
H-D still inside. The owner was tracked
down through the rusted license plate and intact VIN that were still attached
to the motorcycle. The 29-year-old owner
had survived the tsunami but many of his family members had not. He declined Harley-Davidson’s offer of a new
replacement motorcycle. But he did
request that the damaged motorcycle be displayed as a memorial to the tragedy
that claimed 15,000 lives. Quite an
incredible story!
And here is another interesting
story told by Frank:
In my mother’s last year Barbara
took the initiative to scan many of mom’s pictures. One picture showed my grandfather George
Werner in World War I standing next to his motorcycle in France (we believe the
date was 1917). I thought the motorcycle
might have been a Harley Davidson.
When I began riding Harley’s in
2008 I had some of my gang, the “Wild Hogs” take a picture of me by my rented
bike in a similar pose!
Despite several inquiries I never
found a source that could confirm my grandfather’s motorcycle was a Harley. At the museum I learned that about one-third
of Harley’s production during World War I went to the military, largely due to
General Pershing’s push for a mechanized Army.
The 1918 model on display at the museum looks close enough to my
grandfather’s photo that I am declaring the case closed!
Not being a motorcycle
enthusiast myself, I could have been very happy on a Harley-Davidson bicycle. But, gee, I guess they were just for boys.
We had definitely been immersed
in an overload of Harley- Davidson history and trivia during our several hours
exploring the museum. It was time to hop
on our own bikes and head back to McKinley Marina. The wind had definitely grown stronger and
gustier since we had arrived. L
On our ride back along the
lakefront, we took this picture of a nice sailboat being battered by the
wind. Moments later it went crashing
into the seawall. We spent some time
rendering what limited assistance we could.
A bad day on the water for these sailors during a small craft advisory.
We left Lazy W to winter in heated storage so that we could come back in
the summer to enjoy the cooler weather on the Great Lakes. So what happens two days after we arrive in
Milwaukee? A heat wave! Temperatures Saturday and Sunday topped out
in the upper 80’s. Unlike Virginia
though, the humidity was low. The strong
gusty winds (sustained at 25mph) kept us comfortable enough but Lazy W did a lot of rockin’ and rollin’
at the dock.
A small craft advisory was in
effect for Sunday so we extended our stay in Milwaukee another day. Our tourist map showed North Point Lighthouse
to be a short bike ride away so we pedaled north along N. Lincoln Memorial
Drive. Well, finding the lighthouse was
like finding a needle in a haystack! It
was not located on the lakefront but up a hill in a residential neighborhood –
the only signage we encountered was on the front lawn of the lighthouse. Definitely could have used some directional
help getting there, Milwaukee. Instead
of a 1.4 mile ride, we probably covered 6 before arriving there. But we did enjoy riding through old
neighborhoods around the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee campus.
A few hours spent in the
Milwaukee Art Museum introduced us to some new-to-us works by Andy Warhol, Roy
Lichtenstein, Toulouse Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keefe, Claude Monet, and
Camille Pissarro. This glass piece by
Dale Chihuly graces the light-filled atrium beneath the Brise Soleil.
Our reward for the afternoon was
another bike trek to North Point Custard for a taste of their famous Madagascar
Vanilla Custard. We earned every calorie-filled
lick.
We are hoping the weather
tomorrow cooperates and we can head back out on the lake!
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