Sunday, June 26th, 2005 | Author:

I’ve got a lasagna in the oven, and Joe is waxing my car, so I’ll tell you about our trip to Milwaukee yesterday.

We arrived in the city a bit after 9 am and headed straight for the museum. It wasn’t hard to find even though the exit ramp on the highway we needed to take was closed. In fact, the entire downtown area was a snap to navigate, but we’ve come to find that growing up in one of the largest cities in the U.S. (Chicago, in case you don’t already know) does have its advantages.

The museum offers underground parking for a decent price (it was $8 for the four hours we were there) and we got a spot right near the entrance. In fact, the museum was pretty deserted when we got there even though it was past opening time. Do the people in Milwaukee sleep late on Saturdays? In Chicago the museum would have been swarming with people no more than a half hour after opening but it was pretty quiet until after noon. It was rather eerie, but nice, because we had the whole place to ourselves.

I didn’t do much research into what exhibits the museum offered since the real reason we were going was for the IMAX movie, so I was surprised to see they had a live butterfly atrium. We ran back to the car for our cameras (it was really close, so we made a habit of running to the car several times). It was hard getting good shots, however, because the exhibit didn’t get much natural light and the artificial light wasn’t very bright. It was still cool, though.

We browsed the exhibits on the first floor of the museum until it was close to the IMAX showing time since it was on the lower level. We were the first in line so we got the choice seating. While we were waiting to go into the theatre, I mentioned to Joe that the projection room (which is visible behind glass) looked identical to the one at the Omnimax theatre which is at the museum here in Chicago. Sure enough, it is the same exact system where the screen is actually curved and the seats are quite steep, giving you the impression that the movie is wrapping around you. To be honest, it kind of gave me a headache even though it was cool. We learned about the history of Nascar, which was fitting since we had tickets to the SBC 250 Nascar race later in the day.

After the IMAX movie, we entertained the idea of having lunch at the museum, but the cafeteria was a bit pricey for just a burger or salad, and we weren’t sure just how much longer we’d be there, so we checked out the exhibits on the 2nd and 3rd floors and left. Even though the museum wasn’t huge, it was still pretty interesting and a lot nicer than either of us was expecting. I’d highly recommend it to anyone visiting Milwaukee.

We drove around downtown a bit after that and stopped at Rock Bottom for lunch. Everything on the menu sounded good and it was hard to choose something. I finally settled on the chicken fried chicken which was good except for the gravy they pour over the chicken. Joe loved it, of course, because it was like pot pie (yuck). I also had a glass of root beer since it’s brewed on site. Honestly, I didn’t think the food, nor the root beer, was worth the price. I’m glad we tried something different, though, instead of eating somewhere typical like Subway.

Since we still had several hours to kill before the race, we headed to the lakefront. We ended up by the art museum and took some photos, but were too lazy to walk down by the trail that borders the lake because it was pretty hot and humid outside.

We had no problem finding ample parking in downtown Milwaukee, which was nice. I thought it was interesting that no one seemed to realize that the meters are free on weekends even though the signs are pretty clear that they are. Pretty much every meter we passed had time on it, and we saw people feeding the meters too. You have to wonder if everyone was a tourist coming from Chicago where meters are only free on Sundays, or people just don’t pay attention.

Also, I thought it was funny that people were willing to pay $2 to park in the Rock Bottom parking lot when there were free meters right across the street. Maybe people from Milwaukee are just lazy since they can’t seem to walk across a street or get up before noon to go to the museum. ;)

We drove out toward the Milwaukee Mile racetrack since there wasn’t anything else to do, but it was only around 3:30 pm, and we didn’t want to park and go inside yet since the race wasn’t due to start until 8 pm. So we drove around, looking for a mall or something to occupy our time. All we could find was a Dairy Queen, so we had a little snack, then headed back toward the racetrack. By that time most of the parking lots were full, so we decided to go in before we ended up shit out of luck. We ended up parking in front of this Olympic training facility.

Apparently this racetrack is within the Wisconsin State Fair Park grounds and there are other facilities there too. It’s strange how they have it set up: there are vendors set up behind the grandstands and no one asks to see a ticket until you want to go sit down. So technically anyone could just hang out there. Of course, you can’t see the track, but that’s another story. Oh and the Milwaukee Mile isn’t even in Milwaukee, but a town called West Allis.

Our seats weren’t bad considering they were the cheapest ones you could buy. We brought along earplugs which proved quite useful as those cars are LOUD! It was cool when they all started their engines, though. It gets you all excited. The thing that sucked was between the wind they kicked up every time they passed, along with the debris, our eyes were on fire. It felt like there was sand in our eyes every time the cars went by. It had already started getting cooler too, and even with my jeans and hoodie, I was cold. I bet it really sucked for the people in shorts and tank tops, though!

About an hour and fifteen minutes into the race, even Joe had had enough, so we left. I was rather disappointed in how boring the race was (after this experience, I have to say I think it’s more interesting to watch on tv) and how uncomfortable we were. I read that it started raining not long after we left and they ended the race early, so I don’t think we missed much anyway.

Furthermore, we were able to make it to the Brat Stop for a later dinner before they closed (we hadn’t eaten anything since lunch as we were too cheap to buy the overpriced food the vendors were selling at the race). We got home around midnight and I passed out.

It was an interesting day. The race was quite an experience, albeit one I’m not likely to repeat in the near future unless we get some good seats further from the noise and flying debris.

Category: Excursions
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