Monday, May 28, 2007

May 26 -- Minneapolis to Milwaukee via Madison





The day was beautiful--clear blue skies and 75 degrees. We enjoyed our drive very much, but we were surprised by the terrain in Wisconsin. Expecting lots of flat land with grain fields and dairy cows, we were surprised to see rolling hills with lots of woods. We had driven over 100 miles into Wisconsin before seeing our first dairy farm. In Madison, we had lunch near the University and had a good view of the Capitol. The picture of the Capitol was taken from our outdoor table as was the picture of the two of us. It seemed like the Capitol, which our travel guide says is the largest outside of the Nation's Capitol, was part of the University. Driving on to Milwaukee we saw more dairy farms, but not many. It makes us question their title "America's Dairyland." The number of dairy farms is declining due to the high costs.

After checking into the hotel, we turned on the TV to the weather channel and discovered that Northern Virginia was having severe thunderstorms, so we called Jenn and Terry to see how things were. Apparently, it wasn't really storming yet and Terry said they really didn't notice the weather because they never get outside--too busy finishing the painting in the nursery and putting together the baby's furniture. We would feel sorry for them, except we are too excited about becoming grandparents.

After a short rest, we headed for downtown Milwaukee. On the way we passed Miller Park where the Brewers play. It looked a lot like the outside of Camden Yards, except for the retractable dome. Next, we discovered that they are building a new interstate through downtown Milwaukee and our navigation system doesn't deal well with detours. We drove out to Lake Michigan and took a walk on the beach. On the way back to the hotel we drove through a small park that reminded us of Rock Creek Parkway in D.C. and then we drove by some beautiful mansions just about a block from the Lake. On Memorial Day we hope to tour Milwaukee and some of their beautiful old homes like the Pabst Mansion.

3 comments:

Jenn K said...

Hope you guys are able to find some places to see today--keeping my fingers crossed that something is open for you two. Say hi to Laverne and Shirley for us :)

Jack and Joann said...

Thanks, Jenn. We are off to the River Walk and then to tour 3 mansions turned art museums. Sounds like a full day.

jeanine said...

Cute picture of you two. Today I was going to make mom's banana bread and then I realized that I don't have the recipe and I don't think you have it with you on the road. So I improvised and used her zucchini bread recipe. Hopefully, it will turn out. It's still in the oven right now.

Hugs and Kisses!