We planned our trip primarily to attend Summerfest, which I had always heard was a good time. Plus, I was excited to see two bands that were playing Friday and Saturday nights – Keith Urban Friday night, and Barenaked Ladies Saturday night.
We both took the day off work so rolled into Milwaukee around 4 p.m. Dropped our stuff at the Astor Hotel and heade
d over to the Harley Davidson Museum. This was our first lesson of the weekend on how unreliable Mapquest can be, since it took us at least 4 miles out of our way in a circle before it landed us back not so very far from our hotel. Sigh.But – the museum was pretty cool. Tickets are $16/person and then another $5 if you want the audio tour. But, things are pretty well signed if you don't want to go that route. Now, I'm not a big bikehead like Josh is or anything, but I found it pretty interesting. We spent a fast two hours there and didn't even get over to the archives area.
You enter on a top floor and the main room is various bikes from over the years (the company was formed in 1903 by two young guys in their early 20s). On the right is a bunch of memorabilia, advertisements, documents, etc. On the left are two rooms – the first is the engine room, where you can see how engines work and what parts make a bike go, and you can use these screens to listen to what various Harley motors sound like. The next room is more about racing and the formation of bike clubs. Down the hall is also a display of bike tanks with various paint/decoration.
Downstairs is more bikes through the ages, right through to Buell sport bikes, which I didn't even know were related to Harleys. They also had some replicas of "famous" bikes, as well as a two seater and one that had been blinged out with rhinestones. Pretty hideous! There was a smaller room with some research and development displays, and then a room as you are leaving with maybe eight different bikes that you could sit on and get a feel for. I'm a big fan of the tractor spring seats!
I thought it was really well done, museum-wise, and feel like I learned some interesting things.
After swinging through the HD store, we drove back to our hotel and parked the car for the rest of the weekend. We did a ton of walking since pretty much everything was within a mile or so. We walked over to Mimma's on Brady Street, a pretty little Italian restaurant that I had been to once years before but really loved. We walked in about 7 p.m. Friday night and it was absolutely dead in there – maybe one other table was full. We were thanked repeatedly for coming! I'm sure with the economy and all, plus it was Summerfest, that business has taken a hit, but it was pretty shocking.
Josh ordered a glass of wine and I ordered champagne, I ordered a caprese salad and Josh ordered some bruschetta. Neither were anything special, and I thought maybe that's why the place was so empty – that the quality of food had taken a nosedive over the years. However, then Josh got his ciopino and veal, and I got my chicken sausage rigatoni with cream sauce, both of which were out of this world delicious. I take back anything I might have said! Josh had a couple of glasses of barbera, and I ordered a glass of tasty valpolicella. For "dessert" we ordered a glass of moscato-flavored grappa. What were we thinking?! Thank goodness it came in a cordial glass since we could hardly choke it down between the two of us.
After Mimma's we hoofed it down Brady Street, which reminds me quite a lot of Uptown in Minneapolis. We ended up at Lake Michigan and walked the shoreline for quite a ways before we decided to turn back through downtown. We ended up at the Blu bar, located on the 23rd floor of the Pfister hotel. Fabulous view, good martinis and a really nice vibe overall. We managed to snap up a table by the widows and kicked back and enjoyed the night a little. They had a lounge singer who sang your typical Frank Sinatra/Etta James tunes, but she was pretty good. Turns out we were woefully underdressed in our tourist Tshirts and shorts since they were promoting a fishnets-and-fedoras night, but all in all, a nice addition to the evening!
As we were leaving, Josh asked a bartender for a business card because he likes to collect them from places he goes. Apparently the request startled the bartender, because as we were waiting for the elevator our server came running out to ask if everything was okay. We were confused, and I was thinking – man, didn't I tip her enough?! Apparently Josh's asking for a business card was equivalent to him saying "I'm calling the manager and you will all be fired tomorrow." Or something!
After that we headed back to the Astor, which is a quaint and quirky little hotel, but accidentally got sidetracked by the County Clare Irish pub across the street. We stopped for a pint and then headed home for bed!
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