Enjoying Milwaukee and a little Miller Time

Wow! The painting on the side of the tall building in the picture that makes up the left side of this image had me questioning what was real and what was illusion. The technique is called Trompe-l'œil, French for "fool the eye," and has been around for centuries. Linda and I had to get close enough to be in line with the wall to be sure that there weren't pieces attached to the wall to help with the illusion. Nicely done!

We walked around downtown Milwaukee and the Historic Third Ward between downtown and the river. One of Linda's co-workers had recommended the Milwaukee Ale House and it had an entrance on the riverwalk so we stopped in and enjoyed a very tasty lunch. The bottle rimmed plate in the picture was really quite fun to see at yet another microbrewery. My Reuben sandwich was quite tasty but Linda's blue cheese potato salad side was disappointingly mild.

Properly fed, we headed out to Miller Park to take a tour of their fine facility. We arrived with little time to spare and were fortunate enough to be in a group of three couples. The others in the group were clearly long time fans of the home town team, often commenting on where someone had recently made some great play or pointing out where County Stadium once stood. We got to visit the visitor's dugout, walk the warning track, see the views from the home team bullpen, Bob Euker's broadcast booth, and the press box.

Just up the street from Miller Park is Miller Valley, home of the Miller Brewery. This place produces a lot of beer. While beer isn't my beverage of choice, it was interesting to see one of the larger breweries in America. Like the tour at the ballpark, there were some true fans in our group that added color and content to the experience. I was a little surprised to find that a number of non-Miller beers actually contract with this brewery to produce and distribute their product.

We headed back toward downtown to see if we could fit in a stop at the Pabst Mansion. Built in the last 1800s for Captain Frederick Pabst, this beautiful home is in need of (and getting) some needed maintenance. Built with features well ahead of it's time, this home is still a valued piece of Milwaukee. We were too late to go inside but the care given to the exterior shows that this property will be around for a while.

We returned to Miller Park to see the Brewers host the Houston Astros. As a Cub fan, I was hoping to see the Astros win. The walk through our parking lot was filled with the aroma of various meats being grilled. We stopped at the statues outside the stadium honoring two of the greats who played in Milwaukee: Henry Aaron and Robin Yount. Once we were inside and near our seats, we scored a couple of ball park polish sausages with onions, I added saurkraut to mine... mmmm.

By the end of the first inning, we'd seen Bernie the Brewer mascot take his slide down from his chalet to celebrate Prince Fielder's three run homer. In the second, we saw him again when Ryan Braun hit his three run homer. After the sixth inning, we enjoyed a very close race between the Klement Sausages; Guido, the Italian Sausage, edged out Frankie Furter at the tape. In the end, the Brewers won too, fourteen to two.