Vacationing in Cream City
I have my vacation this week. We don't have any money because we still haven't sold the house, so we went to Milwaukee for a couple of days and slept on Elizabeth's floor in Bayview. When you drive through Milwaukee (as I often have), it looks pretty much like a more industrial version of St Paul. Having spent a couple of days (there's really only a handful of small neighborhoods worth checking out), I'd have to say that I can't imagine a city more the complete opposite of the Twin Cities.
Milwaukee almost has a skyscraper. The Twin Cities are littered with them. Between skyscrapers we have a lot of surface parking lots (and the ugliest building ever, Block E). Downtown Milwaukee was almost completely filled with old 5-8 story buildings that had been kept in great shape.
The neighborhoods we spent the most time in, Bayview and Eastside, have narrow lots for the mostly single family homes, so that they were often only a couple of feet from each other. Maybe three feet on one side and six on the other for a shared walkway to the backyard. Houses in Minneapolis's urban core are so far apart it could be Eden Prairie. The houses were only setback about 15 feet, which just makes your neighborhood look that much more coherant. Minneapolis's streets feel like highways in comparison. Kinnickinnic St in Mke curved through Bayview, but it wasn't the only street with retail. There are galleries and shops a couple of blocks over and people actually spend time away from the main drag. It had narrow lanes and people actually drive between 25-30, without any traffic to speak of. There are no parking problems either. There weren't many bicycles, but there were a lot of bicycle lanes. I saw a lot of freds on sunday morning. The roads are at least as unkempt as Twin Cities roads.
For a city that prides itself on it's beer and sausages, the offerings at Miller Park are disappointing at best. The darkest beer I could find was an amber lager. The famous sausages that race each other turn out to be lukewarm little half-inch-thick weenies with a soggy bun squeezed tight around it. Nothing like our dome dog.
As you can see, Twin Cities are Cream City's evil twin.
We ate breakfast at Hi-Fi in Bayview - awesome egg sandwiches. Lunch at Cubanita's downtown - incredible cuban sandwiches and pretty inexpensive. LuLu Cafe for dinner - pretty good, I'd recommend it. That reminds me of a small difference between the cities. There are still way more natural food coops in Milwaukee than you'll find in your average American city, but they're not quite as nice as ours (It is, admittedly, tough to beat the Wedge). We stopped at one in Madison on the way back, and that one was up to snuff. They make up for it by selling beer. We got Furthermore IPA brewed with black pepper. Mmmmmmm. Neat labels, too. They have it at Surdyk's and Blue Max. Also a New Glarus cherry thing.
On the way back we stopped at the Weary Traveller in Madison. Good prices, we just had a drink and coffee with Jon (who may be moving back to Minneapolis - sweet). I ordered a "Lake Louie" IPA that was just delicious.
I thought that after a few days out of town, I'd come back and not be so constantly disappointed by Minneapolis. Now it's even worse. We got beat by Milwaukee.