Milly-Waw-Kee...

So we weren't going to let Summer go by without a trip north to Brew City. Headed up a couple Fridays ago and started it out right with a stop at the Lakefront Brewery for dinner.

In 2006 B.C. (that stands for Before Children and is a phrase mom and dad's friend Steph came up with to describe what feels like the ancient old days of yore, before we were all born and their lives were slightly drastically different) Dad probably would've gone right at this sign, but with his ducks in tow we headed for the fish fry with a big smile on our faces.

Oh, and the Brewhaus Polka Kings were playing, which consisted of two guys who look like they've been eating bratwurst and drinking beer since they were in the womb, but man, they could play and had a big crowd up and dancing.

Friday night Shea and Jack and their mom and dad showed up and had the hotel room next to us, which was actually connected so it was like we had a 3-bedroom apartment. When they got there we just hit the pool and didn't stop till bedtime.

Next day started with a really good breakfast...

Side note: Shea's dad, Chris, and dad are really good friends and he just loves my blog and his goal is to end up in a minimum of 5 posts over the course of the year. Mr. Chris, you've got some work to do.  Great America was your first and this was your second... you only have five and a half months left.

I digress... then we hit the beach. It was a perfect 80-degree day and we were your typical beach bums.

The weekend also was not going to go by without a trip to the Kite Korner. I made that name up, but in the event you missed this post, there is a little corner on Milwaukee's lakefront that kicks up the perfect amount of kite-flying wind pretty much every day, so we headed down to do our kite thing.

Um, side note: Dad had a rough trip at times. He literally kept getting stuck in places... I think it was partly because he was putting himself in precarious places, but also... dude needs some yoga or something to loosen those limbs.

Example 1
Got in the back seat with Shea and me and literally could not get out. Got one leg over and things got even worse, as you can see.

Example 2
Mae's kite got stuck up in a tree so Dad went climbing up to save the day and then got to a part where he couldn't get down. We had to run and get Shea's dad to help him get down

Okay, and we head to the finish line of this post with my favorite part. Check this progression out. This first pic is me in May, 2012 when I was not yet four. Next shot is August of 2015 at seven and last photo is the Big Dog this year doing my thing.

So there you have it - The German Athens of America (largest German settlement west of Berlin), The City of Festivals, Cream City, good ol' Miltown... it just never disappoints.

Old Milwaukee, Part 2

So Day two in Milwaukee was outstanding. After an early breakfast at Alterra on the Lake, we headed over to this amazing playground.

Then we hit the beach. Not much to narrate here, just a good old time in the sun and the sand. Understand this was all BEFORE Mae fell face-first into the water, which was about 46 degrees, fine for having your feet in but, and this is according to Mae, not awesome when up to your ears in it.

 

Irish Dancing is huge in Milwaukee.

Mae was passing out kisses, and Dad was accepting them.

And later we found what we thought was an ant but was actually, well, I can't really get into that.

After a quick nap at home, we headed back to the Lakefront for some more tomfoolery and at Veteran's Park we rented this fantastic little 4-person thing-a-ma-bob that would be helpful anywhere from a bike ride to a round of golf to a trip to the grocery store. 

A couple bites of ice cream...

And then we were on to flying our kite. it started out a bit rough as I had to run around to get any kite action; Mae was not discouraged.

Later it turned into a HUGE success due to the windy weather that blew through. Yeah, see that little kite way up there, that's mine.

Out to dinner that night and Mae had her mice on the table playing guitar with coffee stir sticks while she sang "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns 'N' Roses, and then we had the largest bowl of mac and cheese I've ever seen in my life.

Some swimming at the hotel pool that night had me conked out pretty well and the next day we visited Marquette's campus and let our blue and gold balloons go.

That building in the background is called Schroeder Hall. It's where Dad lived his sophomore year and he told us all about it. That's the year he formed a study group (a band), spent countless hours hitting the books (playing music) and got a 3.9 GPA (1.4) his first semester.