Milwaukee the final blog.

I had heard about Sprecher root beer and I was looking forward to trying it at the brewery. And more times I saw it offered at almost EVERY restaurant I went to, I got more and more excited in the anticipation of trying it. But I wanted to wait. To "save myself" for the brewery so to speak. My plan was simple try the root beer and then try it in a float. (I actually had seen people enjoy root floats with Sprecher root beer on TV.) And then maybe even take in a tour if we felt inclined.

We headed to Sprecher and arrived around 1:45 or something. And just our luck we missed the previous tour and the next tour wasn't until 4. Damn. But worse. You can't try the stuff unless you've gone though the tour. I think you can't have a drink until you've given the respect to the brewery and the brewing process. I guess if you could people would just go in for free samples all of the time.

But we weren't interested in the beer. We were interested in the root beer. And we also wanted it with ice cream. Then we found out that they don't even have ice cream back there, behind the closed doors of the "beer tent."
So this brewery visit was disappointing. I never thought I'd leave the brewery thirsty.
This is me disappointed in the gift shop.

And then outside because I knew I was going to share this with you guys.

So we asked them "If not here, where can you get a root beer float with Sprecher root beer." They pointed us down the street to Solly's. A place I was not familiar with at all but when I got there I was intrigued.
Solly's is a classic counter burger joint. (Those of you in LA may be familiar with The Apple Pan or Pie 'N' Burger. )
And it is credited with creating the "butter burger." A butter burger is a burger with a pat of butter (or is it a pad?).
But apparently a "pat" (I'm just going with pat.) is not a standardized measurement.
At Solly's they take it the extreme. This is the butter that ran off my burger onto my plate.

I think the funniest moment for me was a woman at the counter commenting on the decadence of a special burger that our friend Jocko ordered.

Because as she was doing it, she was dipping her burger into the pooled butter at the bottom of her plate.
Here's my theory. Wisconsin is dairy country. So when they were figuring what else to put on a burger they went dairy. Now the burger already had cheese. That left what? They weren't going to pour milk all over it were they?

And then the root beer. The magic of ordering a Sprecher float at Solly's

is that you get a small glass on the side of the root beer. So first a taste.

Okay Sprecher is a damn fine root beer. And it makes a great float.

Sometimes I impress myself

So I'm doing fan mail. Trying to catch up on things while I have some free time on my hands. And as I tossed a postcard into the trash. It landed exactly like this:


Perfectly balanced on the back of a wire chair. I thought it was so cool I had to tell somebody, but then I realized,"Wait a minute. I can tell EVERYBODY."

Also while I have your attention:

Melanie Wagner of Hamburg? I'm sorry but your letter was returned to me with this:
Empfanger/Firma unter der angegebenen Anschrift nicht zu ermitteln
Which is odd because you wrote the address yourself. So I'm sorry I could not respond.

I just wanted to let her know that I didn't ignore her letter. And just to let people know that you have to be careful and clear how you write your return addresses. Because if you write it own yourself, I have to trust that. Often if I can't read it, I have to guess. Or I even have cut out return address from envelopes and taped them to the new envelopes. But if I can't read it chances are other can't either.

Forgot about my phone

My first pictures of Wisconsin were taken on my phone. I totally forgot.
From this distance Milwaukee looks like it's in black and white.


The first night we met up with people at this bar that really loved antlers.

Especially as chandeliers.

My time at the Apple Holler

So this is what it feels like to be an apple.


Hi-5 Granny Smith.


They got all kinds of animals.


This llama tried to kiss me on the mouth. (Either that or he wanted to spit in it)


And you can warm yourself up inside with a nice hot cup of apple cider.

BTW

Piggly Wiggly is a real place. Not just something made up on TV.

Beer hunt

I almost didn't get this shot off in time. As you can see the owner of this beer was just about to snatch it up again.
I just wanted to point this out.
Do you notice anything different about this can of Miller?
If you said "It's freaking orange!" you'd be correct.
Is this some kind of special "holiday" brew held over since Halloween?
No. It's beer for hunters.
This beer is more visible in "the woods" so hunters who are drinking while "on the hunt" won't accidentally shoot each other.

I think.

On the other hand it might just be to protect the beer.

Creepy 2 U?

Okay is this creepy to anyone else?

I mean I get the snowman candle idea. But this feels more chilling (no pun).

I think it's the plate. But the place mat isn't helping either. It's just disturbing.

What else I did in Milwaukee

Went to the Mars Cheese Castle. Which has no castle (except on the brochure) and no martians.
But I did find cheese in the shape of Wisconsin and sausage in the shape of a bottle of beer.

I saw the All Cow Diving Team.

Recreated the Krazy Glue ad.

Man they really love their frozen custard here.

This is more like it. Here I am trying frozen custard on the coldest day of the trip.

Tips for Surviving Cold Winters

Wear thermals. Especially bottoms. Wind chill blows right through the jeans.

Don't leave water bottles in the car. They will freeze.

Snuggle up to something furry.

If you can do it indoors? Even better.

More Wintry Adventures

Saw packed ice from the snow plow.

Real genuine frost on a window.

And real icicles.

(They're stuck on there pretty good.)

And my first frozen pond.


What are all you pointing at? I'll point right back at you!

My first winter

Now I was born in Omaha, Nebraska. But I moved to California when I was almost two years old. I don't remember anything about Nebraska. And I have once gone skiing on man-made snow. But I have never really experienced winter weather until last week when I visited the Milwaukee area.
I got to experience snow. The real stuff falling from the sky.

I was able to catch it on my tongue.

I was very impressed by how they looked.

They really were "snowflake shaped." I mean I've seen snowflake pictures. And as a child I did cut snow flakes out of paper. But it wasn't until this week that I had first hand knowledge that this was the case. When I got to see one up close.

This is not unlike the first time I went to London and I could see the cars driving on the left as the plane was landing. I had always heard this was what they did. And I had seen it on TV and in movies but you never really know until you see it for yourself.

More Kauai

Here's what else I did in Kauai. Found a street called "pee."


Tested a couple hanging bridges.



And saw the statue of Captain Cook. That's bird poop on his pants right. Even if it isn't bird poop tell me its bird poop.


Not depicted:
According to the signs along the road, all towns in Kauai are "historic."
And I hit a chicken. Or rather it hit me. Thank goodness I had my car to protect me.
Actually I think it might have been a suicide. I mean why else would a chicken fly directly into my windshield?
(P.S. if you rent a car, get the coverage. The peace of mind is worth it.)

Kauai

Okay I couldn't leave you with that. So here are pics of my trip to Kauai.

First off. We explored these caves. This cave has a pool of water our not supposed to swim in or you may get leptospirosis. (I think that what it was.)



So instead I set up the camera to take a picture.


Damn! Missed it!


Damn again! So close!


VICTORY!!!!

The Price of Gas

I don't know why but passing gas and not passing gas has been the subject of numerous conversations I've been having.
(See what happens when you go away for a while and you keep thinking, "You have to get back to the blog." You write about this.)

I found myself around someone with uncontrollable gas. Who's greatest comment was "I'm Vladimir POOT-in!"

This got me to thinking what goes on in the mind when you decide to fart in front of someone close. Like let's say your significant other. When did you make the decision to do it? Did you find yourself in a situation where you had no choice. Like something "escaped" and there was no one else to blame at the moment.

Or was there more thought behind it. You know what it's time to cut bait right here. I think I can do it without consequences. I have one in the chamber and it doesn't seem like a doozy. I haven't been eating exotic food. It's time to find out if this person loves me...

"Honey, pull my finger."

Or in my case. It happened in my sleep so I broke the ice without the shame because what could I do about it?

Sorry. It was either this or another week of nothing.