Weekend in Milwaukee

Milwaukee is a lovely little city about an hour from Chicago that Matt and I have spent some time at both separately and together before Brock. We needed an emergency get-away last weekend and decide Milwaukee was just the place!

 A classic Matt and I always stop at is the open 24hours Mars Cheese Castle. Here we sampled vast quantities of dairy nibblets to settle on a fine selection of curds, cheese squiggles, sausage and some rhubarb beer. 

 Our first stop was the Milwaukee children's museum. Featured above was a play zone made from and inspired by motorcycle parts. Brock met a new friend in here and they played "cat ship" for a solid 30 minutes until we decided to call it with our tight schedule. 

 

  

Brock got really into making this contraption.

 Murray animation.

 See those pants hanging above us? The main drag was totally flying pants for some unknown reason. But wait! The reason is now known! Apparently, April 26th is sexual assault awareness day, also known as "Denim Day"... hence the flying pants. Thank you Julie for the info!!

 Miles and miles of pants!

 Then off to Sprecher, a brewery and soda-ery. Apparently, the owner wanted to make German beers. Then he noticed that parents who drank were bringing their kids to the tours. So he decided to also get into the soda biz. Now his root beer outsells all of his beer combined. At the end of the tour you could basically taste as many beers and sodas as you wanted.

 

We all came home with a souvenir. Brock decided the orange soda was supreme followed closely by the cherry cranberry.   

 Great pool on the 25th floor that had a killer view... and children's goggles in the gift shop!!

 Our hotel was just awesome in general. The Pfister Hotel, when it opened in 1893 boasted the most expensive hotel ever built of its time. It was super cool and we had a lot of fun exploring the ball rooms; Brock was enamored of the chandeliers. 

 The next day we went to the Discovery Center. It was really a fabulous place that had both a fresh water local fish aquarium and an excellent science center.

 We spent a long time here, creating different flying devices to maintain a hover in a wind tunnel. Brock got super into it and made a pretty effective little flyer without assistance!

 Here he is making it.

 and a very comfortable bed of nails!

In action

 Brock would not try it.

 This thing was amazing, the Rockopus. It has a cello on it!

 There was a great little touch tank. Here is Brock with horseshoe crab.

 and a successful brush with a ray

 Our final stop on the trip was the Safe House. Matt and I have been here many times in our past. It is a spy bar complete with a secret entrance and all kinds of tricks hidden throughout the place. We were delighted to find out they serve food and that we could indeed bring Brock. We were seated in China. We had to travel to different spy areas of the world to complete a Jr. Spy quest. It was super fun.

Agent Beef. Aka, Matt daddy. Brock also had his first real introduction to magic tricks from a very skilled transvestite bartender. She showed Brock an egg trick that just delighted the crumbs out of the boy. We'll definitely have to find a few more magic shows, but I think Brock liked the more personal one on one presentation. The trip was a great and much needed getaway and I wish we could have gone back this past weekend! Run away! Run away!