Roommate Reunion

Leah, my cousin in law-law (our husbands are cousins), asked me to send her my list of favorite things to do when visitors come to town.  (She moved to Milwaukee recently and was looking for ideas.)

I had the chance to think through my list last week, when we had two spontaneous visitors: Misty from Utah (my college roommate), and Kira from Ohio (my cousin and college roommate).  Misty had a free flight and decided to fly here, and when Kira heard that, she dropped everything and decided to drive over that weekend as well.  (This all was planned 2 days in advance!) Even though we lived together 7 years ago and haven't seen each other a ton since, we picked up right where we left off.  I love people like that!  We were only missing Chelsey, our 4th roommate.  

Misty still does her same accents and still says "bring me back something French" every time someone leaves, Kira still knows the lyrics to every Broadway song known to man, and she's still the life of the party.  I loved my 4 day reunion with these girls.

Now onto my Milwaukee Top 10 list, everything tested and approved by Kira and Misty.

#1) The Milwaukee Public Library

Here's Kira and Cole playing with one of the puppets in the children's section.  This particular library is the coolest I have ever seen.  It's the coolest anyone has ever seen.  Every time we need to leave this place, both Benson and Cole throw violent tantrums.  That either speaks to the library, or to my boys, or to my parenting, I'm not sure which.

#2) Lunch on Lake Michigan

Grapes coated with sand?  Mmm.  Chips dipped in sand?  Delish.  Let's put the sand back in sandwich.  Our three favorite picnic spots are Big Bay Park (that's where we went this time), Doctors Park (don't forget to hike down to the beach), and Atwater Park.

#3) Sprecher Brewery Tour

Their sodas are fabulous.  My favorite is the orange dream.  Misty loved the strawberry best, and Kira's fave was root beer.  Look for Sprecher's sodas in your local grocery store-- I'll bet it's in there!

#4) West Allis Cheese Shoppe

We love going here and sampling the different cheeses.  Every time we go, I stock up on creamy havarti and chocolate cheese.  (And yesterday, I went back and bought some cranberry cheddar.)  I never knew you could be so innovative about cheese until I moved to Wisconsin.  I usually just take visitors to the stand at the Milwaukee Public Market, but sometimes we go to the original store.  

#5) Fruit Picking

There are lots of farms surrounding Milwaukee, so we like to take visitors to one to pick strawberries, apples, peas, pears, pumpkins, etc.  Some of the farms (like the one we went to) throw in a hay ride, petting zoo, corn maze, a bakery, and a super-cool playground.  Apple Holler is my favorite if it's not a Saturday(!), and otherwise I like Barthel's Fruit Farm.

Speaking of apples, anyone want a pint of applesauce???  We made enough to feed a small village.  

#6) Kopps Custard

The hot commodity in Milwaukee is the custard.  There are probably 100 frozen custard shops around town.  It is nicknamed the Cream City for good reason, and I really think custard tastes even better than ice cream.  None of our visitors leave Milwaukee without a trip to get some delicious frozen custard.  During both pregnancies (and later when I was nursing), I got really addicted to this stuff.  

#7) Marquette and MCW Campuses

We like to show people where we went to school.  For Marquette, we also include the surrounding landmarks, like Jeffrey Dahmer's house (or lack of house-- Marquette razed it), the Milwaukee Literacy Services where I used to teach adults how to read, the fancy art museum, the fancy courthouse, the theater district, and the mansions on Lake Drive.  By MCW, we like to show off the Wauwatosa village and take a stroll down the nature trail.

#8) The Safehouse

  This spy restaurant is unlike any other.  You need to know their secret password to enter, and if you don't (I wouldn't tell it to Kira and Misty) they make you do some crazy initiation rite to get in.  The first picture is the trick bookshelf (the entrance to the restaurant).  The second picture is Kira in the phone booth (the exit).

#9) Play at home

We took a break from our Milwaukee tour several times and just spent time hanging out at home. Call us dorks, but Kira and I actually practice piano duets when we get together!  (This time it was Stars and Stripes Forever.)  We're coming out with a roommate CD one day-- us on the piano, Misty on the vocals, and we'll get Chelsey to be the dancer.  

#10) Other stuff...

We didn't do any of these extra things with Misty and Kira, so they'll just have to come back another time.  Here are a few more unique-to-Milwaukee ideas that are great to do with visitors: 

Brewers baseball game, Thursday night jazz in the parks, Stonefire Pizza, Organ Piper Pizza, Boerner Botanical Gardens, WI Humane Society, Paradise Landing indoor water park, Jelly Belly factory, The Puzzle Store, Harley Davidson museum, Discovery Zone, Kids in Motion, Swiss Turners gymnastics, Holy Hill, canoe down the Milwaukee river, shop at the Third Ward, AJ Bombers, Le Reve, Fox Bay Cinema Grill, and Lake Park Bistro. (Anything else???)

Thanks for coming Kira and Misty!  I loved our roommate reunion and was sad to see you go.  Bring me back something French!