Milwaukee Truly is a Great Place on a Great Lake!
Written: Feb 18 '00 (Updated Sep 17 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great Festivals, Lots of things to do
Cons: Cold weather in the winter
|
|
|
| craigmoosh's Full Review: Milwaukee |
Review Topic: Sights & Attractions
While Milwaukee is most well-known for being the hometown of Craigmoosh, believe it or not, there's a lot more to the city than that. I've lived in the Milwaukee area my entire life. Armed with all this vast knowledge of the city, I'm ready to share it with you, the home viewer!
Milwaukee is located in southeast Wisconsin, with Lake Michigan (the world's sixth largest fresh water lake) flanking the city on the east. Chicago is just 90 miles to the south. Milwaukee has a population of 600,000 people, with 1.6 million in the metro area, making it the nation's 17th largest city. The name Milwaukee is derived from the Native American "milliocki," which means "gathering place by the waters" (not "I need another beer" as is often thought).
The first thing many people would do if they found themselves in Milwaukee is of course to run to the airport screaming... but that shouldn't be the case. Believe it or not, Milwaukee is a great place to be in the summer. No, REALLY! Milwaukee is known as the "City of Festivals" for a reason. The beautiful Summerfest grounds on the lake shore are home to 15 annual festivals, which draw over 1.5 million visitors each summer. The unique annual ethnic festivals include Festa Italiana, Polish Fest, Mexican Fiesta, and German Fest.
By far, the biggest event of the year is Summerfest. Summerfest is an 11 day event, which is billed as the world's largest music festival, and draws up to 100,000 visitors EACH DAY. Summerfest has 12 stages throughout the grounds, which cover all genres of music, and a comedy stage. Whether you're interested in rock, pop, blues, country, jazz, big band, alternative, or cajun, you'll find it at Summerfest. Over the years, Summerfest has had an impressive list of performers including Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Pearl Jam, John Mellencamp, The Beach Boys, Dave Matthews Band, Metallica, Paul Simon, and Michael Bolton (hey, I didn't say they were all good!). Performers on the comedy stage have included Jay Leno, Dennis Miller, George Carlin, and Billy Crystal. The big negative about Summerfest is the very high drunk to sober ratio of the patrons. It's kind of like bumper cars for drunk people, only without the bumper cars.
Each July, Milwaukee is home to the Great Circus Parade, which draws close to a million spectators downtown. Warning: if you're afraid of clowns, stay away from this parade!
Milwaukee is proud home to Harley-Davidson. Every five years, Harley-Davidson has an anniversary celebration in the city, which is always a huge event (when major stars come to Milwaukee to hang out, you know it's a big event!). Tens of thousands of people ride their "Hogs" from all over the country to converge on Milwaukee. There is a rally, music, and lots of beer drinking (beer drinking is a common theme to almost any event in Milwaukee). The next celebration in 2003 will be the company's 100th anniversary, and is expected to be the biggest party the city has ever seen.
Milwaukee is also a major league sports town, with the Bucks of the NBA, the Brewers of Major League Baseball, and the Milwaukee Wave NPSL soccer team. Although the Green Bay Packers no longer play any games in Milwaukee (they played 2 regular season games at Milwaukee County Stadium until 1994), people still consider them a hometown team. Construction is underway on Miller Park, a new stadium for the Brewers, which should be ready for opening day 2001. Miller Park, which will be built at a cost of $400 million, will be a state-of-the-art facility complete with a convertible roof that can close in 10 minutes if it starts to rain (or snow) during a game.
Another world class sports facility is the Pettit National Ice Center, which is the only facility of its kind in the country, and only one of five in the world. It is the official training center for the US Olympic speed skating team. Gold medalists Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair both did most of their training there. The ice center is also open year round for public skating.
For you animals, and animal lovers, the Milwaukee County Zoo is consistently ranked as one of the top zoos in the country. For you plant lovers, Mitchell Park Conservatory (aka "The Domes") is the place for you. It has 3 geodesic domes, which are each 7 stories tall (don't feel bad; I don't know what "geodesic" means either). The three domes each have a different climate with appropriate plant life. One is a tropical rain forest, one is an arid desert, and the other is a seasonal floral display.
One thing any visitor to Milwaukee must do is go on the Miller Brewery tour. Not only is the tour free, but they give you complimentary beer samples at the end of the tour! They are very generous with their samples too, and people are known to go on the tour just for the free beer.
Okay, I know what you're thinking: "Craigmoosh, this is the most brilliant review I've ever read, but what about the weather?" That's a great question! The weather is my least favorite thing about this area. The winters are bitter cold. Although the coldest day this year was a balmy 2 below (also where Elvis was born), it's not unusual to have a few days each winter with temperatures of -10 or less (and that's before factoring in the wind chill). Then there's the snow. Yeah, yeah, snow is beautiful, but it's also terrible for driving. One thing that some people don't realize is that it can get pretty hot here in the summer. The average high temperature in July is 80 degrees, and it usually gets up into the nineties several times a summer. When you add in the high humidity, it can get quite uncomfortable. The weather in late spring and early fall is generally very pleasant.
So there you have it. Milwaukee truly is a great city. If you're planning a visit to Milwaukee, I'd definitely recommend coming in the summer. There are always a multitude of things to do. REALLY!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
craigmoosh
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Craig
Location: Mequon, Wisconsin
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 200 members
About Me:
100,000 readers can't be wrong!! Well, okay, they *could* be...
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.