Milwaukee Vacation: The Third Ward

Everyone told us, "If you go to Milwaukee, you have to see the third ward." So we did. I have to say I liked this part of Milwaukee best. It's located along the river, and has lots of interesting stores and restaurants.

 

The Milwaukee Public Market was amazing. I really wish there was something similar in the Chicago Suburbs. Basically it's a huge open building with food related vendors.

There was a spice shop, a wine shop, a fancy cheese place, a candy shop, a bakery, and a fresh flower shop.

We decided to try the seafood vendor for lunch, and they had an awesome lobster lunch.

Nothing like lobster dipped in melted butter to make an afternoon special.

I think I would go to the public market everyday if there was one around my house. I loved the chocolate shop. I think my favorite thing were the dark chocolate sea salt caramels. (Yum!)

After lunch, we went on a boat tour of the Milwaukee River and part of Lake Michigan. Though it was a cloudy day, we still got great views of the city, and learned about the architecture and history as well.

See the bridge in the picture above? Some of the bridges in Milwaukee actually raise up like that, almost like they are on stilts. That's how the boats can fit underneath.

The boat tour was really interesting, and also relaxing. We had a few drinks and sat up on the deck, watching the city and enjoying our freedom.

Milwaukee really reminded me of Chicago in many ways. It was, however, much smaller and easier to navigate. I recently got a new smartphone, an HTC Merge, and it has a GPS as well as Internet access. So we were able to look up any place in Milwaukee, figure out which places were closest, and choose that way. For example, Greg wanted to find a bookstore, so I found him one, complete with resident kitties.