Even though this was only our second Splorin’ Saturday, we had to divert from the original “plan.” First, we were visitin’ our daughter Carrie at Marquette University for her 20th birthday and second, there was a major Winter Storm comin’ in tryin’ to disrupt our Splorin’. We were going to try to find a way to get our splorin’ in anyway!!
Friday was Carrie’s birthday and her Spring concert for the Marquette University Liturgical Choir. We absolutely love the liturgical choir — they make beautiful music and no doubt add a lot to the weekly masses when they sing. Gettin’ to listen to them in inside the Church of the Gesu makes it a totally movin’ experience.
Carrie sings both Alto and Tenor in the choir, don’t know how, but she does. The concert was simply amazin’. We had a late dinner and ended the evenin’ droppin’ her off at her “study place”, Cudahy Hall at about 10PM.
Saturday was Winter Storm day — the warnin’s we had been listening to for the last two days said 5 to 8 inches of wet heavy snow with significant blowin’ and driftin’ afterward. If we wanted to get our Splorin’ in, it was going to have to be early. We got up at the (butt) crack of dawn and headed to Lakeshore State Park. We thought it would be nice to get there to enjoy the sunrise over Lake Michigan, but silly Mike thought it would be cloudy (afterall there was a WINTER STORM coming) and not worth it …..so we got going a little later and had to enjoy the beautiful sunrise from the car on I-94 East headin’ towards downtown Milwaukee. We made it to the park about 10 minutes after sunrise and it was still beautiful.
Walkin’ the trails along the lake was absolutely beautiful (albeit a little chilly). We saw lots of birds includin’ Red-winged Blackbirds that would basically let you walk right up to them, but flew away as soon as you took your phone out. We even got to see a cute little puppy that was absolutely terrified of us — Tammy tried talkin’ to it and it just could not get far enough away from us.
We also saw lots of people “fishin'” includin’ one guy sittin’ in his car listenin’ to the radio while he had three lines in the water — not “real” fishin’ then.
We then walked to and through Veterans Park. They were in the process of settin’ up the park for the Sweet Home Wisconsin 5K race. The race sounds cool — you get a Bloody Mary before the race, a beer after the race and the medal you get for finishin’ is a combination beer bottle opener and a magnet. Thankfully they are a beer drinkin’ bunch and not early risers, so we were able to complete our walk without gettin’ run over by a bunch of people runnin’ a race. We made it back to the car havin’ walked 4.93 miles….so close to 5 – and all by 9 am! So far no rain or snow, although Tam was getting a little anxious about the stormy looking skies.
Breakfast, which usually comes before the Splorin’, was at Sweet Diner in the Third Ward. The food was amazin’…and the hot coffee was….thawin’. Had it not been so early and had we not been so cold, we might have partaken in their adult beverages. After breakfast we wandered up to the Milwaukee Public Market. The last time we were there was at Christmas 2 years ago and there were a million people there, so it was nice to walk through when it was almost completely empty.
We picked up Carrie after her tutoring gig (after our obligatory stop at Coopers’ Hawk for a tasting and to pick up our wine club bottles) and decided on Steny’s for a quick, but small, lunch. Food was very good, not at all small though, and it was a really fun, neighborhood place. I think we will be back. Mike spent the afternoon nappin’ and Tam spent the afternoon catchin’ up on Words With Friends, while Carrie was hard at work studyin’. It finally did start to snow a bit right around 4:30 pm, just as we were leavin’ for the Supper Club part of our Saturday.
As another departure from our original splorinsaturday, tonight’s Supper Club experience included Carrie and two of her friends, Elena and Kate, to celebrate her birthday. The Packing House was a very iconic, 50’s style Supper Club. We had early reservations because when we called, the host told us there were 2 parties of 30+ people scheduled to dine at 5:30. Yep, it was pretty packed. The food was very good, albeit a bit pricey, and the relish tray was a little sparse, but fresh. (missing the 2 pickles we already ate too)
Tam decided to “cheat” just a bit and ordered the Beef Wellington since it is not often featured — it was definitely worth the few extra carbs! Our waitress was not super thrilled about her job and it definitely showed — although it really could have been just because they were so busy. The service was exceptional, just not the friendliest we have encountered. Carrie finished her meal with a birthday sundae and the girls split a chocolate mousse cake too. But the rainbow jello brought from home was more popular I think. It was snowing pretty hard when we left the restaurant but I think all in all, the Winter Storm was a bust and there was maybe 2 inches at the end of the night.
Typically, “splorin’saturday” doesn’t spill over into “splorin’sunday” but this time we decided to spent one more day in Milwaukee and took Carrie (and Elena) to her favorite place: the zoo. The weather was just beautiful and most of the snow was gone by the time we got there. We have “splored” there many times and, although Mike and Carrie never were able to come up with the “optimal route,” I believe we were able to see everything -except the elephants who were not on display, much to Elena’s dismay. Tam’s fave, the giraffes, were a perfect photo op however:
The day ended way too quickly but it was a lot of fun and we got in our 10,000 steps. We love going to the zoo with Carrie — she really is as excited now as when she was 10 yrs old at the zoo. We introduced Elena to the “song” (“…where are we going today Gymbo?”) and pressed pennies.
We stopped at another small supper club, Smitty’s Overtime Inn, in Tomah on the way home (as long as it was still part of the weekend, we figured we could splurge on 2 supper clubs 🙂 and the food was very good. (fish for both of us) And true to “splorin’saturday” rules — we made it home right about sunset.
(disclaimer — the abundance of apostrophes are courtesy of Mike 🙂
Splorin' Saturday 