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Outdoor Gear From Laacke and Joys Milwaukee

February 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Laacke and Joy’s Company in Milwaukee has been an outdoor outfitter in Wisconsin longer than Wisconsin has been a state.

There are several types of sporting goods stores.

Some sell hunting equipment and heavy but durable camping equipment that you can take to a cabin in your car but would never carry far by foot. Some sporting goods stores sell bowling balls and basketball shoes in a mall. Still others sell the type of equipment you would carry if you were to go camping in the wilderness for a week or climb a mountain. More of an extreme [Read more...]

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The Packing House on Layton Ave. Milwaukee, WI

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Packing House is one of Milwaukee’s favorite restaurants.

If you drive on Layton Avenue past Mitchell International Airport on a Friday night, you’ll see a line of cars stretching around the block.

What makes people line up in their cars like people trying to get into a popular L.A. nightclub? It’s the Packing House Friday Fish Fry. On Friday, the Packing House has a drive up window for their Fish Fry and that is what many of those cars are picking up. They take cash only, no credit cards to keep the line moving. A Friday fish fry is a popular tradition in the Milwaukee area. The Packing House’s fish fry is well liked. It’s often a long line. [Read more...]

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Best Place Pabst Brewery Tour in Milwaukee WI

January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Pabst Brewery Tour at the Best Place offers a treat for both beer lovers and lovers of history and historic architecture.

Lets face it. Milwaukee is probably most famous for beer. At one time, nearly all the major beer producers were in Milwaukee. That included the largest, Pabst.

The Pabst brewery in Milwaukee closed in 1996.

A streetlamp outside one of the Pabst Brewery buildings

I watched a window just above this streetlamp shatter on the street

For years, the brewery buildings lay abandoned, vacant, and deteriorating. I have spent a lot of time parked in front of some of these buildings and they are impressive. In fact, I watched during a wind storm as a window was blown out of one of the buildings and the glass shattered on the road just across from where I was parked. I kind of thought that if I ever wanted to get photos of these old buildings I better start soon or they would not be around too long. However, something interesting happened to that particular building within a month. [Read more...]

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Penguin Antics At The Polar Bear Plunge Milwaukee Wisconsin

January 5, 2012 By 1 Comment

Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan Polar Bear Plunge

I thought I must be crazy to go to the Polar Bear event at Bradford Beach New Year’s Day.

The temperature was right at the freezing point. There were snow flurries in the air. For a while, I had mistaken the flurries for ashes from some of the campfires some had set up to keep warm on the beach. While the temperature was not bad by Wisconsin standards, it was the wind that was making it brutal. All morning 40+ mile an hour winds were ripping away any heat I seemed to be generating on my own. There was no protection from that freezing wind on the beach.  As I walked towards the beach, a man was leaving his car carying a large garage heater. Now that was a bit more like it!

“After 18 years of doing this, you start to learn a few things.” He told me.

Before and After the Polar Bear Plunge Milwaukee WI

Which photo is before and after the Polar Bear Plunge. Read the post to find out.

I am not one to get up early on New Year’s Day. I was thinking this is crazy. The only assurance of my own sanity was [Read more...]

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The Best Christmas Light Displays In Milwaukee Wisconsin

December 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The top five Christmas light displays in Milwaukee, WI.

Let’s face it, we all like to drive around and look at Christmas lights.

Christmas light at Pere Marquette Park Milwaukee Wisconsin

I’ve gone around looking for the best Christmas lights in the Milwaukee area and taken some photos to help guide you. This list also takes into account that “Christmas feeling” each has. To me, one of the leading spots didn’t actually have the most impressive lights. It did have a wonderful feeling and if I were taking my kids out on a Christmas celebration, I think it has a whole lot more going for it than some that had more impressive lights. I think that’s important. Looking at lights is fun but if some places can create a lasting memory that has more than just lights, I think that might be just as important.

So here is my list of the top 5 Christmas light displays to visit in Milwaukee. [Read more...]

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