Milwaukee

When we left Chicago, we took Lake Shore Drive on the way to Milwaukee.  The

drive had some very nice scenery, either by the lake or winding through some of

the upscale suburbs of Chicago.  We passed by North Western University, and a

really cool Moslem in that same town.  Milwaukee was quite different than

Chicago… I obviously wasn't aware of the drastic size difference compared to

Chicago; of course I guess it's pretty hard for any city to even come close to

Chicago.  But Milwaukee felt even smaller than Richmond.  Anyway, we stayed

right downtown, a few blocks from the river that runs right through the city,

and a few more from the museum.  The weather was not so great while we were in Milwaukee… we arrived in the afternoon, exhausted, and the next day was pretty much devoted to the Milwaukee Art Museum.  Unfortunately, since it was

overcast/drizzle we did not get to see the brise soleil open and close,

apparently it's not done when it's raining.  Nonetheless, the museum was

impressive.  You see the space in so many pictures, but it doesn't even compare

to actually standing in the middle of it.  The artwork in the museum of course

was hard to compare with the Art Institute, but there were actually quite a few

Donald Judd's and some amazing watercolor, along with some other noteworthy

pieces.  The security guards/make-sure-you-don’t-touch-the-art people kept

talking to me, which was very distracting, and quite unusual, but I assume they

were just trying to be nice.  Jeff and I were 2 of like 8 people there, so I'm

sure the guards were bored.  After the museum, Jeff and I went back to the room

and crashed, we took like a 5 hour nap.  I guess all the running had finally

caught up, plus it was nice to sleep on a decent bed, instead of the paper

sheets one in Chicago.  That night we ate along the river walk, which was very

nice, and it seems like almost every restaurant has it's own beers… I'm sure

it's some kind of reputation that the city wants to up hold.  Jeff's flight

back to D.C. left at 7am the next morning, so he left the hotel at 5am.  He

leaves for Switzerland on the 9th of Sept.  I drove on to Madison by myself (on

one hand kind of nice, on the other kind of scary) and met my grand parents just

outside of the city.  They will drive the rest of the way to Cody with me.