15 – 17 July 2020

Milwaukee Art Museum

Continuing our tour of the Great Lakes, we drove up the west side of Lake Michigan through Wisconsin, one of only three states I had yet to visit.  (Only two left, Rhode Island and North Dakota!)  Our first day in America’s Dairyland was spent in Madison, the state capital and home to the University of Wisconsin.  It is a small city but filled with interesting neighborhoods, parks and access to several lakes.  The Wisconsin State Capitol is one of our favorites.  It is perched on a hill in the center of town and has maintained its stature as the tallest building in town.  Similar to the scene in Columbus, evidence of the recent BLM protests was evident throughout the city and especially surrounding the capitol.  The University of Wisconsin is a nice campus.  We liked it better than OSU, but still no State College, PA.  After touring Madison, we checked-in to our hotel for a few nights in Milwaukee.

Madison

Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, is best known for breweries and Harley ‘hogs’ but we found a very livable small city.  I knew very little about the city’s history before arriving.  It was founded by Solomon Juneau, a French Canadian.  If his name sounds familiar, it was his cousin, Joseph Juneau, who founded Alaska’s capital city.  We stayed downtown and walked extensively throughout town.  The Riverwalk was our family favorite.  The Harley Davidson Museum is definitely worth a visit.

Milwaukee

Harley-Davidson Museum

Green Bay was our last stop in Wisconsin.  On our drive from Milwaukee to Houghton, Michigan, we stopped in Green Bay.  The downtown and surrounding areas were lackluster but the highlight of any trip there is Lambeau Field, hallowed ground for any football fan.  The Green Bay Packers celebrated their 100 year anniversary in 2019.  Founded in 1909 by Earl ‘Curly” Lambeau and George Calhoun, they started playing on Indian Packing Company’s athletic field and adopted their name in exchange for sponsorship and uniforms.  One of original teams of the National Football League, the Packers won the first two Super Bowls and the Lombardy Trophy is named after their legendary coach.

Green Bay