Tour Guides for a Day

Merrick's mom and sister Lindsey came in town for a few days on their way to move Lindsey to Washington D.C. We wanted to make the detour worth their while so we drove around Milwaukee and showed them some sights. It was a nice excuse to go some places that we haven't gone to yet. Our first stop was Holy Hill which is a Shrine of Mary on the highest point in southest Wisconsin.

The Basilica is really beautiful and it gives some great views. Unfortunately the highest tower was closed due to some off-and-on rain but we still got to see some beautiful sights.

Then later in the day we drove through downtown Milwaukee and stopped at Bradford Beach to walk around in the sand for a little while and take some pictures.

We also went on a tour of the Sprecher Brewing Company. In addition to brewing beer, they make a variety of gourmet sodas. At times it was so loud we had a hard time hearing everything and Avery had a difficult time standing still for the 20 minute tour. But it was overall really interesting to learn some of the history and process.

The coolest part was that we got to sample all of the sodas (and we could have had beer too but of course we didn't). There were seven different kinds and we could go back for refills as often as we liked. After a while all that carbonation made me really full!

Our favorites were the root beer and the cream soda. They also had orange dream (tastes like a dreamsicle), Puma Kola, Cherry Cola, Ravin' Red (cherry cran), and ginger ale. Yum! We even got to keep our beer tasting glasses.

A few other things we did while they were here: a little shopping at Bayshore Town Center, Bowling at Sussex Bowl, lunch at Panera Bread, and Merrick took his mom and sister to see Angels & Demons, and what would be a foursome of Smith's getting together without a late night match of Pinochle! We had a great time and were sad that they had to get back on the road. Julie and Lindsey fell in love with our kids all over again and the kids couldn't get enough of the extra attention.