Inside, the tour began with a slick 15-minute video presentation on Bud Selig's role in bringing a club to be known as the Brewers to Milwaukee following the Braves' unpopular departure for Atlanta. We meandered through the catacombs of the stadium, seeing corporate suites, roof control, and the stadium organ before ending up in the press box. A stack of current edition media guides drew my eye, but the most interesting part of the room was the foul ball memorial. The press box in Miller Park is very close to the field and is open-air. Balls fouled straight back often find their way into the box, leaving holes in the drywall fronts of the working media's desks. Each blemish is duly noted with date, batter and pitcher. Working our way down to field level, we saw the gameday chariot for the Famous Racing Sausages. The Brewers are out of town through Monday, so there was no sign of the Sausages.
We exited through the visitor's clubhouse tunnel and got to take in the whole scene. Miller Park holds over 41,000 fans but seems much cozier than that. I doubt there is a bad seat in the house. The view from the dugout was pretty good too. From the field we got a good look at the retractable roof system that makes this park unique. Five moveable sections can open or enclose the stadium in a span of just 10 minutes.
The two hour tour finished, we grabbed lunch at the park, and then headed across the highway to downtown Milwaukee's Riverwalk. We had booked a sightseeing cruise and our boat was arriving as we got there. Barry and I settled into prime seats on the sunny bow. I had brought the "real" Canon camera for this tour and as we left the dock, I snapped a few frames only to see the dreaded message that there was no memory card. Yes, I had left it on the salon table after doing the blog post from the previous evening. Frustrated, but still having my iPhone, I made do and got a few decent shots -- just a bit wider angle than I was hoping for. We traveled down the Milwaukee River and through the harbor protected by multiple breakwaters. Once we passed the white Milwaukee Breakwater Light we were officially in Lake Michigan. Barry and I chuckled as the other passengers were complaining how rolly the boat was. We were commenting how pleasantly calm it was.
We came back into the protected harbor and cruised by three huge marinas that surrounded a very large anchorage. It was good to see so such a large sailboat population here. There were a dozen or so sailing around the harbor. We passed by the Milwaukee Art Museum and its Burke Brise Soleil kinetic sculpture. The 217-foot wings fold in the evening and open in the morning. It didn't move at all for us, so we later watched this time-lapse video. Off to starboard as we headed back in was Veteran's Park which is hosting some of Harley-Davidson's 115th Anniversary activities. The red Milwaukee Pier Head Light marked our return to the Milwaukee River.
We hopped of the boat and walked the downtown district. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me was going to be recording at the Historic Riverside Theater this evening. City Hall stood grandly, looking much better than in the introductory title sequence to Laverne & Shirley. The "Welcome to Milwaukee" letters featured in the 70s TV show have since been removed and donated to a local museum. The rumble of bikes echoed everywhere as riders from all over the world are coming home to the birthplace of Harley-Davidson. The anniversary events culminate on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. with the Parade of Bikes through downtown. Thousands of riders are expected.
Our last stop was actually one of the weird reasons I wanted to visit downtown Milwaukee. Who could resist a photo-op with Bronze Fonz? We made our way to the life-size statue of Arthur Fonzarelli from Happy Days.
Reefpoint Marina in Racine has a great "stay one day, get one free deal" that combined with their attractive regular rates, makes staying here and exploring by car a no-brainer. Transient slips were difficult to come by in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend and VERY expensive. We will drive into Chicago tomorrow and plan to visit either the science museum or aquarium.
No comments:
Post a Comment