Gosh, for how close Milwaukee is to my home, I really haven’t explored it much. My experiences there are limited to the airport (LOVE using that airport), a Spartan race at Miller Park (but still haven’t seen the Brewers play there in person), lunch in the Third Ward, and various times running the South Shore Half (then eating at the Palomino Bar after). Oh… and driving through it. Yeah.
So Steven and I decided to stay over in Milwaukee the night before the marathon, and do a teeny bit of exploring. The marathon expo was in the Third Ward, so we started there.
/ HUGE TANGENT ALERT /
I do have to share something nutso that happened to me at the expo! I ran in to someone I know from my hometown in Iowa, that I haven’t seen since middle school! That’s about… sixteen years ago, folks! Due to the Facebook stalker side bar (you know, the mini feed in the desktop version), I had seen that this friend posted something about a run from Fleet Feet in Milwaukee earlier this week, but last I knew, she lived in Ohio. It turns out that she and her husband took over the Fleet Feet in Milwaukee and moved there four months ago!
Even more odd, a couple of years ago, when I was doing Fake Meats orders, I noticed someone with this friend’s name ordered some items, so I contacted her to ask if it was her. It was! So when I said hi at the expo, her husband was like “Oh! The Fake Meats people!” Hee hee! We didn’t get too much of a chance to catch up (the Fleet Feet booth was hoppin’!), but I’d really like to go back to visit, because, spoiler-alert, we really enjoyed what little exploring we did in Milwaukee!
And since we are talking about the expo, I will mention that I bought this hoodie (and a few other things), which I plan to wear every work from home day this week. Ha ha.
/ HUGE TANGET OVER /
We picked up a map of the Third Ward at the expo, and got a recommendation to check out the Milwaukee Public Market, which is an indoor food and gift market.
It was hard to walk by so many yummy food vendors and NOT get a million things to try. Normally I would, but I knew I shouldn’t get too crazy the night before a marathon (you’ll question that when you see what I had for dinner). We settled on falafel, an amazing rice/lentil/noodle/onion dish (ALL THE CARBS!!!) and a somosa. I also picked up a few gifts.
This WILL be recreated at home – all we need to do is add noodles to the lentils & rice dish Steven already makes
The market has seating around some of the vendors, and upstairs dining, too! It was neat to look out over the shops!
What is funny about this concept (dining above the shops) is that I had a project when I was in architectural school that was like this, and my professor told me “that would never work.” Ha ha.
After leaving the market we walked around the Third Ward, and did some window shopping (a lot of the shops were already closed for the night). We also must have seen at least four wedding parties! The area has a lot of neat opportunities for photos, even on a dreary, windy day!
I chose what I thought looked like a fun place to try out for our hotel – Aloft in the downtown area. I was intrigued by how hip and modern it looked. Unfortunately, our stay was not so great. The room was fine, and comfortable. But we had lots of noise issues with surrounding guests. It felt just like being at home* – where we can’t sleep because our neighbors are so loud and disrespectful (and cheap construction). Sigh.
The location ended up being just right, though**! Steven looked on HappyCow for restaurants with vegan options for dinner and found a ton of stuff. We decided to go to Ian’s pizza which was only two blocks from our hotel and had a ton of vegan pizza toppings!
You guys. I ordered the most ridic vegan pizza and it was DELICIOUS! Vegan cream sauce, vegan chicken, broccoli, TATER TOTS, and vegan ranch on top. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. We will be eating there again!
And that was the extent of Saturday’s exploration! We did as much as we could, while still trying to be responsible with the race the next day!
During Steven’s HappyCow research, he did find a vegan donut shop (Holey Moley Doughnuts) and made his way there while I was running (he planned to see me at mile 7.5 and 20, so he went between then). Steven loved their coffee and I REALLY loved having a vegan donut to eat with dinner last night! And probably dinner tonight too, ha ha.
It was a mini stay and we didn’t have a TON of time, but we made the most of it and are both excited to go back soon!
*Steven actually did a sound-proofing project in our bedroom this summer to try to help with the noise levels. It’s pretty bad.
**And it was only four blocks from a hotel where I picked up a shuttle to race start!
We ate there post race and I had the same falafel! It was delicious!!
Oh, how fun! I thought it was gooooood! What else did you get?! 🙂
I’ve never explored Milwaukee, either! Now I want to go for a weekend.
You guys should! And I think there are a lot of breweries there, too! We stayed right on the river walk but didn’t get to walk it (too late and windy) but that is something I’d like to do!
Those kind of markets are not that uncommon in Europe or even Asia. I think they are a great idea….I get to eat all of the food! IThat pizza looks amazing.
Looks fun! Milwaukee looks like a fun town, and I so adore those indoor markets. I’m glad you had a good time.
And … I might have to make a version of that pizza at home. I’m fairly certain that tater tots on pizza will score me big points with both boys at home!
YES! Make it. Think about THIS – tater tots for the crust! I saw a pic of a french fry crust and immediately thought to use tots! I am obvs not a healthy living blogger!
That pizza looks amazeballs.
You know, for all the times I’ve been in Milwaukee over the years (and seriously, I bet I’ve gone at least 10 times) I’ve still never made it to the Third Ward! I need to check it out. And that pizza looks pretty good, even for being vegan 😉
I hope you get a chance to check it out! It’s a fun area!
Fun! My dad spent a few years in Milwaukee in college at Marquette. I have only driven through it, but now I want to stop and eat all the food it has.
Crazy you ran into a middle school friend who is also a runner, or at least has a running store? I’m not sure I would recognize anyone I went to middle school with if I had not seen them in years…I hope you get to go back and spend more time with her.
Oh, how cool he went there! Two of my friends doing the marathon went there, too 🙂
It is so crazy. I always thought she was a super sweet gal in middle school, so she stuck with me. And I swear she looks the same!!! 🙂
Last year when I was walking to my corral for the Chicago Marathon, I saw a girl wearing a shirt from the school district I grew up in. I thought that was a pretty crazy coincidence, and then when I looked closer it turned out to be a girl I went to church with when I was REALLY young — like birth through second grade young. I probably hadn’t seen her in 15 years! Marathons must be really good at creating small world experiences 😉
I TOTALLY understand your neighbor situation. The people living next door to me are terrible on weekends (though not so much any more now that it’s cold). It’s SO frustrating, especially since there’s not much you can do about it (at least in my experience) :/
How cool that you ran in to her! Have you kept in touch since then?
The funny thing about when I did Chicago – I randomly ran in to two people I met at my 20 miler there. What are the odds of that? There are so many people!
Yes. I could go on and on about it. We are trying to find a way out of our home, it’s so horrible. I am hoping it gets cold and snowy soon to keep them inside. Isn’t that horrible? (and even then they are loud!)
I mainly have been in Milwaukee just to eat at Mader’s german restaurant. I have heard that Milwaukee has a nice looking museum on the lake as well. Oh yeah and lots o’ beer! 🙂
FUN! I love Milwaukee. I went to college there for a couple of years. I’d live there again in a heartbeat! The lakefront is so pretty and the downtown is nice too.
Sorry to hear about the noise. Our last place was in a vintage walk-up, so we could hear pretty much every step that was taken by the neighbors above us, in addition to hearing the ones below us fight. Now that we live in a converted warehouse with thick cement floors and walls, we only hear stuff if our windows are open, or sometimes people walking by in the hallway. SOOOO … you guys just need to move into our building. Olive will be totes excited.
We’d love to move… somewhere else in Lake County 🙂 We’re stuck in our house though 😉
I ended up spending two weeks there for work, I barely got out of the hotel/courthouse
I love going to Milwaukee for a day trip or for dinner! We like the Bay View neighborhood- lots of fun restaurants!
Mmm… I didn’t realize there were such good eats in MKE! Will have to check those places out!
I lived in the Chicago suburbs for 8 years and only went to Milwaukee a couple times, the most notable being to see the Violent Femmes live when their first album came out something like 30 years ago! Back then it seemed kind of run down – I had no idea the city has gotten so nice!
Sorry you have noise issues with your neighbors – we do too, and it sucks.
Milwaukee sounds like a lot of fun!! I’m disappointed that your stay at Aloft wasn’t awesome! We have stayed at 2 and both times we have bad a pretty good experience! Did the soundproofing help any?? I don’t like disrespectful people!
=^..^=
I am bummed, too. I think it didn’t help that our room was by a noisy street, and that our neighbors let their dog bark all night (just. like. home.). And I will NEVER understand people who need to scream and run up and down a hotel hallway!
It helped a little but not enough 🙁
I’ve been to Milwaukee a few times. My friend Katelyn lives there now. This makes me want to go visit her again!
Your mini-stay sounds really fun, except for the stupid hotel room issues. I guess it’s cheaper to build hotels with thin walls, but seriously, it does not make for good reviews!
The things you got to eat in Milwaukee look fantastic too. Tater tots on pizza, WHAT?! Was the rice-lentil-noodle dish called “koshari”? (I was guessing because you said you also got falafel. My friend who studied abroad in Egypt told me about some Egyptian lentil dish with pasta, so maybe it’s the same? Either way, I’ll be interested to see how you and Steven recreate it!)
Next up – tator tots AS pizza crust WHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT?!?!? hee hee
I bet that was it! They didn’t have an official name but the description mostly fits. Thanks for telling me what it’s called! 🙂