Milwaukee, Beer Country

Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin, which means it is roughly the size of my high school’s graduating class. As we drove into the town we passed a neighborhood drinkery about every other block. It appears that these people take beer as serious as they take the Green Bay Packers. I’m glad to see they have their priorities in the right place. Our first stop was the Miller Brewing Company. We needed to get some drinks up in Heather to take her mind off of Bill Cosby. If for some reason you find yourself in Milwaukee, WI I highly recommend heading over to the brewery, where it is always Miller Time. It shouldn’t be hard to find, there is a huge sign which stands taller than anything in the city, it provides a nice vector to drive to.

We were there on a Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend so we expected our free tour to be packed out. We were wrong, it was just us and a 20 Japanese tourists, and the most affectionate couple in the US. The touchy-feely couple never went more than 3 seconds without physical contact which got kind of tricky as we headed up 6 flights of stairs that weren’t wide enough to walk side by side. Those two, and the Japanese taking pictures of everything from the tour guide to the eye wash faucet, were just about as entertaining as the tour. But the tour was still more captivating because it featured the funniest educational video of all time. The video, which was the history of the Miller Brewing Company, was narrated by the same guy who does the Miller High Life commercials. The Japanese tourists couldn’t quite figure out why the three of us were laughing uncontrollably when he said, “Goodbye Prohibition, hello Miller Time”. At the end of the tour you can write letters to the US troops stationed overseas and Miller will address them and mail them off. Just one of many things they do for our armed forces. They also gave us three free beers. It was such a nice afternoon and we had more than enough time before the game that we decided to head back to the car, change our shirts, and take the tour again to get another three free beers! It worked like a charm. It was that type of stuff which really made me enjoy my time at the brewery, Miller Time.

Right after the game we headed to Miller Park, home of the brewers, where tailgated is encourage. What a delight. In the parking lot of the stadium is a youth baseball field. How cool is that? Little kids kept help but play like pro players when they are staring at a professional stadium all game long. Heather and I had a catch in the parking lot, we sipped some beers, and all around had a great afternoon. Our tickets only cost $1 – which was a delight. By the first inning we were sitting 10 rows behind the third base dugout, even better. Miller Park is a great stadium with a retractable roof much like Bank One Ballpark in Arizona or Minute Maid Park in Houston. It is a clean looking stadium with a lot of character. And considering the Brewers are about 23 games out of the playoffs there was still a decent size crowd. Supposedly, on days when the Packers are playing there are only a couple of hundred of people at the game. Crazy Wisconsionians.