Madison to Milwaukee and FIE

We have done a lot in the last week, so there are a lot of pictures in this post. It was a great week and I hope you enjoy hearing about it and seeing what we saw.
The last day in Madison we saw these socks, which those of you who know Welly will think are funny.

We had to check out of the hotel but Llew had and Alice both had meetings so we spent some time in a coffee shop and then cafe/bar.

Then we took off for the relatively short (1.5 hour) drive to Milwaukee. Along the way we passed Oconomowoc which has the claim to fame that every other letter is an "o". Yay.

The first full day in Milwaukee, Philip, Isabelle, Llew and I went to the Milwaukee zoo. We got there when it opened. It was great. I had not seen gorillas since I was 10. Everything else was great. We all enjoyed seeing all of the animals including the very clever elephant who knew about counterbalance! Here are the photos. (By the way, if you click a third time on the box, it will go to Picassa website with bigger photos if you want.)

Wednesday we went to the Art Museum which has a fascinating bird like structure on top that opens at 10am, opens and closes at noon so it looks like it flaps its wings then closes at night. We saw the noon flap. Inside we saw some classic art and some modern pieces including a projection video self portrain on a doll under a chair. Hmmm. Here are the photos of the flap and the inside.

Later that day we walked around Milwaukee. There is lots of interesting architecture and the river runs right through the middle. You guessed it, more photos!

Lastly was the Miller Brewery tour which was organised and paid for by the conference. We took the bus there at 4pm. We got to spend 1/2 hour in the gift shop or looking at a history display which was a bit too long but OK. Then we saw a 12 minute video that was SO funny! It was all about "Miller Time!" and was a typical beer add, just longer. Really funny. We saw the bottling and canning lines but not the brewhouse because that would entail a 60 step climb which was a bit too much for some! They also distribute Fosters which, as usual, is claimed to be "Australian for beer". They gave us dinner, just very boring brats on bread, but we got 3 beer each which was good for a tour. I think Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft and High Life all taste the same, but the wheat was more flavourful. I ended up with 4. At least it was free and did not taste bad, just cheap. I will take that for free!

Other places we visited were Rockbottom brewery with good beer, Milwaukee Ale House with pretty bad beer, and Mo's with OK beer.

So that was Milwaukee in all its glory... and not. Sounds more like a beer city doesn't it?