Wisconsin: Family-Friendly Milwaukee

Milwaukee seems like a great place to grow up.

Lake Michigan beaches let toddlers
get their feet sandy.

 When I lived in Chicago in the late 1970s, I visited Milwaukee a couple of times (once for a Kinks concert at what was then called the Performing Arts Center), but I never knew the city well.  Now living in San Diego, I find myself in Milwaukee more often than when I lived 90 miles away in Chicago. My son has lived there for years now, met his wife and got married there, and graduated from law school there. They're raising their twin sons (almost nine months old as I write this) in this clean, friendly and surprisingly woke city.  When Jane and I first came to visit them here, we toured tiny neighborhood cocktail bars, beer bars with multiple pinball machines and trivia nights, and some excellent restaurants. Visits these days revolve around nap times and eateries that can accommodate a double stroller. 

       Jane and I just spent eight days there, giving us a chance to revisit the trendy Third Ward and to spend a few minutes walking along Lake Michigan. In the past we've stayed downtown at a Hilton Garden Inn just north of the Third Ward, and at the Saint Kate, a hotel near the Fiserv Forum (site of the 2024 Republican National Convention). This time we picked the Journeyman, a lively Kimpton hotel in the heart of the Third Ward with a far-too-popular rooftop bar.  Next time we think we'll return to the quieter Saint Kate, which is just a few blocks north of the Third Ward and has an excellent and serene  Champagne lounge.

       Jane and I had dinner a few times in the Third Ward, including at our hotel's restaurant, Tre Rivoli,  which makes a decent pizza. We had Indian food at Saffron on a deck overlooking the Milwaukee River. Saffron has one of the most unusual cocktail lists I've ever seen, some served with smoke-filled bubbles.  Edison, an old-school place on Broadway, the main drag, provided Jane with a perfect branzino and me with a succulent pork chop. 

       The Third Ward has interesting shops and restaurants, but it's the neighborhoods north of downtown that our son has lived in, in a couple of apartments before buying a condo in a neighborhood known as Downer Woods, with Lake Michigan to the east and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee campus to the west. It's a neighborhood of small multifamily buildings and stunningly large single-family mansions, many of them a century or so old and most of them in immaculate condition with manicured grounds. The shady sidewalks seem made for pushing baby strollers and the park playgrounds promise idyllic childhoods. We took the boys on a stroller ride through the campus, which I think should count as their first college visit.

      Jane and I had one lunch by ourselves and then a dinner with our son, daughter-in-law, and the twins on the patio at Cafe Hollander on nearby Downer Avenue. Cafe Hollander is a Belgian-style brasserie with several locations and reliable moules-frites. Another good outdoor family dinner was at Sala, a stroller-friendly Sicilian cafe a few blocks from their condo.

       Although I've been in Milwaukee a good bit in recent years, this is the first time I've posted about it. In the past I've visited the magnificent Santiago Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Museum of Art, but I didn't photograph it and I didn't see it on this last trip. The snapshots below, all from my August 2024 trip, offer a very limited view of a great American city:

Much of the lakefront north of downtown looks like this.

You can try, but there's no point looking for
whales in Lake Michigan.

A huge residential tower downtown as seen from
the Milwaukee's lake front.

Here's another view of that tower. We saw some swimmers,
 but there were more dogs than people in the water.

The Public Market is at the northern edge of the Third Ward and the 
southern edge of downtown.   

Inside the Public Market are candy counters, seafood
stalls and other vendors.

As it passes the Third Ward, the Milwaukee River
is lined by a restaurant-dotted walkway.

The patio at Cafe Hollander.

Throughout our son's posh neighborhood we saw
signs that Milwaukee is surprisingly woke.

Wokeness, an awareness of social injustice, is evident
in many yard signs. These are not uncommon in
Southern California, where I live, and I was
pleasantly surprised to see them in the Midwest. 
I like the idea that my grandsons will be growing up 
in such a community.

A Black Lives Matter sign adorns a lawn
in a neighborhood of mansions.

Shade trees and large houses line the streets in Downer Woods.

Who wouldn't want to push a stroller 
down this sidewalk?

One of many impressive homes 
in Downer Woods.

Two baby swings are just what these twins need.