2007 12 13-14 Bill and Jean in Milwaukee

Our 2006 Christmas gift from Eric and Jenn, Al and Mindy, and Steve and Maria was two Museum Packages at the Pfister Hotel, one of Milwaukee's 19th Century landmarks. We used one of them for a winter get-away just before Christmas 2007. It was a wonderful night and two days, and we're looking forward to using the other package soon.

This is the entrance of the Pfister where the valet parking and greeting personnel took care of the car and luggage for us.

After checking in we bundled up and walked the three blocks to the Milwaukee Art Museum, where we saw the traveling Martin Ramirez exhibit as well as quite a bit of the museum's own collection.

Across the street from the Pfister are other interesting examples of 19th Century Milwaukee architecture. The building above is the Federal Building-US Court House. Below is Milwaukee's oldest and most exclusive club, The Milwaukee Club, which is unmarked. We had to ask the concierge what it was.

Bill had once had the lunch buffet at the Pfister's Cafe Rouge and had wanted to share the experience with Jean. This was our opportunity. It was delicious!

When we got home, the first thing Bill did was write an email to the people who gave us the gift and inspired us to do this. It describes the activities we packed into two days while still finding time to relax and enjoy the ambiance of this elegant historic hotel. I used Bill's email for the rest of this post. Here it is:

We just got back from our two-day mini-break in Milwaukee that we got from you as a Christmas present last year. It was a really wonderful little trip. We got to Milwaukee about noon yesterday after stopping to do some shopping on the way. The Pfister Hotel was wonderful. We stopped the car in valet parking and they did the rest. We were disappointed in the fact that the Cafe Rouge was no longer serving lunch. I had been there a year ago and thought that their lunch buffet was the best I had ever had. However, Peter, the friendly concierge, said that the Cafe was opening for a special group today and that he would get us in.

One of several nice things about the Pfister was that it was central to everything. After a nice lunch at the Mason Street Café in the hotel we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum. It was only three blocks from the Pfister, which was a pleasant surprise. They had an interesting traveling exhibit by a Mexican artist, Martin Ramirez, who created most of his work while in a mental hospital in California. Their regular collection was good, with representative pieces from all periods. The pre-19th century artists were generally unfamiliar to us, but we did see one by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, who is so prominent in the Brussels art museum collection that we recognized his style. Among the Impressionists we saw one by Alfred Sisley. The modern and contemporary collection included works by Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Leger, Alexej Von Jawlensky, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, and Andy Warhol (Campbell Soup). They had about two dozen works by Georgia O'Keeffe, who was a Wisconsin native.

On returning to the Pfister, we opened the bottle of wine that came with the package and rested and read for an hour. We then walked five blocks to the Pabst Theater to see The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s production of Dickens’ Christmas Carol. It was a real delight. Even though the scene with the Cratchit family wheeling a tiny coffin to the cemetery had half the theater in tears, it was a fun production and very family oriented. I hope that we can take grandchildren sometime.

Today we slept in and had a late breakfast at the hotel. We then did a walk in the neighborhood (lots of 19th century buildings), and then had the long-awaited lunch at the Cafe Rouge. It was as good as I remembered. After lunch we checked out and drove a short distance to the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he saw an Imax film on the Alps, a planetarium presentation on theories related to the Christmas Star of Bethlehem, and an exhibit on global warming. We left the museum about 4:30 and were back in Ripon in time for supper.

Overall, it was a truly wonderful trip which was made even more wonderful by the discovery that you had provided us with two overnights so that we can go back again. The Pfister was really delightful. Staying in a four-star is always nice. The central location was appreciated. In addition, the staff was really friendly and outgoing. We had such a good time that I think we will plan to take such mini-breaks more often. Milwaukee is small enough to be manageable yet it still has a number of attractions that will justify return trips.