By: Diane Benjamin
Sorry readers – no posts this weekend other than Weekend Fun – I took the weekend OFF!
One of my millennials lives in Waukesha, Wi. so we headed up for a visit. Waukesha is just west of Milwaukee. Lake Michigan makes Milwaukee an interesting place, it wasn’t a big ugly city. They have lots of bypass and highway construction going on, some places looked like a spider web of roads. Everywhere we went in Wisconsin there was a lot of construction. The only places in Illinois we saw any construction was repairs on Interstate 39. A couple of places were one lane for MILES.
It costs $1.90 to leave Illinois and come back. Look at a map. Yes, it’s possible to avoid! When Illinois throws money away on signs that cross all lanes of the Interstate telling how many people died on Illinois roads, they don’t deserve the money. Government’s job is not to parent IDOT.
Wisconsin is a series of small towns very close together. The roads were not filled with potholes, but they weren’t smooth either. Part of the time we drove around in an extended cab pickup truck, I felt like I was riding a horse! When we switched to a car it wasn’t as bad, but smooth cruising wasn’t available in a lot of places. Maybe it has something to do with the type of construction they use because of the harsh winters.
Back to Waukesha. It’s slightly smaller than Bloomington, but they do have a thriving downtown. Carroll College (2700 full-time students) is close by, so it’s not that much different from Bloomington. They have bike paths, but I don’t remember seeing a single bike. There are many bars and restaurants, but other businesses too. One big difference – their downtown businesses stay open later than Bloomington’s. I’m talking about antique shops, misc retail, and an upscale grocery store. The big grocery store was the only “new” build. The other shops were old character buildings, most not more than 1-2 stories tall. Free unlimited time parking was available on the street, not in parking garages. White stripes are painted on the road for crosswalks. Vehicles are supposed to stop if pedestrians are present and most do, I wouldn’t just start walking though. If there was a downtown hotel, I didn’t see it.
By the way, if you get a parking ticket in downtown Bloomington for MOVING your car to another space because your time was up in the first space – make Bloomington prove it’s illegal. Sources tell me their signage isn’t right and therefore you can’t be ticketed for just moving to a different spot.
The scenery is MUCH better than Illinois, it’s not difficult to beat corn and bean fields! The leaves were just starting to change colors, next weekend should be spectacular. If Wisconsin wasn’t colder than here with more snow, I’d consider moving. It’s going to stay a great place to visit for now.
It was homecoming on the Carroll campus. The police do a fun thing with the kids. I think they called it Police Run. It’s the only time it’s legal to run from the cops, the cops chase students on motorcycles. Evidently it’s a big deal on campus.
We hit a lot of different places, but if you are in the area – eat here: http://www.foxandhoundsrestaurant.com/
Don’t ask me for directions, it’s out in the middle of nowhere!
In the past day’s of Bloomingtons GLORY the stores DOWNTOWN stayed open till 9 p.m. and EVERYONE was there, women would shop and the men would sit around the square and chat. The place was busy!
Speaking of signs-has anyone seen those “spiffy” new CONNECT TRANSIT signs popping up !! that 1% tax is sure getting us some quality of life. Now I can see where the bus stops from 100 feet away! Hope the drivers can too.
Shared public and reminded readers of the yard and vehicles.
Glad you had a good time in Wisconsin, too bad you went to the metro side of the state instead of the SCENIC side. Plan on visiting La Crosse sometime, especially if you want to see a VIBRANT downtown. Lots of life in the old refurbished buildings, and plenty of new construction of several new hotels. Lots of biking here, especially on the old rail corridor bike trails ($20.00 yearly fee for unlimited use of your bike on the trails) trails are well maintained and very user friendly. Trails extend throughout the entire state. Weather here can be colder than Bloomington, but our growing seasons are nearly identical, and the snow…well it’s winter, you deal with it and appreciate spring that much more….only 6 days this year over 90 degrees. The scenery in the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi and the convergence of the La Crosse and Black rivers truly make this God’s Country (Old Style beer ads)Doug
I lived at Waukesha for a few years at the Mainstreet Plaza apartments in the downtown. I had a studio and I thought the rent was high not only there but every where else. Even a dumpy place was expensive in downtown Waukesha.
I didn’t think much of their downtown. It was mostly bars. They had more antique stores but several of those moved out of the downtown. I thought the city had really bad streets poorly maintained. They get frost heave that makes the streets and roads uneven. Parking at the downtown parking garages was really cheap. Something like $1 or $2 per day. I thought their winter snow removal was poorly done. Worse streets I have driven on in the winter. Snow removal was contracted out by the city as I recall.
Next time you go back try People’s Park. http://www.peoplesparkwaukesha.com/ It’s nice for a lunch or evening meal. I really like the face display they have above the bar. It burned a number of years ago and when they re-opened they had it back and they expanded the seating even up to the roof top. Their Facebook page has some pictures of the downtown of Waukesha, https://www.facebook.com/Peoples-Park-291096695632/photos/
Waukesha does the Christmas parade. Ice sculpting before Christmas. They have Friday Nights from May or June into Sept I think it is. Local bands and performers put on shows. I usually got the heck out of there. A few times I was around Friday evening. It was okay.
The YMCA there was really nice. People seemed to be friendly. Way much better than the B/N YMCA.
I have only been into Milwaukee a few times. It’s okay but no Chicago. A friend dragged me to where the old Pabst’s brewery was at. It was real slummy but they were cleaning the area up. About the only shopping I did was at Mayfair Mall and the Brookfield Mall. Both mall’s are way better than the one at Bloomington.
Waukesha also has a major water problem looming. Past city council’s let that drag on too long and now it’s really going to cost them. The city dumped money into the downtown Clark Hotel and that was a flop. At one time they were talking a hotel and convention center about where the Waukesha State Bank is at.
Employment seemed to be pretty good because they had quite a few manufactuers in the city. The big grocery store is probably Woodman’s. It was sort of like Cub Foods but not quite as nice. They have no deli.
WI is known for it’s supper club restaurants. One day my friend who lives at Watertown took me to some place that is a hunting club/restaurant. It was similar to the Fox and Hounds. Here it is http://milfordhills.com/dining/overview I’m not much into eating game so I had cod fish. It wasn’t the greatest. I’ll take a Maggiano’s or Bravos restaurant up there any day. Both I wish B/N had.
The best Mexican restaurant up there at Milwaukee is Conejito’s. http://www.conejitos-place.com/conejitosmenu.html I think their chicken mole is the best. Cheap and reasonable. Not far from the Harley Davidson museum.
How long ago did you live there? The grocery store was like a big Fresh Market, I don’t think that was the name. Did you ever go to the Domes in Milwaukee? It’s part of the Park District but it was built without bonds back in the 60’s.
That was about 5 years ago. I was only up there during the week.
I’m going back up there next week but I don’t usually go thru Waukesha. I get off at south Moreland Rd. to get to Brookfield. Fresh Market must be new. I know on south Moreland in Brookfield I saw a new Walmart when I was there in June. There was some other construction going on too. They seem to keep building and expanding up there not unlike here at B/N. It seems like what ever Gov. Walker has been doing has helped.
Someone pointed the Domes out to me one day that we were going into Milwaukee to the Mexican restaurant or maybe I asked what those were. I have never been there. I went to the art museum one day along Lake Michigan. It was okay but nothing to rave about. I never went to the Harley Davidson museum too.
One thing I don’t like up there are the police sitting looking to nab people. Not that I’m someone to go around speeding. Just seemed like they were out for the money by writing tickets. Even on the interstate the county police are allowed to patrol along with the state police. Whereas down here when was the last time anyone has seen the B/N police writing tickets. Gawd knows Veteran’s Pkwy speedway has enough speed limit violators that they could fund the city to reduce the deficit.
One thing about driving in WI to be aware of. If you happen to bump into a vehicle and don’t know it or if someone claims you hit them and if the damages are less than $1,000 then no accident report has to be filed but however if you get ticketed for failure to report the accident and go to court with proof of the damages are less than $1,000 what the city attorney or who ever will do is then turn around and ticket you for a hit and run. I had this happen to someone I know up there. Right there in the court room the city attorney can be allowed to do that. When they told me that I couldn’t believe it, All it is is a scare tactic to get people to pay a fine aka revenue for the city. I asked an attorney I know up there and he said yip they can and even he disagrees with it. So they know if a failure to report an accident won’t stick then they will stick you with a hit and run violation. I’m always careful when I drive up there. I remember seeing the Waukesha police report in the local newspaper and to me it seemed like a revenue stream for the police department. Oh yeah they would even park and shine a light into your car looking for people not wearing seat belts. I can’t wait to get out of that state and I’m someone who obeys the laws too.