Milwaukee Public Museum

 

This morning Travalon and I hit the road, stopping at Lapham Peak to powder our noses. Was it ever crowded there! The whole world seemed to be there for cross-country skiing. Then we met Tiffy at the Park and Ride we usually meet at, and we drove downtown to the parking ramp for the Milwaukee Public Museum. We walked to a nearby "fast food" Mediterranean restaurant for lunch; my chicken shawarma "sandwich" was actually a wrap, which is a bummer because I love pita bread, but even with less bread I could only eat half of it. (Fortunately in this weather, I could leave the other half in the car and it would be fine.) Then we met my old college pal (who is Tiffy's old high school pal) and her friend at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Because our old pal is a member, she could get Tiffy in for free, and the other lady became a member right then, so she could get me in for free. Only poor Travalon had to pay for his entry, but it's not that expensive. He'd been wanting to go, since this is the last year they will be in their current location, and the new location is smaller and will not have room for the Streets of Old Milwaukee display.

We started with that display, which was still decorated for Christmas and still had Christmas carols playing in the background. Travalon took some photos. For some reason these loaded in the opposite order I requested, so this is a balalaika and a mandolin at the end of the exhibit.

I took this photo of the mandolin.

This is the Irish House, or Teach na Gaelge. I don't like the fake people - Uncanny Valley overload!

This is the Polish House.

I'm pretty sure this is the Croatian House. Note the tamburitzas, or small stringed instruments.

This is the Hungarian House.

We went to all the exhibits in the museum. Travalon took some photos from the Butterfly Room.

I loved the West African and Polynesian art, but I didn't take any photos of it, and neither did Travalon. He took photos of the animals - our old pal said, "It's good to see they found a use for the animals from the zoo once they die!" Here are some photos.

The one lady and I were at one point sitting and waiting for the others when we saw a display of all sorts of fancy birds (macaws, ibises, lories, pheasants, etc.), and a chicken was in with them. I laughed about that, but she pointed out that the "chicken" had a long tail, so now we really wonder what it was. It wasn't even a brown chicken, like you might expect in the wild, but a pure white one with a big red comb and wattles. Oh yeah, I got a free patch which I forgot to take a photo of. I really need to find something to put all these patches on, because I also have a bunch from all those years of doing the Mammoth Hike Challenge.

Once we had seen everything in the museum, we went to a place called Wonita which has a great deal: for a set price, you can have as much sushi as you want, as many appetizers as you want, as much dessert as you want, and an entree. I had miso soup, a sushi roll, a taro bun, a green tea mochi, and some red bean ice cream that I shared with everyone else so I didn't eat all that much of it. The waitress even said that since we were all getting the "all you can eat" deal, we could share food, so Tiffy said next time we should plan it better so we could treat it like tapas. The catch is that you can't take anything home if you get the deal, so I had considered eating a la carte, because with this diet drug my appetite is not huge lately, but I did decide to go for the deal. They probably loved me - I wasn't eating a ton like everyone else. I saw two guys sitting at a table eating vast quantities of sushi. Did I even get my money's worth? Maybe if you added up everything I had, it would have been more than the price of the deal. Maybe. Anyway, we loved this place and would happily go back.

Jilly Moose sent this photo of Chambord, a moose we gave her.

A different sort of stuffed animal than the ones we saw at the museum today. Travalon and I did buy a tiny stuffed dinosaur for almost nothing, especially after the "member discount" I got for being a member's guest. There was a surprisingly expensive dragon that I loved, so I may have to go back for it next week.

Famous Hat