3 Days in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin

Day 1: Milwaukee

We basically spent the entire day driving from Detroit to Milwaukee. There was a lot of highway construction along the way and then traffic driving through Chicago, so it took us longer to get there than we originally expected it to. We did manage to stop by a small town outside of Milwaukee to grab a tavern-style pizza. It honestly tasted and looked like a Totino’s Party Pizza and we weren’t mad at that.

When we finally got to Milwaukee, we checked into the Kinn Guesthouse downtown and were impressed by the model. Imagine a nice hotel but each floor, in addition to guest rooms, has a shared common area that consists of couches, TV, a breakfast nook, a large stocked kitchen with counter stools, and a conference area. It was nice to pay a hotel rate but have access to shared spaces that you wouldn’t normally get at a conventional hotel. It was a cool experience.

We walked around Milwaukee Public Market in the Third Ward neighborhood, grabbed some groceries to cook dinner, and worked out in the gym (which was tiny, but we made it work).

Day 2: Madison

The last beach day we had was in Portland, Maine and it was such a relaxing time amidst all this traveling. We wanted one of those days again and thought we could go to a beach in Milwaukee since the weather was nice and the beach looked decent. It was not even close to being as relaxing as our last beach day, though, since Keon kept getting bit by flies and bees were following us around. The wind also started to pick up so we decided to leave and head over to Madison. There was a small food shack in the beach parking lot so we ordered cheese curds, burgers, and frozen custard before hitting the road.

The drive from Milwaukee to Madison is barely one and a half hours so we got there before we knew it. We were staying near State Street—which we learned was the main street of things to do—so we walked around a little bit before calling it in our hotel room. We didn’t get the rest that we wanted from the beach so we stayed in tonight and let ourselves unwind.

Day 3: Madison

Hotel breakfasts are never that great, especially at budget or even mid-tier American hotels. This one, however, was a memorable one because it was the first time that I chose to have cereal in probably years. It tasted as amazing as I remembered and probably opened up a can of worms that could have remained closed.

We snuck in a workout before driving through Willy St and exploring a nearby park. We didn’t find much to do so we went back to our hotel to drop off the car and walked to an AYCE hot pot place that we had passed by last night. It wasn’t the best hot pot we’ve had, but it satisfied the craving (temporarily) and we definitely ate like we’d never have hot pot again because we went back to our room right after and took a two-hour nap.

Tonight was our night out in Madison. It was supposed to include a food crawl but we were still so full from our large and late lunch that we went straight out to a bar. Some highlights from tonight included going to a bar with a tree in it, trying mac and cheese pizza which tastes better than it looks and sounds, hitting up a country bar, and eating pelmenis for the first time.

Madison is a small college town and it shows—it seemed like we were the only ones not talking about moving in this weekend. We still had a good time people watching and eating our way around.