Monday, November 17, 2008

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Driving into the city

Ahhh... Milwaukee. Home of cheese hats, beer, and really bad accents. Sure, I claim it to be one of my favorite places on the map (thus far), but I have also only ever been twice and BOTH of those times were in the summer heat. I don't even want to begin to imagine that place two days into September, which let me just remind you that in the South, two days into October is still hot... just the way I like it.

A view of Lake Michigan... I had a good run here

I was in Milwaukee for work in mid-July, and the sun was luckily beating down on Lake Michigan and more gorgeous than I remember it. It's so nice to see a big city sitting right on a lake (that looks more like an ocean) with a beach behind it. It's just not something you will see in every city you go to... at least not like this one. This city has a certain Northern-charm (very rare... haha) to it that's hard to explain to someone who has never been there. Maybe the pictures will help? Bottom line: I love this city but wish I could experience it with a group of people to see what the city REALLY has to offer.

People having fun on the beach

See, this was one of my "Lonely Trips." What are those? My definition reads: "the trips that I take all by myself for work that I always look forward to at the beginning (day 1), but then at the end (only day 3... these are never long trips), get on the phone with Tres and Mom and whine about how I'm ready to come home." Let me break it down... I love to be by myself, and I think when I go on these trips that it will give me wind-down, relax time, but when it really comes down to it, a person just can't be by his or herself all the time. It starts to get really boring and let me exclaim LONELY! I mean, on these trips I will usually work with a few people during the day, but I will go back to an empty hotel room (alone), go for a run (alone... down some random street in a big city), go to dinner (alone... yes, I eat in restaurants by myself all the time. It's not that hard, guys, really.), watch TV (alone... the remote is all mine. This part is a plus.), and finally, go to sleep (alone... this is the scariest part of the trip). When you are a 24-year old Southern blonde with a mighty fine Southern accent in a "dontchaknow" city, that can get scary. Sometimes I am convinced some stranger has been watching me from day one and is plotting his way into my room when I sleep... super scary when your mind starts working like that. Fortunately, I am very cautious on these trips and nothing too scary has happened so far! Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Me hanging out on the beach

While there, I worked a lot on video stuff, ate at some decent restaurants, hit the beach and became as familiar with the city as a local... it's easy to do this when you drive around in circles trying to find certain places. All in all, I love the city, but next time I go hope it's not another "Lonely Trip."