If you haven't signed up for one of their walking tours, you are missing out on some cool Milwaukee…read morehistory and trivia. Also, there little store downtown, just blocks from the Public Market, is a great stop for souvenirs and all things 414.

This store is a gem in downtown Milwaukee! It's full of unique items made by Milwaukee artists. The…read moreplace looks like a charming movie set with dark wood bookcases and enticing display tables. Shout out to Kat who pointed me to some great gifts! While I was there, she also managed a tour group, handing out headsets and answering questions with aplomb. I love Historic Milwaukee for their annual Doors Open event in September, and I look forward to visiting the store whenever I'm in the area- just a short walk from the Public Market or the Hop!

Loved. I'm a ho for…read morea brewery tour of any kind. I have been to so many of them: Guinness, Heineken, carlsberg, Bacardi, dogfish head, anheuser busch, Kentucky bourbon trail. The whole 9. I would enjoy them all. I thought the miller one was very interesting even though we didn't get to see the most interesting part of a brewery tour: the bubbling vats of beer. It was apparently over 100 degrees in there so they weren't talking anyone in on the day of our visit. Our tour guides were very good. They did an excellent job. It wasn't too long but it was long enough. I would definitely recommend stopping by if you are visiting Milwaukee.

With Milwaukee being the beer capital of the world, it makes sense when visiting to take The Miller…read moreBrewery Tour. Be forewarned that you must pre register online to take the tour and it's $20 for adults. At the gift shop/visitor center there is plenty of free parking. About 25% of the tour is outdoors but that is mainly walking from the visitor center to the various buildings you visit. The tour takes about 80 minutes. My your started at 3 pm and had about 25 people in it given by two tour guides. They told us that the entire campus encompasses 78 acres. The tour covers walking through 3 or 4 buildings that show the brewing and packaging process which was interesting to see. It's impressive how much beer they make here everyday and all of the brands they support. We also went into the old cave room where beer barrels were stored before refrigeration to keep the brew cool. That room had a beautiful mural in one wall. I enjoyed this tour and recommend it. Also each adult is given 3 beer samples of about 4 oz each. I picked Blue Moon, Hamm's and Miller High Life.

Doors Open Milwaukee is an annual event when over 100 buildings open their doors for free tours…read more Most tours are DIY, but there are many that are docent-led ticketed tours, for more insight. We've done Doors Open for a few years, and in 2017, decided to focus mainly on the clean water industry, which Milwaukee is becoming known for in industry and University circles. Doors Open Milwaukee had a Water Passport, to see if you could hit up all of the sites. Pack some water, a snack, and comfortable shoes, use the helpful PDF guide or app ahead of time to plot out your stops, or pick up a physical booklet on your first stop. Sites we enjoyed in 2017- Global Water Center Milwaukee County Greenhouses UWM School of Freshwater Sciences Mitchell Park Domes An annual event, you can hit up Doors Open Milwaukee every fall. A great annual City event!

Doors Open Milwaukee is wrapping up as I write this, all done for 2016 but if you missed it, don't…read moreworry, it'll be back next year. It's not too early to be thinking about what places you'd like to visit next year. In case this is all new to you, Doors Open Milwaukee is just exactly what the name implies. Many buildings, structures and businesses that aren't usually open to the public throw their "doors open" on the third weekend of September every year. Places might be theaters (Riverside, Modjeska) government buildings (city hall, courthouses, wastewater treatment plant) structures (bascule bridge, lift bridge) cemeteries (Forest Home, Bluemound) Hotels (Pfister, Ambassador) museums (Wadham's gas station, fire museum, Chudnow, MSOE Grohmann) fire houses (Milwaukee, West Allis) and churches of many kinds including the stunning Basilica of St. Josaphat. New on the tour this year was Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, the last commission of Frank Lloyd Wright. Folks in southeastern Wisconsin have been curious about the church since it was built in 1959 and hundreds of people took advantage of the opportunity to see the inside of this magnificent structure. There is a great deal of "right" with DOMKE, although there are a few issues with it, too. One of the more pleasant issues is that there were over 150 places open this year. Too much to see in a weekend, so one much choose carefully. Parking can be an issue around popular venues, as can long lines. It was even tougher this year with on-street parking restricted in many places due to construction. Remember DOMKE for next year, and remember that next spring, Historic Milwaukee will sponsor Spaces & Traces. See you there!

Want to cruise Lake Michigan affordably and have a boating experience that recreates history? By…read moreall means, get yourself down to Pier Wisconsin pronto and take a sail on the Denis Sullivan. In my mind, this is one of the most amazing experiences the city of Milwaukee offers. Hands down! The Denis Sullivan is a 140-foot sailing vessel that is a recreation of an 1890s cargo vessel. It has space for 50 on its upper deck, three full sails, and three jib sails on the mast. There's a lower compartment that has a head (bathroom), sleeping quarters, kitchen mess, and a gift shop. An exhibit that is part of Discovery World, your ticket buys you a two-hour tour during the summer. Truly, if boating is your thing, this is an amazing must-do. My family and I took the tour recently and we had a blast. The six of us spanned ages from 2 to 73. We all enjoyed it equally. My two year old great niece enjoyed the fact that she had room to roam around to her liking. She wandered everywhere happily. We got pictures of her steering the boat on the rear wheel that controlled the rudder. All of us enjoyed the performance by the ships cast of 8 crew members. They involved all 50 of us on board in a discussion about safety, then gave commands to hoist all of the sails once we had motored comfortably away from the pier and cut the engine. The ropes and sails were neatly and precisely tucked away in a manner any experienced sailor will tell you is proper. Along with other guests, my great niece and her dad helped hoist the sail, and my niece was fascinated with pulling rope for the rest of the trip, "helping" the crew in her own fashion. The crew was on hand to answer questions and quite hospitable with the guests. "This boat is a fiberglass magnet," one crew member told my family, pointing to the boats that pulled up alongside our vessel. They also noted that the boat was weighted in a manner that if it tipped, it would pop back up - a good feature to have on a sailboat that can lean in the wind. A wonderful bonus occurred when two of the crew pulled out a banjo and a fiddle and performed bluegrass music, singing and clapping. My great niece danced and the rest of us enjoyed the performance. The pristine view of Milwaukee's skyline and lakefront is unparalleled. The breeze is cooling and comfortable and the sail is a most enjoyable thing to do on a weekend. Take a trip on the Denis Sullivan. You won't regret it!

A few weeks ago a woman told me the new Pier Wisconsin building adjacent to the Art Museum on the…read morelakefront has the best view of Milwaukee's skyline available without a boat in the city. Intrigued by that and an indoor aquarium, I stopped by this weekend to check it out. Overall, this is a very cool place. The building is beautiful in a modern way that accentuates the Calatrava next door. The lines are clean and nautical and the slat wood floor in the main hallway/promenade was beautiful and different. In general, there is an unfinished feeling to the place despite its having been open more than a month. I can understand the desire to open to the public as soon as possible, but paying $16 for a lot of unfinished exhibits bothered me slightly. That said, there are some wonderful things in this building, which now houses Discovery World, as well as the Pier Wisconsin aquarium and a permanent home for the Denis Sullivan sailboat. The highlight of the aquarium is a tunnel where fish swim a few feet over your head. The glass is so smooth and clear that from certain angles it feels as if you are viewing the image of fish on a hi-definition screen, not actual fish swimming a few feet over your head in a spectacular mega-tank. There is also an open tank for petting small (barbless) stingrays and other fish. We didn't have tons of time to see Discovery World, but needless to say this place is an educational kids heaven. Everything is designed to be touched, felt and understood. In the new (unfinished) techno-jungle area, lots of hip 20-somethings in white lab coats helped kids play and understand a hovering people mover, an inra-red camera, a storm simulator, and best of all, a virtual reality control that led through the streets of Milwaukee. I unfortunately walked right off the bridge over Lincoln Memorial Drive to the Art Museum before surrendering the control to an actual child. Overall, I think Milwaukee has done very well for itself here. The location is amazing, parking easy (underground), the aquarium spectacular and views from the edge of the building are indeed among the best of Milwaukee's lakeside skyline.

This tour was so informative and fun! My partner and I love Pabst Blue Ribbon, and one of the main…read morereasons we came to Milwaukee was for this tour, and it did not disappoint. Mark, our tour guide, did a great job in delivering the history of Pabst and making the whole experience memorable. The entire staff was so friendly as well, and we both learned so much!

I'm glad we were able to stop by. It's in a very, very old castle-like building. There is a cute…read morelil coffee shop, a bar, a few courtyards, and a gift shop. There are tours available but we didn't do that but I imagine that it is probably interesting. There's a little courtyard that is absolutely lovely to sit in. The bar is small and serves hole in the wall but German very well.

I honestly had no idea what to expect when I signed up to do this... had heard that it was a…read more"haunted" tour. Heard that it was a "Gothic" tour. Also heard that it was an "historical" tour. It was all of those and more! It started raining about an hour before we were supposed to meet, and was considering skipping out. I am SO glad that I made the decision to join the group. Rain or shine, good weather or inclement, I would recommend Gothic Milwaukee tours to anyone and everyone. Anna's love for history and Milwaukee, shine through her as she regales her followers with stories of fame and fortune, ballrooms and back allies. She. Is. A. HOOT!! I got goosebumps more than a few times, listening to her tell stories about what has happened behind Milwaukee's beautiful facade. All said and done it's about 90 minutes, and approximately 3 miles of walking. The terrain is easy, it's all on city sidewalks. And Anna does a fantastic job of attracting your eyes to all the amazing things that downtown Milwaukee has to offer. If you like ghost stories you need to book a tour with Gothic Milwaukee. If your love is history... Anna is your girl. If walking around and learning about architecture and cool "fun facts" about where all the businessman went for their lunch breaks (hint: it wasn't a soda shop), then you need to walk this walk! Just found out that Gothic Milwaukee also has self guided walking tours of Milwaukee in card form!! I am TOTALLY getting these for everyone for Christmas! What a great way to show people how great Milwaukee is AND get props for giving the coolest gift of the year!! I am happy. Thank you, Anna.

I really wasn't sure what to expect with this tour. The website www.gothicmilwaukee.com is pretty…read morebland, there's not a lot of information about the tours online as far as reviews go.....but DAMN this tour was WELL worth the $10! First and foremost, the tour guide Anna is phenomenal. Who knows if the stories are true (although doing some quick google research, all the stories seem to pan out!) She is very friendly, a great story teller, and really...really funny. The walking was light, with plenty of stops along the tour. Great stories about people you've heard about in Milwaukee, and some you haven't. The stories about the Pfister Hotel were really really interesting. This tour is definitely worth $10...and I'm looking forward to the Holiday tour as well.

We did a ghost tour around Halloween. It was such a fun and entertaining experience. The group size…read morewas large, and it was fun walking around and learning all the ghost stories

Tonight, I went on a walking tour in Milwaukee titled "Ghosts of Christmas Past". The tour started…read moreout at the Pabst Theater on Wells and Water and crossed the street to Milwaukee City Hall where we learned about the suicide problem in which 7 people jumped to their death from higher floors into the open lobby below. Horrifying but also fascinating! From there we visited the Pfister Hotel where we learned about Charles Pfister who watches out for his guests and less-nice ghosts who have scared the bejesus out of Major League Baseball players, leaving some unwilling to stay at the hotel again. We walked past the old Newhall Hotel where 70 guests perished in a fire on our way back to the Pabst Theater where we learned about Captain Frederick Pabst who remains present at the theater that bears his name, the mansion he built on Wisconsin Avenue and his brewery village in the city. Our tour guide, Tea, was very knowledgeable and entertaining. There are other local tours in the Third Ward and Brady Street that I look forward to joining this summer. The price was very reasonable. When you go, tip your guide!

I am obsessed with Ten Chimneys!!…read more The backstory is fascinating. This wonderful, glamorous Broadway couple found their way to the sweet little mid-west town of Genesee Depot is intriguing on it's own. Their summer home is lovely. I can feel the parties and good times that surely took place in years gone by. Everything has been lovingly preserved by those in charge and offer a wonderful glimpse into this adored couple's lives. The grounds are the perfect backdrop to the home. The entire estate gives off a quiet and relaxing vibe. It makes me understand why, on their time off, they would long to come home to Ten Chimneys. There were 2 tour times offered. Everyone takes a small bus from the starting point. A talented docent brings you on a detailed journey back in time and into the private world of Alfred Lunt and his wife Lynn Fontanne. Of course, there is a gift shop to visit after your tour. Be sure to check out the customer restrooms. The ladies room is glamorous with ladies finery and there is a huge King's throne in the mens room! Don't miss the walking tails if you want to take in a bit more nature!

As a classic film and theater nerd, Ten Chimneys holds a special place in my heart. The former home…read moreof Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, the home and grounds are impeccable and just they was as they Lunts left them. Thanks to some love from investors, their stories are preserved and memorialized through the maintenance of Ten Chimneys and the many individuals from all over the world who come to this tiny Wisconsin town to remember them and Hollywood's days gone by. Cross the same threshold that the likes of Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Lawrence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn, Noel Coward, Alexander Woolcott, and so many others crossed, as you become part of the storied list of visitors. Tours must be arranged in advance.