It's a very nice museum for young kids to play. I would recommend this for kids from 12 months to 6…read moreyears old. We took our daughter at 14 months. She had a ball at the treehouse. Plenty of things to do for different ages.

We made advance reservations & parked in the complimentary lot across the street. Admission is…read more$19 per person, reduced for seniors, children, and free for members. The building is under construction, we entered through the gift shop. We showed our NARM card for free entry. We started with an informative film about the history of the Pabst Mansion. Fifty of us were on the tour, we were broken into 2 groups & I followed Molly throughout the house. She pointed out interesting pieces & fascinating stories. Our hour long tour of the Pabst Mansion was a fascinating:90. We learned about the home, Pabst family & details about the architecture and furnishings of the home while exploring the 1st through 3rd floors. This house had electricity, inside plumbing, a telephone, central heat & 10 bathrooms. In 1892, Captain Frederick & Maria Pabst completed construction of their mansion, It was designed by George Bowman Ferry and Alfred Charles Clas, & cost $254,000. These art collectors, filled their mansion with priceless treasures. During the years of the Pabst family's ownership, the house was the scene of many fine parties and receptions, a wedding & in the end, their funerals. The Pabst descendants sold the house in 1908 and for 60 yrs. was the archbishop's residence When it was sold in 1975, the mansion was nearly torn down but become a museum & was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Pabst Mansion certainly comes alive during Christmas time with whimsy and play amidst history…read moreand class. It's my favorite time to visit since each room is activated with holiday decor, festive cheer, and pops of color! Year after year, a team of volunteers help staff transform the Pabst Mansion into this whimsical exhibition adding to the MKE beer baron's living experience. Each year, the colors and decor changes adding a unique experience every holiday season! Times entry and same day tickets are available in advance or at the door, though "at the door" occurs at street level in an adjacent building. A very small free parking lot is up the hill onsite next to the mansion but additional free parking is available across the street and is labeled with signage. If you haven't had the chance to visit during the holiday season, I do recommend it as something different to do during the colder months!

Look, if you don't understand the magic of the Milwaukee Public Museum I can't help you. This place…read moreis nostalgia overload with immersive displays, incredible dioramas (which, BTW, have an entire style named after them called "Milwaukee-style") and three floors of fun to explore. Hot tip: Start from top to bottom to avoid getting burnt out on the larger exhibits on the first floor.

Though I'm sure the new MPM will be amazing, I'm still bummed to know this museum is closing soon!…read moreMy kids are big fans of this place. So crazy that it hasn't changed a bit since I would go here on school trips years and years ago. The exhibits continue to offer so much! From taking you through the dino-ages, to exploring the rainforest, and Native American history. Lots of areas to check out. Favorite has to be the Streets of Old Milwaukee which is just so immersive. We also love the butterfly room (so many live butterflies!) and the planetarium dome theater, which shows various educational films. They ask that you don't have food and drinks while touring around (understandable), but they have a huge cafe/dining area on the ground level. It's great because you can bring your own packed lunch and snacks, or purchase from their various offerings. Underground parking, easy check-in, and friendly staff, too!

I was lucky to be able to join the tour even though tickets were sold out online. I am so grateful…read morethey squeezed me in. I wouldn't recommend wandering around too much, certain parts did not feel safe to me. The tour, especially for students, is extremely cheap. They should charge more, especially since they are in need of funds! The tour was great. I learned a lot about the history of the block of houses. Each one has a different story and history. There is no AC in the houses. So plan accordingly if you have a hot summer day.

We toured these houses on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and it was a lot more interesting than I…read morewould have expected. I knew little about Frank Lloyd Wright and took the tour with my Dad who is an architect. It was a great experience for the both of us. Our guide was very knowledgeable and did a fabulous job. She really immersed us in the vision Wright had for these houses. We were lucky and got to tour the house that they just acquired and will be restoring soon. It isn't officially part of the standard tour just yet, but we happened to be before a special private tour so they let us check it out too. I would recommend this to anyone who is even mildly interested. The gift shop closes at 3, so be sure to grab any goodies before the tour if you are taking the 2pm.

Let's start with a couple of housekeeping items that you need to know about. This is NOT the…read moreprehistoric Native American community of Aztalan. That state park is about a mile and a half south on County Highway Q. This museum is on the site of what is called Pioneer Aztalan, located on the southeast corner formed by County Highways B and Q. At one time, these roads were major routes, CTH B was the Milwaukee-Mineral Point territorial road. About 1918, it became Wisconsin 30 which was eventually replaced by I-94. CTH Q was the Fond du Lac-Janesville road that was eventually replaced by Wisconsin 26. (See Christopher Bessert's excellent "Wisconsin Highways" website for more about these roads. http://www.wisconsinhighways.org/index.html) Being on this important crossroads, by 1850, Aztalan had grown to become one of the most important towns in Jefferson County. It was the site of the first post office in the county, two blacksmiths, a shoe shop, two stores, a quarry, a sawmill, and a church. When the railroads came through and bypassed Aztalan, it became mostly a ghost town. The church is the only original Pioneer Aztalan building extant. In 1941, the Lake Mills Aztalan Historical Society was formed to preserve the heritage of the Pioneer Aztalan property, that borders the prehistoric Aztalan Native American state park. The restored church is the society's museum with an amazing collection of artifacts from 19th Century Wisconsin life. The society located other historic structures in the area and moved them to the site, including a Moravian church, the one-room John Petty Family log cabin (donated by a descendant of the Petty family) the Zickert log home (moved during the construction of I-94) and a granary that models a 19th Century wood wright's shop. (A house on the property is not considered a historic structure.) The society later purchased the one-room schoolhouse across the road - don't miss it! The school was built in 1917 to replace one that burned down, and it appears as it would have in the 1940s. It was used as a school until the 1950s. The Pioneer Aztalan site became a Wisconsin landmark in 1969 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The Princess Mound on the grounds is a Native American burial mound, circa 1200. It is one of the thousands of mounds cataloged by Dr. Increase Lapham. The princess is not there, she was exhumed and moved to Milwaukee for preservation, research and security. The mound is considerably lower than its original six foot height, the soil was probably used for fill in the 19th Century. This is a can't-miss visit to see what life was really like around the time Wisconsin became the 30th state on May 29, 1848. Of all the small, volunteer operated museums in Wisconsin, this is one of the outstanding ones, with an amazing collection, and well worth your time to visit. It's open from Mid-May to the end of September every year, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays Noon to 4 PM. Cash only, no plastic money accepted for a nominal admission fee. It's easily reached from Johnson Creek on the east and Lake Mills on the west. Just follow the signs on CTH B. Don't miss this one.

Small museum funded and operated by a private society with exhibits pertaining to the Aztalan State…read morePark Native American mound building society just to the south of the museum, and to life in the now-defunct pioneer village of Aztalan, which existed from around 1840 to the 1900s but has now completely disappeared except for a couple of old buildings maintained by the museum. Some nice exhibits of Native American artifacts, and some nice period pieces from the pioneer village. Some nice rebuilt actual log cabins of the time, old small log cabin Moravian Church built by the German settlers in 1861, old one room schoolhouse. Admission is $5, open Thursday-Sunday 12noon-4pm starting about the middle of May through September. If you are planning a visit in late September, be sure to call ahead, as their last day this year was 9/28/2014. They don't take credit cards, so have cash on hand for the admission fee. If you are interested in Native American mound building culture, they have some copies for sale of "Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town" by Robert Birmingham and Lynne Goldstein, which does a nice job of describing the site and relating it to the Cahokia site near East St. Louis. A visit here nicely compliments a visit to the Aztalan State Park just to south of the museum. Website: www.orgsites.com/wi/aztalan/index.html

We took the stairs up to the light station. There is a great view from the top. We took a quick…read morelook around and found a nice neighborhood surrounding it. I didn't know there was a museum until reading reviews. I assume the museum was closed when we went.

There's a certain romance to a lighthouse that attracts people. This is a unique light station,…read moreit's more than a lighthouse. In most cases, there is a separate lighthouse and a lighthouse keeper's quarters. Here, the light tower was built on the top of the lighthouse keeper's quarters, making it just that much more convenient. Of course, being a lighthouse keeper was far from convenient. It was usually a lonely job, perfect for a solitary soul who liked isolation. It was a necessary job, warning ships away from dangerous shorelines, shoals, reefs and rocks, or welcoming ships into a safe harbor. Before the days of radar and later, GPS, the lighthouse was the only way to let mariners know they were nearing land. Many had foghorns to perform the same function when the light could not be seen. Lake Michigan was lined with lighthouses. Many remain, but most have long ago been decommissioned and extinguished. In fact, this lighthouse was decommissioned in 1903, after a pierhead light had been installed. The light tower was removed in 1934. No one knows whatever happened to that light and the 4th order Fresnel lens that guided ships into, or past, Port Washington. In 2000, the Port Washington Historical Society was presented with the light station. An ambitious project began to restore the light station to its former glory. When the Duchy of Luxembourg heard that the people of Port Washington were beginning the restoration, the Duchy offered to help. The people of Luxembourg were appreciative of the many descendents of Luxembourg emigrants who still lived in Ozaukee County, and grateful for the American army liberating Luxembourg in World War II. The Duchy built a duplicate of the old light tower and shipped it to Port Washington. The tower went up in 2002 as the restoration was nearing completion. The committee raised funds to have a reproduction of the 4th Order Beehive Fresnel Lens made, identical to the one that had originally been in the tower. It was installed in 2007. You will see all this when you take the tour! Volunteer guides will tell you the entire story of the Port Washington Light Station and invite you to climb the ladders to the light room. It's a spectacular view of Port Washington and Lake Michigan. Children under six are not allowed to climb to the light tower, and it is not for the faint of heart. The ladders are steep, and appropriate clothing and footwear is required. No flip-flops or mules are allowed and skirts are not recommended. No kilts, guys. The light station is open on weekends, May through October. Group tours can be arranged.

What a treasure Milwaukee has in this art museum! When I moved here 18 months ago, the first thing…read moreI did that made me feel like I was truly home was to buy an annual membership to the museum. It was worth every penny, and it's especially easy to get my moneys worth because the museum is only about a 10 minute drive away from my Bay View home. My latest foray to the museum was to see the Gertrude Abercrombie installation, which I highly recommend. Then again, I can recommend anything going on at the MAM.

IG: diamante.lara.milwaukee…read more the art is wack but it's a great place to take photos. Everything in there has zero value.

I have never been to old world Wisconsin before. This was our first visit…read more I had no idea what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised at all the different villages, and the workers they had there in period clothing, explaining to the visitors what they were doing. It was lovely to me and through all the different villages, and take in the history of it all. I would love to see it in fall. I'm sure it is absolutely as beautiful as in every season. Highly recommend for all age groups.

Loved our recent stop here. Got some free passes at the local library so that helped save some…read moremoney. I came here as a kid on a field trip but I forgot how big the whole compound was. Thankfully, they offer trams to bring you between the villages. We opted to walk and it was quite the work out on a late July day. But, loved the experience to help bring us back in time a bit. They do have a few treats along the way like ice cream, food and beer/canned adult beverages/soda, but I definitely recommend you bring water or snacks. It can be a long day if you take your time and check out all the buildings, which I highly recommend. The staff are so friendly and informative and answer questions patiently. Very impressed with all of the staff!!