Travel 2009: A Year for the Home Fires

Tonight, people will say goodbye to 2009. Don't let the door hit you in the ass.
A tough year in many respects, 2009 was a year to stay relatively close to home. Many of us, despite the wanderlust in our hearts, did just that.
The stay-cation became an accepted norm. In New York, the stay-cation is no raw deal. People pay good money to get here; we don't have to sink the airfare or hotel cost to see a Broadway show or visit the Met.
In more certain times, we take one big trip out of the country and several domestic trips every year. But we only left the borders of the city a couple of times, though we did reach the left coast once.
The moment my job was assured, we spent a week in California, driving down Highway 101 and spending some time in both endcaps, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In August, we went to Milwaukee for a week, since we skipped it in 2008 in favor of Austin. Milwaukee is my adopted hometown and 2009 was a year for going home.
Not everyone confined themselves to the continental US. Good friends went to Turkey and Greece, another just headed to India.
Where, if anywhere, did you go in 2009?

What Made Milwaukee Famous

Gene and I took another trip to Milwaukee this summer, visiting some of our favorite places and some new places as well.
I took Gene to Miss Katie's Diner for some wet Milwaukee barbecue ribs and buttery hash browns. We celebrated my birthday in typical Milwaukee style with a vast intake of calories. We noted changes since our last visit two summers ago; Elliot's Bistro is gone and Von Trier's is just a shadow of its former self.
We got a kick out of the rumors of The Pfister Hotel's haunting. Hey, if it brings the room rates down, I'm all for it.
Check out my photos and journal of the first half of the week in Milwaukee.

Less-than-Grand Avenue Mall

We stop at the downtown Grand Avenue Mall. The mall has become a tomb.

Built while I was in college, the mall received a lot of local media buzz. Connecting Boston Store and Gimbels under a single roof, the new mall would leave the historical architecture of the Plankinton Arcade intact. The developers wanted the new mall to evoke the days of Grand Avenue, before the street was renamed Wisconsin Avenue. Back in those days, women in bustles with umbrellas strolled with their beaus or husbands down Grand Avenue in their Sunday best.

The current Grand Avenue failed to achieve the planned grandeur. Despite a downtown nightlife resurgence in the late 1980s that continues today, the mall never drew large numbers of downtown shoppers. People go downtown for shows at the remodeled Riverside Theater, the historic Pabst Theater or the Performing Arts Center (now the Marcus center). People eat at Mo’s—A Place for Steaks, drink at Elsa’s on the Park and other watering holes along Water Street or Jefferson Street. But shop? Why shop downtown?

Grand Avenue Mall never housed great stores, not funky boutiques like on Brady Street or upscale shops like in Mequon. Grand Avenue could never compete with spacious suburban malls like Mayfair and Southridge.

A few years ago, large lower-end stores—TJ Maxx, Old Navy, Linens N Things-- moved in, encroaching on spaces designed as walkways. TJ Maxx and Linens were like open-air markets, in a bad sense.

So much of the mall is shuttered now. We walk through, horrified and sad. Stores that you never thought would go away like The Confectioner are gone. Many facades are covered with mirrors to disguise the abandonment.

Fat Abbey's Bier Cafe

It is early Saturday evening in Milwaukee and we meet our friends L. and M. at the Fat Abbey Bier Café, 134 E Juneau, at Juneau and the river. Fat Abbey’s is a new Irish bar across from a triumvirate of Irish bars, both across from the Milwaukee landmark, The Harp.

We will run into two bachelorette parties on this warm August night.

The first batch of girls—a sedate, sober group with some moms along for the ride—are sitting at a long wooden picnic table on the patio. We sit outside under a Delirium Tremens umbrella at first, but the sun is still hot so we move inside.

We all drank beers, even me. Fat Abbey’s has a beer list to be proud of. Trocadero White, a local microbrew, is tasty—wheaty like I like. Gene, M and L tried several, one called Fat Tire and another, Maredsous.

Now the moms have left and the Fat Abbey girls move inside. They liven up a bit, but this party has little steam.

We cross the street to the trinity of Irish bars, inspecting them all before selecting Foy. We sit in a tall wooden booth and share corned beef nachos and a veggie-hummus platter. I remember this weekend is Irish Fest in Milwaukee, the largest and best Irish festival in the United States. I wonder why all these new Irish bars are opening in this very German town. Love of beer must be the unifying factor.

From the window of L and M’s car, we see the second bachelorette party. These girls know how to party. They traipse down the street, all wearing little black cocktail dresses. They have made several stops already tonight. Gene asks me if girls wear underwear in Milwaukee and I assure him that most of them do. What prompts the question, I ask.

We end the night at The Pfister’s top floor bar, Blu, on the 23^rd floor of the hotel. Stunning 360 views of the city, but we can’t find a seat around the perimeter of the room. We sit at the bar and listen to the jazz combo. I wonder about two women sitting at the bar, overdressed and bored.

Bronze Fonz Charms Milwaukee

Erv, the bartender at Miss Katies, talks about when the cast of Happy Days dropped in on the diner. (Mrs C. has held up the best, said Erv.) The cast—minus Ron Howard—hit town for the dedication of the Bronze Fonz statue last August.

Milwaukee tried for years to play down its reputation as the fictional home of the Cunninghams and Laverne and Shirley. People resented the beer-town image of Milwaukee portrayed by the shows, particularly Laverne & Shirley. So no surprise that the proposed Bronze Fonz kicked up some local controversy--a couple of art galleries threatened to close if the statue was installed.

In the end, time and celebrity visitors turn the shame into pride. The unveiling as described by onmilwaukee.com:

They came to see the Fonz. They lined the Wells Street bridge. They lined the Riverwalk across the river and south of the ceremony on the river's left bank. They watched from windows, terraces and rooftops and they watched from pontoon boats on the river, itself.

Fans lined up along Wells Street to the east of the river, where they couldn't even get a glimpse as actor Henry Winkler and sculptor Gerald Sawyer unveiled the much-discussed Bronz Fonz Tuesday morning in Downtown Milwaukee.

The spokesman of Visit Milwaukee, the group raising the money for the installation defended the decision in a jsonline.com article:

"This isn't a statue of 'Laverne and Shirley,' " [the spokesman] said. "This is a statue of a TV icon who remains the epitome of cool."

Milwaukee = Happy Days

To a drizzling rain, we arrive in Milwaukee and stop for lunch at Miss Katie’s Diner, 1900 W. Clybourn. A vintage Select-O-Matic jukebox in the center of the dining room plays only 45s and only one at a time. The 1950s-retro diner is right out of the opening sequence of Happy Days.

My old friend Sue waitresses at Miss Katie’s, I discover. She and I used to work together when I was in college.

Gene orders the barbecued ribs and hash browns at my urging; it wasn’t hard to convince him. I have a wonderfully greasy tuna melt with hash browns. The hash browns are shredded thick, fried crisp on the outside and served with butter.

No one makes hash browns like the Miss Katie’s Diner, one of several restaurants in Milwaukee owned the Pitch family. Pitch’s famous ribs and hash browns are served at all their restaurants.

Two of America’s most famous grease-lovers have given Miss Katie’s Diner their stamp of approval—Bill Clinton and Rachael Ray.

In 1996, the Clinton and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl ate at Miss Katie’s Diner during the “Sausage Summit.” Clinton’s security detail, including dogs, left an impression on Miss Katie’s staff. Hillary made a return trip during her campaign.

Rachael Ray featured Miss Katie’s on a segment of her travel show, $40 A Day.

The Polar Bears: The Icemen Swimeth

New Year's Day, all Polar Bear Club members across the country indulge in a frigid dip in the local waters.
The genesis of this traditional is a mystery, but the Coney Island Polar Bears first took the plunge in 1903 and the Milwaukee Polar Bears, not much later, in 1916.
Onlookers watching the insanity always outnumber the swimmers. As I wonder what makes the Polar Bears do it, I also admire the fortitude that propels them. Even in summer heat, I am a toe-dipper. Getting into a pool takes me ten minutes or more to get wet up to my waist. Then I hop up and down for a couple more minutes until the ridiculousness of the dance forces me to plunge underwater.
As I admire these brave, foolish men and women of the new year, I ask which polar bears are the fiercest? The Coney Island Polar Bear club might be the oldest, but aren't the waters of Lake Michigan colder than the Atlantic? Doesn't that make the Chicago and Milwaukee Bears tougher? According to the National Oceanographer Data Center, the water off The Battery, New York is 41 degrees today. Lake Michigan surface temperature around Milwaukee is 32.5 degrees. Watch this video of today's Chicago Polar Bear swim, with the air temperature at 14 and the water at 33.
Hypothermia, a condition to be avoided, can set in at water temperatures lower than 70 degrees. So the best place to be a Polar Bear today is in Key West where the Gulf of Mexico's bath water temperature is 78 degrees.
Even in all the crazy fun, whether you're a swimmer, an onlooker or an at-home skeptic, don't forget our real polar bears. Their arctic homes are becoming real swimming pools.

Ol' Milwaukee Journal

I took this photo of Lake Michigan from inside Milwaukee's art museum. The museum, opened in 2001, was designed by famed architect Santiago Calatrava.

Plug "milwaukee art museum" into google images and see how different this building looks in various lights and at various angles. The photos of the "wings" opening make the museum itself look like a large white bird taking off.

See, Milwaukee has a lot more to offer than just beer and bratwurst. But the beer and bratwurst ain't bad either.

Check out my Milwaukee vacation journal.

Milwaukee's Cold World Charm

Milwaukee, Wisconsin was my starter city.

Milwaukee is as cold as they say it is, but I survived more than a decade of Wisconsin winters. Wind chills can hit 70 below in the long winter there. But prevailing wisdom, a survivor's wisdom, is that people can't perceive the difference in temperatures below a certain threshold. Ten below and 20 below both feel the same. Comforted?

A heated garage is the key to surviving a Milwaukee winter (besides deluding yourself that you can't feel it). I scored a heated garage in my final year in Milwaukee. It was life-changing.

I only had to brush snow off my car when it snowed while I was at work. And then the snow was still soft and cottony. I never had to scrape ice that winter, but I still left for New York before the next winter hit.

I think back fondly on my time in Milwaukee and I still visit as often as I can. In the summer.