As a child, I spent a lot of time in the great cheese state of Wisconsin. My grandparents lived in Burlington before they died, and we visited often. We also spent time as children at the great Milwaukee event known as “Summer Fest.” We never actually went to Summerfest. We only went to Polish Fest – because that’s how we roll.
Since this trip was happening during Summerfest, we decided to spend some time here and see if it was as fun as I remembered. The answer was yes. And it’s even better as an adult since you can drink!
As a child, we always stayed in the same hotel. And little did my husband know, but he booked us in that exact same hotel. The Hyatt Regency Milwaukee was one of the greatest places as a kid. We played on the glass elevators for hours. We were mesmerized by the Polaris, the rotating restaurant on the top floor that had some amazing city views. The restaurant where the waiters would refill your water once you took a single sip. My sister and I played a game to see if we could get to the bottom of the glass without them refilling it. We never won.
So when we walked into the lobby and it looked EXACTLY the same, I was super excited. As were my children who took off to go up and down on the elevators.
My boys on their first glass elevator ride inside the Milwaukee Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Once we got into our room we put on our walking shoes and hit the town to our favorite restaurant, The Safe House. You don’t go here for the food, you go for the experience. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone. But I will say this, it’s a must visit when you hit the town. It’s basically a bar/restaurant for spies. There are all sorts of things to see and do and you will not be disappointed! The kids were scared to death at first, but slowly came around and really enjoyed all the strangeness that this Milwaukee legend has to offer.
From here, we walked further to the Summerfest grounds. Summerfest bills itself as the worlds largest music festival. It’s a great day and night of all kinds of music, all sorts of food from local restaurants and even activities for the kids that it qualifies as a great family event. The grounds are exactly how I remember them and my kids fell asleep on picnic tables, just like we did as children.
When we woke up the next day, we hit up a few more Milwaukee must-do’s like Usinger’s Sausage and the Bronze Fonz statue. My husband walked out of the sausage shop with over 6 pounds of meat – he was in his happy place.
We hit the road back towards Chicago with another must-do location, the Mars Cheese Castle. The store is filled with everything you think about when you think about Wisconsin. Cheese, fudge, beer, cow print clothing, they have it all.
One more stop before leaving the state! We hit the Jelly Belly Warehouse tour! I had no idea this place even existed! My kids love jelly beans, so we figured it was worth a stop. The tour was free, and thankfully. I would have been angry if I had paid. You basically ride around the warehouse on a tram and watch some poor produced videos about the history of jelly beans and Jelly Belly. You get to see a few things like big portraits made from jelly beans and even some clothing, but you are “not allowed to take pictures.” Well….yeah….
The highlight of the tour was the store at the end. They have a testing station where you can sample all the nasty flavors like “barf” and “canned dog food.” They also have an area where they sell “belly flops.” Those are the beans that don’t quite meet the high standards. Basically, the rejects.
All in all, a very successful stay in the great state of Wisconsin!
