Milwaukee

After we found out that I would be going back to the Midwest this summer to attend the summer camp I grew up going to (more on this to come), we decided to tack on another ballpark for Alex’s quest to visit all 30 MLB stadiums. Since he has already been to both Chicago stadiums, we opted for a little train ride from Chicago up to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers in their home stadium! This baseball game was a crazy good deal. For $26 each, we got a free cap, long sleeved Negro Leagues shirt, and myriad little giveaways inside the park too. We’re not in San Francisco any more.

But to rewind a bit, here’s a little peek at our very convenient train ride up to Milwaukee from Chicago. Knitting along the way, of course.

We stayed at the Saint Kate, an art hotel right in downtown Milwaukee. They greeted us with coupes of champagne at check-in. Having fun already!

This notepad was waiting for us in the living room, with different prompts on every page. I obliged by sketching the person across from me.

Gallery spaces in the hotel.

Then we went for a little walk around town.

Fun little plaques along the river.

Lunch at the Milwaukee Public Market.

Shops around the Historic Third Ward. And beloved hero Giannis Antetokounmpo of the 2021 championship Milwaukee Bucks.

Not pictured, it happened to be the Milwaukee Air & Water Show the next day, and we saw the Blue Angels practicing overhead!

Milwaukee Art Museum

Then it was time to investigate how to get to the ballpark! Apparently Milwaukee has a whole bunch of different bars around town that participate in offering free shuttles to both baseball and football games. We couldn’t really find any more detailed information on how the shuttles worked, so we just walked over to one of the locations near our hotel and hoped for the best. Turns out you just buy a beer at the bar inside, and they give you a wristband to board the shuttles out back. You can bring the beer with you. Then it’s like a guided party bus complete with tour info and trivia games along the way. They tell you how to find the return shuttle, and your wristband is your ticket to ride back to where you started! Pretty great, if you ask us.

We were there right before the gates opened! Ready for our baseball cap giveaway. And plenty of time to watch the Rockies (and former Giants player Kris Bryant) warm up.

Inside, we happened upon a radio show event with free beer and food. And a stand giving away free sunglasses and cute baseball keychains. We’ve hardly gotten this much stuff at our dozens of Giants games combined.

Also, a couple of the fun Brewers sausage race characters. We later got to watch them in person run around the field… Polish won, while Chorizo basically walked the whole race.

Pretty nice view! The fun thing about visiting all the MLB ballparks is seeing how different they all are. This is one of the domed stadiums that can close in case of rain. I think it makes them less appealing overall, but this one is still pretty nice in general!

Got our stamp for our ballpark stamp book! And then we got to see two home runs while standing closer to see their mascot Bernie go down the slide (their home run tradition).

A brat and cheese curds. I liked the cheese curds very much!

We had to leave the game early after the seventh inning, because we had to get up at 5am to leave for Indiana the next day. The game, however, kept going well past nine innings, so we watched the tail end back at the hotel. The Brewers walked it off 6-5 in the end after 13 innings. Wow.

What a little whirlwind of a trip to Milwaukee! We had a lovely time.

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures, even in quarantine. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.