Milwaukee

Whirlwind weekend in Milwaukee:

** Overnighting in The Pfister Hotel, and feeling like a rube when asking the valet whether I have to pay him to park the Toyota Matrix. The answer is yes, $35. I parked it myself for $25. Riding in the elevator with two men who I presume were Cleveland Cavaliers, who played the Bucks later that night.

** Eating a Serbian dinner at the Three Brothers Restaurant in the Bay View neighborhood. A half order of chevapchichi (Serbian beef sausauges served with raw onions and tomato) and a half order of chicken paprikash (a bone-in chicken breast simmered in a sweet paprika sauce served with a potato dumpling). Washed down with a Czech beer and ending with a small cup of sweet/strong Serbian style coffee. Sitting at '50s style tables in old converted bar. Awesome.

** Attending a concert by The Avett Brothers, a North Carolina band that blasted out bluegrass/punk at the Riverside Theater. Loved it. (Although I worried about the kid passed out in the second row.)

** Getting entralled by 18th-century German art and Biedermeier style furniture at the Milwaukee Art Museum. (And man, to I love that building, with its wings sweeping over Lake Michigan.)

All thanks to Mark and Jen. Whenever I am with them, I am dragged out of my rut and my vision widens.