Sunday, February 10, 2013

Milwaukee (again)

For the third year, we celebrated Brian's birthday in Milwaukee with a trip to Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park. Since this was the third time we went, I felt really comfortable driving around the city and enjoyed exploring new yarn stores while Brian rode bike. I found a neat shop, Knitch, in Delafield. Brian picked out yarn for a new fingering-weight hat he wanted

It's Mountain Colors Crazyfoot, a yarn I've only used once before and really liked. I also stopped at the Knitting Knook, a store near our hotel that I went to last year. It's an eclectic store, lots of odds and ends sort of stuffed in everywhere. There space is small so I understand why they have to squeeze everything in. I splurged and bought three skeins of Malabrigo Rios, two in Piedras and one in a coordinating brown. Total impulse buy!

I love this yarn, soft and beautiful. I also picked up a skein of Dream in Color Squooshy in Scorched Lime. I could have bought a few more things... But I used my powers of restraint! I've been feeling sort of oppressed by my yarn stash and have been trying to sell off skeins that don't call to me. Buying more yarn does not help resolve this feeling, of course. But I've been wanting to clear my space out in a big way, throw out clothes I don't wear, get rid of kitchen gadgets, toss old shoes - spring fever? Anyway.

I went to some yarn stores that were new to me as well. My new favorite yarn store in MKE, and highly recommended, is Cream City Yarn. Beautiful store layout, beautiful yarn. My only gripe is that the more popular indie yarns - MadTosh. Sweet Georgia, etc., were really picked over and had only a few colorways left. Completely understandable. Staff was helpful, and I loved the yarns I picked out. I also treated myself to a new Namaste Better Buddy case in bright, happy yellow. My last stop was Midwest Yarns, in a cute storefront location on KK down the road from Classic Slice. I picked out a skein of Phydeaux Yarns fingering weight, and I am so in love with this yarn. I had never even heard of it and its just phenomenal! I'm so glad I stopped in. Midwest Yarns is a small shop, only open a few months, and needs some more settling in. It's really charming and I could tell the owner had a real vision of how the shop will look when it's fully stocked and fills the space. The owner and her son were both charming and I'm glad I checked it out. My total yarn haul was pretty substantial with all the stops, and I really love everything I got - the best kind of souvenir!

We enjoyed awesome food throughout our trip too. Highlights include Maxie's Southern Comfort (Louisiana BBQ shrimp, fish fry and crawfish po'boy), Palamino Bar (vegan tot'chos which were OMFG awesome, vegan chicken-fried steak, and vegan macaroni and not-cheese), Classic Slice (vegan Mediterranean pizza and vegan 'sausage' and olive calzone, we have eaten here on every trip and keep coming back for more!), and Comet Cafe (phenomenal vegan wings that even our meat-eating friends enjoyed, vegan Salisbury steak, ahi tuna sandwich, and Brian had a malted chocolate cupcake). We ate at the Comet Cafe with my dearest knitwear-receiving cousin Gillian and her bf Sam, who lives in Milwaukee. They were celebrating finding a gorgeous apartment in the neighborhood, a really fun, young part of town. Look at these cuties:

We don't take such nice pictures. We're weirdos, can't hide it.

It seems like Milwaukee has a great vegan eats scene, and we were happy to sample it. Special shout out to the Palamino for their food. Although I make better vegan mac myself, the other things we ate there were rad, especially the tot'chos - tater tots with nacho teese sauce, lettuce, fake sour cream, and hot hot salsa. Oh my stars and garters. For real. (Photo below)

The only raincloud on our trip was coming home and finding out I was billed $299 per night (for three nights!!) for the hotel room instead of the $87 rate I was quoted! You can believe I straightened that out with the hotel right quick, and they ended up charging us $65/night to make up for the mistake. All is forgiven.

After three trips to Milwaukee, I have to say I am ready to travel to some new places for our next winter trip. As lovely as the place is, it's far from a scenic destination in January! Hopefully I can get Brian to look at a new spot for next year.

 

1 comment:

  1. It looks like you had a really fun trip! The yarn you bought makes me just want to jump in and roll around on it. :P Very lovely stuff!

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