My day started at the Milwaukee Public Market. While not a large market, it was filled with a lot of quality stuff – fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, and seafood, jarred salsas and jams, and chocolates and desserts (see photo of the parfait that I had). From the Market I wandered through the Historic Third Ward District, and then it was on to the Milwaukee River Walk. For those of you who remember the TV show Happy Days – see photo of me with “The Fonz.”

From the River Walk it was on to the beach. Milwaukee has a great beach on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its wide expanse holds quite a number of volleyball courts, a beach bar, snack bar, rental kayaks and paddle boats as well as beach chairs and umbrellas. I walked the length of the beach and then was off to the Milwaukee Zoo.

The zoo was really a nice one. There were quite a few species of various animals I had never seen before. It took about two and a half hours to walk through the zoo and the day was hot again – close to 90 degrees so it was then back to the beach, where I sat and watched a dog fetching a tennis ball out in the waves until the darkening sky forced me back to the hotel for a while.

After dinner and the rainstorm I was back out at the waterfront getting in plenty of walking (over 26,000 steps on the pedometer today!).The sun was back out and it turned into a beautiful evening.

Milwaukee is a great city – plenty of parks, beaches, and trails for walking, biking and rollerblading. I really enjoyed my first visit here and hope to get back again someday.