Milwaukee River and RiverWalk
leather jacket, blue jeans and slicked-backed hair—looking as he appeared on the Happy Days TV sitcom and the Laverne & Shirley spinoff about two roommates capping beer bottles in a fictitious Milwaukee brewery, the sitcom that helped put the city on the map for many, including me. No doubt Milwaukee has come a long way from that image a half century ago. The view from the Lake Michigan waterfront, for example, reveals a skyline of glass and steel towers. The lakeside Milwaukee Art Museum sports futuristic architecture with its curving façade and enormous Brise Soleil rooftop wing flaps serving as sunscreens to regulate indoor temperature. And downtown’s museum-like Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel mixes luxury and creative inspiration with specialty guest rooms smothered with local artists’ designs. Lobby galleries showcase eclectic modern art and life-sized caricatures, oddly enough, sitting among those who stop by for a drink or dinner, often triggering a double take or two. Yet Milwaukee is still beer and brats, cheese lovers, and “cheeseheads” and remains proud of its Harley-Davidson roots. The Milwaukee Brewers baseball team wows fans with its Famous Racing Sausages, where runners don bratwurst, hot dog, chorizo, and Italian and
The Milwaukee RiverWalk and Fonzie statue
ON THE WISCONSIN WATERFRONT Milwaukee's Riverwalk,
Madison's Twin Lakes, and Door County's Great Lake Getaway Story and Photos by Richard Varr Skyscrapers tower over the gentle currents of the downtown waterway, my view draped by the purple-tinted petals shooting up from a flowerbed and the shimmering reflections of a modern cityscape. From my vantage point, the Milwaukee River looks more like a canal with a few sputtering motorboats and a string of decorative streetlights along the smooth-paved RiverWalk. Outdoor cafes, bars, and restaurants line the walking path, but it’s not until I see a grinning Fonzie—double thumbs up, of course— that I feel the essence of the city. Actually, it’s a bronze statue of the iconic American greaser, spot-on with his likenesses—
ON THE WISCONSIN WATERFRONT
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2022 | 28
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