Day 1

Our journey began at 9:30 am, August 5, 2014. My dad and I pulled up to our meeting point with Aunt Donna and “the boys” in our rented silver minivan. As expected, Nathan was sleeping in the backseat of his mom’s car, Kyle was playing a fishing game on his iPad, and their mother hurried out of the building from a meeting that went five minutes late. No one was surprised to hear that someone forgot something important. This time, it was Nathan’s entire suitcase. Confident that this problem was not worth a delay, we all hopped into the minivan and began our long drive to Milwaukee, WI.

With just a short pit stop at Arby’s we arrived in Wisconsin. Before we could do anything else in Milwaukee, we stopped at D.W. Davie’s to pick up Cuff and Collar for Grandma Rumreich. Although the store itself was uninteresting, the boys and I were entertained by aquariums full of large fish and a grand collection of toy cars.

Kyle and the toy cars, Mark in background

The store workers recommended to us O.H. Bakery, in Racine, home of the Kringle. Kringle is a ring-shaped Danish pastry that is flaky and filled with nuts, fruit, or other sweet things. It can only be found in Racine, WI, and there are a multitude of bakeries that offer this treat. O.H. Bakery may be the best. My aunt bought an almond Kringle and Dad was happy to purchase a half-dozen crullers. Because it was 1:30 in the afternoon and I had not had anything to eat yet, I quickly consumed a croissoughnut, combination of a croissant and a doughnut, similar to a cream puff and dusted with a thick layer of powdered sugar.

We decided that we should all have lunch, so we made a stop at Kopp’s restaurant. Kopp’s is a local favorite for its jumbo hamburgers and frozen custard. I was still quite hungry, so my hamburger with fried onions and jalapeno peppers was promptly devoured along with macadamia nut custard in a cone. Everyone else also enjoyed the oversized burgers, custard, and onion rings. 

Nathan and his cotton candy custard at Kopp's

Kyle and his vanilla custard

Kyle and Donna's burger

My fried onion and jalapeno burger and ice cream cone 

Next we stopped by the house, on Crawford Street, where my Uncle Jim was born. The house had very typical Milwaukee architecture, with a brick bottom and a small metal porch on the vinyl top half.

House on Crawford Street

 While we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by Parthenon Foods to pick up Schweppes Bitter Lemon. This special soda can no longer be found in the U.S. and has to be imported from Europe. My father had been searching for a place to buy it for years, and this store is the only place in the entire Midwest that it can be found. Ironically, Parthenon Foods is half a mile away from the house of his Aunt Flo and Uncle Al.

Donna at Parthenon Foods

 On our way downtown Milwaukee, we stopped at a great farmers’ market, open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. We found many kind vendors and an abundance of sweet corn, peppers, pickling cucumbers, beans, onions, and herbs of all kinds. Aunt Donna was eager to purchase some snacking food for the trip and pickling supplies.

Nathan at the Farmers' Market

Kyle at the Farmers' Market

Next we drove through the heart of Milwaukee to the Usinger factory, passing the stadium, the theater, and the court house. We balanced out our food supplies by buying a variety of bratwurst and snack sausages.

Milwaukee Courthouse

Milwaukee Stadium

Milwaukee Theatre

Donna ordering meat

Mark examining the merchandise

We made a stop at Walmart to buy some clothes for Nathan, and then we went to visit my great Aunt Flo, her husband Al, and their son, Allen. All of us but Allen went out for pizza at Cataro’s Restaurant and then we said goodbye for the evening. The five of us met up with the Marys at the Sheraton hotel for sheepshead and licorice snaps, a family tradition. We didn’t play for long because the next day we would head out for Pisek, ND.