It's Miller Time!!! Welcome to Milwaukee!

Good Evening Blog "Aficionados!

Here we are in beer (and not only) paradise...

We left Chicago, IL at a decent time (11AM, totally relaxed! LOL) to get on the interstate to Milwaukee, WI.

Traffic was a real mess, we first go stuck bumper to bumper for 21 miles of road construction (with NO men working as always), and then we got stuck in another traffic jam with very slow traffic for another 8 to 10 miles because of the line of cars who wanted to get in one of those "Six Flags" amusement parks! I must admit that the roller coasters really really looked attractive, as I remembered last year how much fun I had with my friends from Italy at Disney World Orlando and Universal Studios Orlando.

We got to Milwaukee at about 1.40PM, the GPS was already programmed with the address for the "Lakefront Brewing Co.". The brewery has a very nice deal going on. They offer tours for $6 which include 4 tokens (for four 8oz beer samples) and one of their pint glasses to get at the end of the tour! The brewery is very small, but they make really good tasting beer. The tour and the plant was nothing compared to Anheiser-Busch and Budweiser, but hey, the beer was excellent, and the lady giving the tour was very nice, so, thumbs up for Lakefront Brewery.

We then stopped at a Subway to get a foot long sandwich, spicy Italian, my favourite (and then you wonder why I'm gaining weight! LOL), in order to get ready for the next brewery tour, at Miller Brewing Co.

Miller Brewing Co. is for beer fanatics like me, like Wrigley Field, or Fenway Park are for baseballs fans. It was great to get there, we had more beer (how come?!?! LOL), and we had another nice tour of the plant, this time comparable to Budweiser in New Hampshire.

The impression I got of Milwaukee, WI is that of a city who's going through a major face lift. I haven't got a chance to walk around though, so I might be wrong. Lakefront Brewery was for example in a new developed neighborhood, several new condo buildings popping up, good sign, or maybe not! LOL

We decided to leave Milwaukee, and get back on the road, and as a result, I'm writing you right now from Madison, WI, the State Capitol!

We went out to dinner at a Brew Pub called "The Great Dane" which is also, other than a restaurant, guess what...yes, you're right a brewing company!

The great dane produces 3,000 barrels a year, which actually places it among the top five brewpubs in the country. It was a great experience, food was very good (try the half a pound TEXARCANA burger or the Lemon Pepper Crazy Fingers), and they had 11 different beers on tap (Draught beers).

Tomorrow looks like it's going to be another busy day.

We're looking forward to visiting the "Henry Vilas Zoo" here in Madison, move west to "House On The Rocks" in Spring Green, WI, and then if there's more time, get to Austin, MN to see another one of those odd things, "SPAM City" and "SPAM Museum".

Anyone would care for a SPAM Cheesecake?!?! YUCK!

Good night internauts,

Nico

Chilling Out In Chicago, IL!

Today has been pretty quiet for us here in Chicago.

We did nothing special, other than a visit late this morning to the "Pullman Historical District", quite a landmark here in Chicago for the true conoisseurs of the windy city.

They have a nice green stone church, a visitor center, and the "Hotel Florence" (who needs a lot of restoration work I have to say). It is all run by volunteers who do a great job, it felt good to go there and be able with a small donation to be part of this ambitious restoration process.

After that, we were thinking about one of the river cruises with architectural tour, but the weather didn't cooperate. It's been sunny all morning, very hot, and then all of a sudden it got overcast and at one point it also rained.

One of the coolest buildings in Chicago (in my opinion obviously!):

Tomorrow we're leaving Chicago and driving further north to Milwaukee, WI.

On our schedule we have tours of local breweries (Miller Brewing Co. and Lakefront Brewery), can't wait to get drunk, I mean, taste their specialty beers!

Milwaukee also have their annual Summerfest going on at the lakefront, but I doubt we will spend any time there as I'm not really keen on going to places where a lot of people are already. (Same reason why we didn't stop at Taste of Chicago here this weekend).

Short post tonight, I'm sure a lot of you are happy about that! LOL

Good night folks,
Nico

It's Windy Out Here!

Perfect evening to be in Chicago...

"An Italian Across America" has been blessed once again with a gorgeous sunny day, really couldn't ask for a better day (and this should tell you that after all, I'm not that hard to content), especially because one of our plans today was to have lunch at the Signature Room restaurant on the 94th floor of the John Hancock Tower in downtown Chicago!

In order to get to downtown, we need to get on the "L" as they call it here, which stands for "eLevated", I guess just a posh way of calling a train that runs up high in the sky between buildings! ;-)

I hate to criticise, but today I have to. CTA, the transit authority here in Chicago should have done a better job for his customers. They have 1,2,3,5, or 7 day passes, and just about anybody would think that they can buy these passes at any station from an attendant or the numerous vending machines, right? Nope, WROOOOOOOOONG!


You can't find "Visitor Passes" at CTA stations (isn't that weird?!?!), instead, you have to purchase a $2 one way ticket to get downtown, or any other place, and then you can buy a ticket (if you find a place where they sell them!)...Sounds fishy, doesn't it?!?! ;-)


Oh well, that's what we did, a little upset but hey, we're on vacation, there's no reason to be pissed!


Once we got downtown, we walked to and through Millennium Park, saw the big metal "bean" (maybe it has a name, I don't recall! LOL), and then also finally saw the two fountains with the faces of real people from Chicago. It's an amazing piece of art work, I really enjoyed it, especially because I've heard so much about it, and saw pictures in so many places that I almost felt like I had been there already in the past.


After that, we walked roughly ten blocks to the Hancock Tower, where, after taking an elevator up 95 floors, we had a drink while we waited for a window table overlooking the city and the harbour on Lake Michigan.


Superb view, superior service, and really competitive prices! I mean, if you think that we would have paid $15 each to get up to their Observatory, and that we paid $40 (with tips) for lunch, well, that was a real deal (and we didn't have to stand in line to get on the elevator either!).


After lunch we went to see a Baptist Church, and then went south on the Magnificent Mile for a stroll, and for some window shopping...!

H&M is there on N Michigan Av, we had to stop and buy some clothes!

We then went back home, (another 30 minutes ride on the bus with traffic), and this evening we had dinner at a very nice Italian Restaurant called "Calo". If you go there, try one of their pastas, their sauces are good, but please, avoid their pizza (which is what I got), I don't think they know what REAL pizza is supposed to taste like.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and at this point I'm still full from dinner and can't really think about having brunch, so, I'll exclude that from our plans right now.

We're probably going to see some museums and/or Art Galleries, I'm up for some "culture", especially in such a big city like Chicago.

By the way, now I know why they call it the "windy" city; it was unbelievable today!

Have a good night,
Nico

P.S. It is almost midnight here in Chicago, IL, almost 7 o' clock in the morning in Sardinia, Italy where my brother lives. Today (June 29th) is his 36th birthday, and although I can't be there physically, he knows I'm celebrating with him anyway from here, waiting to see him again, and laugh together as always in front of an extra cold pint of beer. There you go Bro, this is for you!

Kissed "The Brickyard"? Not Quite!

Good evening fellas,

It's been another wonderful day...

We woke up this morning to a great sunshine, which certainly help in this situations we're in. The "Brickyard" was only 12 miles away from our hotel in the outskirts of Indianapolis, IN, and I couldn't wait to get there.

The speedway has an International Hall Of Fame that people can visit for just $3, and for an additional $3, they offer a lap around the speedway in one of their minivans.


To my deepest sadness, as soon as we got inside the Hall Of Fame (where you can purchase both tickets), I read a sign advising visitors that today, due to "Brickyard maintenance", there were no minivans riding on the brickyard.



I almost fell down, and it took me basically a good 15 minutes to metabolize the fact that today I was NOT going to kiss the three feet line of bricks.



The Hall Of Fame on the other hand certainly made up for my disappointment. The cars on display are absolutely amazing, several different ones have won in their years the Indy 500.

They also have some Formula 1 cars (with which I'm certainly more familiar), and another area with really old but absolutely awesome cars. Every car has a specific tag with a brief description, which makes it easier for the visitor to identify with the car itself.

The Hall Of Fame also have a small theater that they use to project a 20 minutes video who takes the viewer into the backstage of the speedway, with the history of the brickyard and the people who made it famous. I strongly suggest to anybody coming to visit the museum, to watch the video FIRST and then walk around, they will surely appreciate what they see a little more because of what they would know already.

After the visit at "The Brickyard" we decided to skip the visit at the NCAA Hall Of Fame, and go straight to Chicago, which turned out to be the right thing to do.

Chicago is a three hours drive by car, a little bit more than that today, because of road construction. If you're coming from the south, once I-65 ends, because of the constructions, I suggest you get on I-90, which is the Toll Road. The skyway is so much better to get into the city.

We're now in Chicago, hot and humid, but the city is very nice, it has a NYC kind of feeling, really cosmopolitan, another big melting pot. We had drinks at a local bar and then wen to dinner with our friend Larry from Fort Lauderdale who is also our hosts for a few days.

Tomorrow we have no definite plans, it really all depends on the weather, we have some good alternatives depending if it's going to be sunny or not, hopefully it'll be nice and we can enjoy the outdoor and the parks.

That's all from the windy city, beautiful evening to go out,
Nico

God Bless The USAF!

Good Evening and welcome to another episode of this crazy adventure!

We left Wapakoneta, OH this morning at around 9.30AM which is, for those who know me well, early in the morning for me! Oh well, must be something that goes back t MY Air Force days when I had to go to work at 5AM and begged the alarm to let me sleep another extra 5 minutes. So now I really like to sleep in if and when I can.

Our first stop today has been, contrary to what I said last night, the United States Air Force National Museum, we decided this morning to skip the Neil Armstrong Museum, mainly because we had already seen some memorabilia at the local McDonald’s on exit 111 where we spent the night. You should see this place (McDonald’s), the ladies taking your order are NOT your average McDonald’s people. What do I mean by that? It’s quite simple, it seemed like they just got out from one of those 70’s TV shows with the lady serving coffee at a diner…! Got the picture? I hope so…! One other I couldn’t help but noticed both this morning and last night in Wapakoneta, OH is the total absence of black people, where did they go?!?!

We got to the USAF National Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB after about one hour from when we said goodbye to the nice lady at the McDonald’s. This is one of the other places worth a visit, especially if you’re into aircrafts or American/World history.

The museum is also for FREE, that’s right, there’s no admission fee, which is nowadays, with the price of gas skyrocketing like this, certainly a good thing. The exhibition floor is divided into three gigantic hangars, subdivided into 6 different areas each of them with a specific theme.

The cold war section is very interesting, because of all the most recognizable planes (at least for me), and for all the precious information on espionage, etc., very interesting indeed.

Among the aircrafts I enjoyed looking at the most are the one the dropped the bomb on Nagasaki (because of what it symbolizes), the brand new F-22 Raptor, the evergreen F-177 Stealth Nighthawk, and the massive B-2. All is documented through pictures, that you can see on Flickr at this web address: www.flickr.com/nikkosan

It took us about 4 hours to go through the whole exhibition, so I figured we had our share of walking and exercising for the day, something that should take care of our “body shape” at least for the day; speaking of which, I almost forgot to mention that we did try some of that Astronauts’ food that they sell at the gift shop. It is sold to be authentic, and I missed the chance to try it three years ago when I went to Houston, TX to the NASA Space Center, so now I did, and it was good!

We finally got back in the car and drove another 100 miles to Indianapolis, so yes, that adds another state to our “collection”. Here later this evening we met our friend Jerry from Fort Lauderdale, who has lived in this state for a long time. He gave us a very interesting tour of the city, and I got the chance to take some pictures of the city at sunset, which is always good.

We went to an amazingly good Brazilian Churrascaria (Steakhouse) this evening, same thing as the one we visited in Atlanta with our friend Todd. A lot of meat (any kind), and impeccable service, which makes me feel like I can recommend “Fogo de Chao” here on the blog.

We’re now back at the hotel, as we get ready for tomorrow.

I’m thrilled about going to visit “The Brickyard” and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall Of Fame and Museum, I hope to be able to walk on those bricks and kiss the ground.

We’re also aiming on visiting the NCAA Hall Of Fame, and pay tribute to all the Students/Athlete, hopefully we’re going to be able to do both and still manage to be in time for our next stop which is supposed to be the “Windy City”, Chicago, IL.

From Indianapolis it’s all for tonight.

Stay tuned, we keep on “trucking”,
Nico

Anything To Declare Dude?!?!

Good Evening Blog Readers,

“An Italian Across America” is tonight writing you from Wapakoneta, OH! Now, how exotic is that for a name?!?! LOL Wapakoneta, OH, for those of you “ignorant” (meaning that you “ignore”), is the birthplace of Neil Armstrong, and hopefully I don’t have to tell you who this guy is. So there you go, now you know where Neil Armstrong was born!

We left London, ON this morning around 9AM, had breakfast at a Tim Horton and then proceeded to hit the road, going south west towards Detroit. The drive was not too bad, and other than some construction works towards Windsor, ON, we had a pretty smooth ride.

Customs to come back into the U.S. are always a problem, and although I fully understand what their duties are (coming from a closely related job with the Italian Air Force), I also realize that the Canadian Officer has been without any doubt, much nicer than the US Officer we had to deal with this morning.

My parents taught me through the years that courtesy always comes for free, apparently NOT at the Detroit American border. On top of that, you know how I always like to take a picture of the State sign when we cross a border; well, it is either I am too blind to see a 6x6 road sign, or maybe there is NO sign welcoming visitors!

Anyway, closed that brief chapter, we move on! For the next stop I have to publicly thank our friend John Ellis, who recommended us to stop in Dearborn, MI and go visit the Henry Ford Museum. Tickets are $30 for a combination that grants you access to the Museum itself as well as the Greenfield Village.

We could have added a visit to the Rouge Factory where they assemble the F150 truck, but the courteous ticket agent told us that the plant at the present moment has been stopped because they is an overstock of trucks and they’re waiting to sell them first! She also said the new 2009 F150 model will certainly be more fuel efficient; do you think that is in any case related to the decrease in sales for the old F150?!?! LOL I think so!

It took us almost 5 hours to go through the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, we’re therefore grateful we didn’t purchase the other ticket to the plant as there wouldn’t have been any time to go visit it anyway.

The museum is everything a car “aficionado” like me could ask for. It well represents American History through cars (which one would obviously expect considering the very important name it has), and much more. Here at the Ford Museum is like getting into a time machine and stepping back in time. They have carriages, cars, farm machines, trains, bicycles, and last but not least some other very important cars that have been a silent witness of history making, like the car were President Kennedy has been assassinated.

Other than that, for those of you who like to read about curious things, Henry Ford’s personal collection also includes: The rocking chair from Ford's Theater in which President Lincoln was sitting when he was shot; A collection of several fine 17th and 18th century violins including a Stradivarius; Thomas Edison's alleged last breath in a sealed tube; The bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Bill Elliot's record-breaking race car clocking in at over 212 MPH at Talledega in 1987.

Today I took 665 pictures, some are good, some are not, but nonetheless, they represent a piece of this dream that we’re now living through this Italian eyes, wandering around this immense country.

Greenfield Village is a masterpiece, there’s no other way to put it.

Our friend John, while we were talking at Hap’s 70th birthday party, was trying to explain to us what the village looks like, and he certainly did a good job in describing it, but I really have to tell you that this afternoon, I often stopped and asked myself what could have been the best way to describe what I was seeing with my own eyes. I’ve come to the conclusion that to really appreciate this place, you have to come and see for yourself, this is how worth a visit this place is.

Greenfield Village is not only the first and largest outdoor museum in the United States, it is more than that. It is alive, with real people who everyday go to work to impersonate other real people who have come to be in the past and whose memories now live through the words of the Greenfield Village actors.

Henry Ford once said of his Museum:
"I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used.... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition..."

Henry Ford was obviously a visionary, an incredibly smart man that through his words several years ago came to prophetically visualize what millions of people witness every year when they cross the gate in Dearborn, MI. This place to all of us interested in American History and Culture, looks and feels like a Disneyland, where instead of the rollercoaster visitors get the chance to ride on a fully operating Ford Model T, someone please tell me if it can get better than that…!

Actually it can, and if you bear reading these words, I’ll tell you why. Today we had the chance to visit almost one hundred historical buildings that has been according to what we’ve been said at the village, from their original locations and arranged in here in Dearborn in a "village" setting.

It took me a while to understand that those buildings had been torn apart in some other places and put back together right there exactly where I was standing, but after a while, I got it!

The Greenfield Village’s intent is to show how Americanslived and worked since the founding of the country, and that is why the Village includes buildings from the 17th century to the present, many of which are staffed by costumed interpreters who conduct period tasks like farming, sewing and cooking (pretty amazing to see the slaves in one of the plantations, to visit their living quarters and to touch first hand what those people had to go through just because of the color of their skin). Greenfield Village has a total of 240 acres (970,000 m²) of land of which only 90 acres (360,000 m²) are used for the attraction.

Some of the most notable homes and buildings include: Noah Webster's Connecticut home (If the name doesn’t ring a bell, think about the word “Dictionary”! Here, in case you didn’t know already, you will find that Webster was actually a lot more than just “the guy who invented the first dictionary”); The Wright Brothers' bicycle shop and home from Dayton, OH (And this almost complete our “Wright Brothers’ experience throughout the USA!); Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory from New Jersey (as the impersonator inside the laboratory told me this morning, we’re on NJ soil right now, because Henry Ford brought to Dearborn trucks and trucks to fill the land around the building); Henry Ford's birthplace; The Logan County, IL courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law.

If you want to know more, and I hope you do after my “brief” introduction, I invite you to visit the Herny Ford Museum website and see for yourself, and if you’re ever in Dearborn, MI, you absolutely have to come visit.

After the this epic visit to the Henry Ford Museum, and the Greenfield Village, we tried to reach Columbus, OH, but being already 5.20PM we didn’t quite make it, due also to some severe weather advisory and a Tornado warning that really freaked me out (I was already picturing myself in a Twister like movie scene trying to escape from the Tornado’s fury through I-75 in Ohio and Michigan!

Yes, OH and MI, we went through two states and one province (Ontario) today, and we have also have a picture for the Ohio sign where, on the contrary of the State of Michigan, there was a big sign over the highway to welcome us in.

The sky all of a sudden seemed to fall down on us, and at one point, just like it happened a few weeks ago in the Virginia, and Washington DC area, I almost had to pull over and stop on the side of the interstate.

We made it to Wapakoneta, OH, where the only place where to have something decent to eat other than you average McDonald’s or BK, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, etc. was a Bob Evans! SO, there you go, my first experience at Bob Evans, and there I was thinking again about Renato’s words and his prophecy about Mama Cass! I have to watch my diet!

One positive side of exit 111 on I-75 where we are at the moment here in Wapakoneta, OH, is the presence of the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum who is roughly 1,000 yards away from the hotel where we’re staying, we can’t obviously miss it tomorrow!

And now a few crunches, a few push-ups, and off to bed, ready for a new day tomorrow.

Other than the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum, tomorrow we have planned a visit to “National Museum of the United States Air Force” located on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base premises.

We then hope to be able to reach Indianapolis, IN, so that we can get back on track and follow the original schedule previously drawn. Unfortunately that will mean NOT stopping in Columbus, OH, where I had prepared a visit to the German Village and the Brewery District, and Cincinnati, OH, where I had also planned to see some other attractions such as the American Sign Museum, Krohn Conservatory, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

All right, another long post, I know, pain in the a*s!

Keep reading!
Nico

“The Bug” Feels Better!

Good evening fellows,

We got “The Bug” back late this morning, in time to pack our bags, thank our amazingly good friends Dan and Ray, and hit the road!

The car really had nothing wrong, and it’s amazing how one little thing is able to confuse and disturb the whole electrical system. In a few words, the mechanic at Downtown VW in Toronto, ON told us that because of the motor and the switch of the passenger side’s power window, the car didn’t recognize the top, and some other things inside the car! Oh well, go figure, this new technology instead of being helpful at times can really create serious problems.

We had planned to go visit the Bata Shoes Museum before leaving Toronto, and so we did. The museum is located on Bloor St. and it’s not too far from the subway station. It was really a very interesting museum with shoes from all over the world, some very old, and some other relatively new.

Some shoes have been donated by famous people, like the huge one of Shaquille O’Neal from his first rookie here in the NBA, or a pair of shoes worn by Tiger Woods, or better, another pair that used to belong to Marilyn Monroe!

Apart from the permanent exhibition, there were also two other exhibitions on the last floor, the first one concerning Native Americans, and the second one concerning Ballet and Opera. Nureyev shoes were there, together with those belonging to Baryshnikov, these people have written history!

Carla Fracci’s shoes (THE most important ballerina in the history of La Scala in Milan) were also there. I wasn’t surprised to see them there, but I was certainly proud of the acknowledgement and recognition given to such a big star.

From Toronto, we then proceeded to Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side, which is, from what I’ve been told, the most spectacular one. The drive was uneventful, and so we arrived in Niagara Falls around 3.30PM. The falls are beautiful, I have to admit that, however, they left me a little bit disappointed. I don’t know why, but maybe it is because I was expecting something a little bit more dramatic, after all, I had only seen them in the movies, and we all know that, things look different through the lens of a video camera.

Here we are, "The Falls!":

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we had the chance to go there, and yes, the Canadian side is much better than the American one, but yes, my thoughts were basically something like: “Been there, done that!”.

We took some pictures of the falls, and some of us to forever remember this particular moment, I also took some videos, and then we went back to the car, a little bit worried for the first time in more than a month, to be falling behind schedule.

We’re in London, ON right now; Canada so far has been such a nice experience for me, an amazingly high percentage of nice people interacting with us, I must admit that I like that!

Tomorrow we’re off to Detroit where our plan is to visit the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, and if we have time left, visit the Ford Rouge Factory where they put together the F-150!

With the time left in the afternoon we plan on getting close to Columbus, OH, where we’re going to visit GermanTown and the Brewery District

Some of you know of my passion for beers, especially local beers and micro-breweries.

Good Night from London (the other one! LOL),
Nico