Milwaukee for Karen & Paul's Wedding 7-30-10 to 8-1-10

After a day in Chicago on Friday, we headed up the coast to Brown Deer, Milwaukee for Karen and Paul's Wedding. As we pulled up to the Four Points Sheraton, I realized that it was the exact same hotel I had stayed in about three years prior for a work trip to see the Desert Aire factory....small world. Mom brought some new drink recipes she got from her friend who recently went to Africa..so we partook!

Saturday we got up and had a nice breakfast at the hotel with Farmor, Eirik, Ana Marie, Carl, Rolf, and Pat. We decided to drive around and try to find the closest beach on Lake Michigan to see how cold the water was. It only took about ten minutes to find public access to the beach. On our walk down in addition too all of the beautiful trees and flowers, we saw baby chipmunks, baby squirrels, and several rabbits. After the steep walk, we made it to the beach. It was beautiful, and it makes it hard to believe that is is actually a lake and not the ocean with all of the sandy beach, waves, and water as far as you can see. The water was chilly, but after you walk around in it for awhile, it's not too bad. Mom and I collected pretty rocks. There are millions of beautiful polished rocks all along the shore in place of sea shells. They were all different colors and sizes. We took a cup full home to give the girls.

Next we headed to Cedarburg which is a historic town with dining and shopping about twenty minutes from Brown Deer. We went in to several antique and gift stores and then found a bakery and got some bread and a chocolate cheesecake bar. The guy working gave us a recommendation for a good bar, so we walked over for a beer and to eat our food. The brewery was called Silver Creek Brewery. It was really neat. As we walked up there were about fifteen ducks including one cute baby. The seating was mostly outdoors with a waterfall in the creek right next to us. It must have been some sort of old mill, because as you walked in there were more small waterfalls running under the walkway into the brewery. We tried some good beers and ignored the signs and fed the ducks. Next we went to the Cedar Creek Winery and sampled all of their wines and hit a few more gift shops. We all bought some which ends up a lot more expensive since it meant shipping it for my parents and paying to check a bag for us. The wine was definitely worth it though!

The Wedding took place at the Schlitz Audobon Nature Center which was only a few minutes from the hotel and from the beach that we visited earlier in the day. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony and an equally as impressive reception afterward inside the nature city. Karen looked beautiful, and Paul looked great as well. Everyone had a blast at the reception...especially Brett who probably danced more than he has in his entire life!