O U R  N E W  L I F E  I N  M I L W A U K E E

"Well, It's not like we haven't done this before, right?" Alberto Vazquez

Whatever you think you know about Milwaukee is probably wrong. We certainly were wrong. We arrived expecting to see beer factories (home of Pabst, Miller, Blatz and Schlitz beers), polka music on every street corner, beer and tributes to Laverne and Shirley (however there is a new bronze statue of the Fonz on the riverwalk) - and more bratwurst and more beer. But instead, to our surprise, we found Milwaukee to be a sophisticated latte-sipping, liberal, lefty well-educated mix of urban sophisticates and working class great-grandchildren of German and Polish immigrants.

From the time we arrived in Milwaukee on Labor Day Weekend until October 5th, we stayed at my bosses house in an elegant lakeside suburb called Fox Point about 6 miles from the Trader Joe's store that Jose manages. He and wife Kim, and their two children, Jesse 6 and Ophelia 4, generously allowed Alberto and I to take over the furnished basement for more than one month. I started work almost immediately and settled into a regular routine, while Alberto got a chance to know the wonderful, funny Kim. The two children fell in love with Alberto, and I fell in love with their dog, Fang and cat, Bubba.

As I mentioned, we arrived on Labor Day Weekend, the traditional annual gathering of  The Harley-Davidson Rally Weekend, Milwaukee being the home and birthplace of Harley-Davidson. We spent the first three days in a roar of 400,000 (very polite) Harley warriors arriving for the opening of the new Harley-Davidson Museum.

On Labor Day, September 1st, we were driving around the different neighborhoods of Milwaukee looking for housing, when I heard on the PBS radio station." Barack Obama to visit Milwaukee today." I quickly pulled the car over and started Googling on the laptop. Nothing.

I asked a passerby about the event and she mentioned, "Yes! Today at 4:30 at the Marcus Amphitheater." "But you need a ticket to get in, I believe."

We Google-mapped the amphitheater while Alberto called Ticketmaster (no answer). We decided to race over to the shoreline amphitheater to see if we could still get tickets. Suddenly in front of us at a downtown cross street, a small army of motorcycle policemen were blocking our way, sirens wailing, lights flashing.

"There he is!", said Alberto and we both stared in disbelief as a motorcade of black SUV's swept past us, Barack, at one of the windows peering out at us. We waved wildly, and he was gone.

We followed the motorcade to the amphitheater and swept into a line of autos waiting to get into the parking lanes.

Alberto called out to a woman walking along the street, "Are we in the right place to see Barack?"

"Yes'" she said, "But you will need tickets. If you don't have any, I have two extra ones!"

(Wow.) "Get in," I said," We'll drive you to the front door!"

We made our way in, got seated and the truth is, I began to cry a little bit. The outdoor amphitheater was packed. The crowd roared at every speaker - labor union leaders, Obama field supervisors, Senators , Congresspersons, then finally out he came. No tie, white dress shirt, lanky form, big ears.

A thrilling moment and a profound omen for us - Welcome to your new home, boys.

We did much house-searching in those 4 weeks but we also found time to visit Chicago one day, which Alberto really enjoyed. We also visited outlaying areas in the farmlands and small towns, went apple-picking (twice) and crawled all over the city, from the lake shore to the river to the historic warehouse district called the Third Ward.

Finally, we found an apartment we liked in a high rise complex downtown that we really liked: One a hill of modest height (good feng shui). Four blocks to the skating rink (and Starbuck's), 4 blocks to the River Walk (and Starbuck's), 4 blocks to the lake (and Starbuck's).

The apartment is a "studio" with a floor to ceiling wall of glass facing west, 700 sq. feet, on the fourth floor, a view of the western city skyline and orange-red sunsets, heated Olympic pool, heated underground parking, penthouse gymnasium with 360 degree glass walls and views of the city and Lake Michigan, heat and water included, tons of closets, new carpet, new marble tile and countertops in the bathroom and a dishwasher - $795.00 a month.

Yeah, you heard me.

And now you know why so many Trader Joe customers here that I have met, are "ex-Californians".

With Alberto's excellent resume, he was accepted as a waiter at every restaurant he applied to downtown. He chose his positions carefully and is currently working at two different Italian bistro's - one in the Historic Third Ward (think of it as- SoHo-style lofts and warehouses, Anthropologie, artisan bread stores, et.al.) and the other on the River Walk - both are within walking distance of our new apartment.

Work is going well for me, I now write the big produce order for the store and have started to make big visual and esthetic changes in that department. I remain on track to go "full-time" with Trader Joe's very soon.

We find it interesting (?) that as the sun comes out midday, the air does not warm up as it does in California. It is currently in the mid-fifties daytime and 40's at night. The air is fresh, crisp and clean. Lots of weather - rain storms, thunderstorms, clouds and sun. Autumn trees are red, gold, purple and orange- absolutely gorgeous. This is Alberto's first autumn ( and soon, his first winter), and we will survive it, I believe. We hear that there may be "snow flurries" by the weekend.

We find the people of Milwaukee to be exactly like the people we left in California, warm, friendly, intelligent, witty, over-educated and world-weary. They drive like Californians too, like the tailgaters and speeders on the 405.

We live on Lake Michigan. The locals call the Great Lakes "The Third Coast", five enormous lakes that comprise 25% of the earth's fresh water. It was important to us that we lived near fresh water, and if you live in drought-stricken California or Arizona or Australia, you will understand us when we say ominously that fresh water will be the next "oil war". Arizona has already been overruled in it's desire to build a canal to ship this water to it's parched state.

We are in the land of fresh water, fresh apples, moose and badgers, cheese-heads and polka-dancers - the pristine Upper Peninsula and right next to Canada, eh? And as my brother Lindsay says, the accent here is so flat you could balance an egg on it!

We are happy. We miss all of you. We wish you well and we know you wish the same for us.

love, Craig and Alberto

The North Point Water Tower 

North Ave. at Terrace Ave.  1874

The original purpose of this limestone topped with copper tower was to mask  a 4-foot diameter vertical standpipe. The pipe was used to relieve pressure pulsations in the city's water mains. It is 175 feet high.

(uh..calling Dr. Freud...)