Once over the imaginary boarder of Illinois and Wisconsin, you will find a giant Outlet Mall. Pleasant Prairie is the huge outlet mall on the East side of the Highway. They have all kinds of stores. If you are in the mood to shop, be outside and fight an angry woman for a chance at buying underpants for $1, stop here. http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=90
Due East from there is the Jelly Belly factory. Have never taken the tour, have bought multiple bags of beans and plan one day to take my munchkins. https://jellybelly.com/Info/visitjellybelly/wisconsin_warehouse_index
At State Rd 50 you can head West and travel to Lake Geneva. It is a beautiful resort town nestled around Lake Geneva. The town used to be home to the Wisconsin chapter of the Playboy Club! I had the luck to go there some 30 years ago, such fun! The streets are lined with bars and restaurants as well as cute little shops. It's a great day trip, you may even be able to find a cheap hotel mid week in the off season. http://www.lakegenevawi.com/
If you choose to stay on 94, you are headed for Kenosha. Woodmans Grocery Store. http://www.woodmans-food.com/kenosha/ Seriously you could spend a full day in this store. They have EVERYTHING!!!! Gluten Free, Organic, Great Beer Selection, 4 aisles of CHEESE!!! Why stop at the "Cheesey Castle" when you can just go to Woodmans? If you like grocery stores, Woodmans is a must stop one day!
Up the Road a bit is a Truck Stop on 20 with an "Iron Skillet" Restaurant. If you have a sweet tooth and love a good Danish Kringle, stop there. OH Danish Bakeryhttp://www.ohdanishbakery.com/ohdb/HOME has a counter inside and sells all sorts of fresh Kringle. Kringle are flaky crust circular coffee cakes (more like uber thin strudel)
Some have cheese or almond filling some have fruit, some have both. So delicious.
Next stop would be Mars Cheese Castle http://www.marscheese.com/ for some. It's a huge building with everything Wisconsin. You can get a cheese hat and show everyone you're a Packer fan.
Personally I like the little place next door. Bobby Nelson cheese and sausage.http://www.yelp.com/biz/bobby-nelsons-cheese-shop-kenosha (no website so I sent you to Yelp) It's a step back in time. No longer owned by the Nelsons, but the pictures of the infamous wrestler still don the walls. If you have ever heard the wrestling holds "full or half Nelson" then you have heard of Bobby. The place even sells farm eggs. Homemade sausage, smoked fish and cheese from all over the state. The counter people still use an adding machine to total the bill.
The Milwaukee Public Market is in the 3rd Ward. It's an indoor market, with some cute shops and restaurants inside. (a great Cheese shop too) The Third Ward is also the home to a huge River Walk area.My favorite Bloody Mary and brunch (and excellent beer) restaurant is around the corner from the Public Market on Broadway. It's called Cafe Benelux. The place is swarmed as most are in that area but the Bloody Mary is worth the wait. The food is also excellent. Its a little pricey and a bit yuppie but sometimes its worth dealing. The area is cute and has some other nice shops. Parking is cheap, maybe $5.
http://www.historicthirdward.org/
http://www.milwaukeepublicmarket.org/main.html
My Other favorite area in Milwaukee is "Old World 3rd St" It's at the northern end of the River Walk, just off McKinley exit of 43. It is a block from the Bradley Center (where the Milwaukee Buck pretend to play) and a little southwest of Brady St. The best 2 stops are there. Even if you are going farther North, stopping at Usingers https://www.usinger.com/ on a Saturday morning to see whats "on the table" will be one of the highlights. They have 'ends' and 'rewraps' of all sorts of bacon and sausage. It's clean and quaint and has free parking next door. The bacon is to die for, the pork sausage rings, the white bratwurst, the knockwurst....yum. Right across the street is the Spice House. The spice house is a small shop with a bunch of hippie looking workers measuring and milling about to help you. Their are hundreds of apothecary jars chock full of unusual and not so unusual spices from all over the world. You can smell them, see them and tell them how much you want. http://www.thespicehouse.com/info/stores.html If you cook or bake it's a great place to sniff around!
You can't go to that area of Milwaukee and not see the the Pabst sign dangling in between the building at the old Pabst brewery city on Juneau http://www.bestplacemilwaukee.com/Unfortunately the Brewery was moved out of Milwaukee 1996. Pabst was no longer brewed in Milwaukee after 152 years, and the company had become a virtual brewer. Someone bought a few of the buildings and holds tours under Best Place Milwaukee. It's not a brewery tour as much as it is a history tour. They show clips of old commercials and take you to the Captain's desk, they are still renovating but you get a full glass of beer and more if you want to pay. You get to go through the old souvenir shops which looks like it did 50 years ago. Pabst's long obsolete brewery complex in Milwaukee has been targeted to be developed into restaurants, entertainment venues, stores, housing and offices. The $317 million project is the subject of much debate in Milwaukee. http://www.brewhousesuites.com/brewhouse-story.htm and don't forget the bar http://jacksonsbrp.com/ You can clump the tours together and do the Pabst Mansion. It is a beautiful old home near the Marquette Campus. There is some walking but the place is just as it was in some rooms. http://www.pabstmansion.com/
There are still many breweries still in Milwaukee, although most are smaller they offer tours and events that you will want to take in if you are a beer person. http://milwaukeebrewerytours.com/
They also have a distillery that you can take in, if beer isn't your thing.http://www.greatlakesdistillery.com/
I could go on and on and on.....I never even told you about the Lakefront and the Museums or Summerfest or BRADY ST!!! Another entry...another time.
