Doors Open Milwaukee

For my Doors Open Milwaukee experience, I went to the US Bank obseration deck. The view from up there was amazing. It made Milwaukee look so beautiful and the architecture so much more interesting from a birds eye view. Buildings I am familiar with, now were mysterious and I struggled to guess which one I was looking at. The next stop for us was the Phister Hotel. The next tour would have been a long wait but it had started to pour outside so we stayed for lunch. The part of the hotel I did see was gorgeous and I definitely felt out of place in my street clothes. The most interesting part was the cafe inside the hotel. They had a sign stating Ipads were available for use while sitting in the cafe. I found this particularly amusing. I could not even imagine any of the places I normally spend my time having such a convienence as this for their customers. This was a new perspective in the sense that for other people, this kind of luxury is perhaps not the least bit surprising for them and just ordinary life. After lunch we stopped at a few churches along the way, accidently interrupting a wedding rehersal. The architecture of old churches has always been one my favorites. But not wanting to be a nuisance however, left quickly. Our last stop which was City Hall. They had tours available to go to the top of the bell tower but once we got there they were all full for the day and people were already signing up for tours on the following day. I thought it was interesting that they only had three tours a day allowing 25 people on each tour. So for Doors Open Milwaukee only 150 people, in a city of nearly a million, get the whole experience. However, they were allowing people to walk around freely. We took the liberty of taking the stairs all the way up to the sixth floor where we were met by a security guard who told us that only the first three floors were open to the public who were not taking a guided tour.

Over all the experience was worth the time. My favorite location was by far the US Bank observation deck. With better planning, I would have been able to see much more. I think the concept of Doors Open Milwaukee is fabulous however. The places I went to were places I would not have ventured to on my own but I am glad I did.