Wisconsin and Minnesota
 

Hello-
We're a family of four (two boys 13 &7 ) traveling to Milwaukee on Sat 7/5 arriving 10am.
Since we're big baseball fans our plan is to rent a car @ airport and then make the 5hr drive to Minneapolis and catch an afternoon Twins game on Sunday 7/6. We will make our way back up to the Milwaukee area (on Wed or Thurs?) to check out the sites before seeing the 3pm Brewers game on Sat 7/12 (flying into Minneapolis and returning rental car to Milwaukee was too much $$) We fly out of Milwaukee on Sunday 7/13. So we essentially have 5 days between baseball games. Any suggestions about where to go and what to see would be great!
Cheese making tours? (someone has recommended visiting the Wisconsin cheese mart.)
Not interested in shopping so Mall of America is out. Thanks very much!

Madison? Wisconsin Dells?

Go to a Saint Paul Saints game on Tuesday the 8th.
http://saintsbaseball.com/schedule/

Go to Taylors Falls for a day - there are two state parks, one on each side of the border, plus a water park. Or take a canoe trip on the St. Croix River.

Go up to Duluth and drive north along the shore of Lake Superior.

There are a lot of cheese factories in Wisconsin. It looks like there are different levels of tours, with some being self-guided, other being nothing more than a viewing window into the factory, and some being guided tours.
http://www.wisconline.com/attractions/cheese.html

Wisconsin Dells is very touristy but can be fun. Lots of waterparks, roller coasters and go-karts as well as various tourist traps.

I believe Madison still have a minor league baseball team (the Mallards?) so you could check their schedule. If you have time you could always drive down to Chicago to see the Cubs and/or White Sox if they are in town.

Well C'mon, first of all... why wouldn't you check <B>Chicago</b> schedules to see if one of their teams is <i>home</i> during that window??

A: The <b>Cubs</b> are at <b>HOME</b> in Chicago @ 3:00pm on Friday July 11. (vs. Atlanta, at famed <I>Wrigley Field</i>)

(It's 90-100 miles from Central Milwaukee to Central Chicago)

If you're going to be <b>IN Milwaukee</b> watching baseball the next, day, then surely <I>Chicago</i> makes sense for that Friday, if you're as <b>big</b> baseball fans as you say.


Beyond that, even a trip up to <I>Green Bay</i> is worth it, to sports fans... <i>even though one could argue that <b>there's only ONE thing UP there</b></i>...

(on the bright side, there will be no <b>frozen tundra</b> to fear, in July)


92 miles from your Minneapolis date on Sunday, is a <b>Monday Minor League Game</b> @ Eau Claire, WI @ 6:30pm.


Sat Milwaukee
Sun Twins Game
Mon Eau Claire?

Tuesday - that St. Paul game mentioned above?
then head east toward Green Bay, and maybe include Door County, for some nature settings...

Maybe arrive in Chicago on Thursday, in preparation for the Braves game @ Wrigley on Friday, then back to Milwaukee for the (one-time <I>Seattle Pilots)</i> game as you said, and then home on Sunday.


Plenty of baseball to go around !!

HappyTrvlr-I do want to see what's happening in Madison when we're there.

WhereAreWe -Thanks for the tips I like the ideas of visiting the state parks and the nice link for the cheese making tours. The boys would probably love the rides @ Wisconsin Dells too!

NorthwestMale- How funny you should mention Chicago. My older son just said tonight that we should go for a Whitesox game while in that area! The only reason I hadn't included Chicago is because we did visit there a few years back and saw the CUBS @ Wrigley. Perhaps we'll include Chicago, but given the price of tickets- I think one pro game a the beginning of the trip and one at the end will likely suffice. I"ll have to check out your suggestion regarding Door County. Thank you!

There are several Hiawatha Amtrak trains per day between Chicago and Milwaukee (and Milwaukee airport). The airport stop has easy access to rental cars.
Between MKE and MSP the Empire Builder has been very late in the past months due to a huge amount of BNSF freight traffic so a rental car from Milwaukee to St. Paul is the best idea.

Since you mentioned ticket prices: The Twins have been averaging about 25,000 fans at a home game with capacity at close to 40,000. There are lots of empty seats, so my advice would be to purchase the cheap tickets and then move to better seats after a few innings. A lot of people buy their tickets then wander around the stadium to look at it, find food, switch seats, etc. If a section is fairly empty nobody cares. Doing that would definitely help keep your costs down. You could also wait til game time and buy 4 tickets from a scalper outside the stadium and try to bargain the price down, but you'd miss part of the game if you do that.

And the Saints are a good team with a lot of fun promotions and goofy things between innings. Plus they are much cheaper than a MLB game.

As long as you plan your day, Wisconsin Dells will be manageable. Just know what you want to do and which rides are a priority because it gets very busy and crowded on a nice summer day.

WhereAreWe-Thanks for the tip re the tickets. We've certainly switched seats at other ballparks before, but you never know how tight the security will be and whether or not they'll scrutinize each person's tickets when trying to move down or across to a lower section.So thanks I'll def.keep that in mind when purchasing tics.

Must also look at hrs and rides at Wisconsin Dells and plan ahead.

Thanks again!

If anyone has other tips about what else to see,where to stay or eat- when heading back to Milwaukee from Minneapolis we'd surely appreciate it!

We spent several days in Chicago, Milwaukee, and parts of Wisconsin last year. Here's my trip report, if you're interested:
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...rip-report.cfm

Lee Ann

I'm not sure if you are strictly highway people but I always recommend a drive along the Mississippi anywhere between the Cities and the small historic town Prairie du Chien in southwest Wisconsin. There are also some wonderful state parks to spend a day in. My favorite is Wyalusing that is south of Praire du Chien but Devils Lake park is near the Dells and probably the most popular in the state.

As Happy Trvlr recommended, kids really love all of the water parks in Wisconsin Dells.

This site has a lot of great ideas for people traveling to Wisconsin. The search engine and you should get plenty of good ideas.

http://www.travelwisconsin.com/chees...factory-203202

There are cheese factories that have observation windows. Usually I've found the best viewing action earlier in the day but a phone call should be able to tell you more. Make sure yo try some fresh cheese curds. It is a must to in wisconsin.

Have a great time.