Is there a better time to blog than when you are desperately trying to sleep, but due to good ol' jet lag you can't? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Jet lag will get even the best of us at some point and after 7 day in Asia, it has caught up to me. It's a funny thing really. When I woke up 6:30am, after only 6 hours of sleep, I still felt exhausted and even now I'm yawning like a new born kitten, but alas, no sleep. So, I thought I'll get a post in this morning!
I wanted to share about Milwaukee! First some background on why Milwaukee. Fuse had a birthday in December and I was thinking of what to get him. I started looking to see if any of the comedians he liked were going to be in the Seattle area anytime soon. They weren't. But I did see that two of them where going to be in Milwaukee on consecutive dates in March. Then I thought to myself, hum, Milwaukee, kinda random, could be kinda fun. Breweries, Lake Michigan, comedy, why not? So that is how 3 months after his birthday we ended up freezing in Wisconsin.
Before I rave about the wonders of this beautiful city you have to hear the crazy story of how we got there. First, we aren't morning people. We are more the 2am-10am sleepers and luckily our jobs are accommodating to that. So when I was looking to book our tickets (standby of course) the 6am departure, while the smartest idea, did not sound very appealing. (FYI, as an airlines employee we can travel on a flight provided there is an open seat. No open seat, no go.) So instead of starting off this fun weekend with a 3am wake up, I booked us on the 1pm flight to Detroit and then the last flight out to Milwaukee. For those of you not in the airline industry, this was a bad plan. One mishap and we would be stuck in Detroit for the night. You can see where this story is headed can't you?
So on that Friday afternoon, well rested, we headed to the airport. Our first flight was marvelous. We had seats together, in the exit row, it was lovely. Then we got to Detroit and things took a downhill spiral. Snowstorm in Milwaukee earlier that day and canceled flights to the flight we wanted was overbooked by about 20 people. There was really no hope for us. But we stuck around, just in case, because with standby travel, you just never know. But that night, it wasn't meant to be and we were off to a hotel. The next day we were back at the airport. At this point we still had time to get to Milwaukee in time for the first comedian, Brian Regan, that night. But things looked bleak. "I'm a gambling woman," the gate agent told us at the first Milwaukee flight, "and I won't gamble on getting on a flight to MKE today." Great. Not to fear, we activated plan B. Fly to Chicago and Amtrak it to MKE. Where there seat to O'Hara? Nope, Midway? Yes! Off we went. After a phone call to a good friend in Chicago for assistance we made our way to the train station and boarded the 3:15 to MKE, with arrival at 4:30.
This was my first time on a train in America. It is lovely. Quick and easy boarding, nice comfy seats, you can get up when you want, there are sleeper cars for long hauls. It was a great experience for the hour long ride. I'm kinda jonesing to get back on one. Then we arrived in MILWAUKEE! Woot! Woot! Out hotel was only 3 blocks from the Amtrak and we were there in no time. Time to get our Milwaukee weekend going, but after 2-3 hours of sleep the night before (2am west coast bedtime, means not tired till 5am east coast time) we were kind of dragging.
And so am I at this moment and this post is getting kind of long, so I'm going to save the rest for part 2: The Actual Milwaukee Part! Check back soo....zzzzz......zzzzz.
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