Wine and Spirits Travel

I had never been to Milwaukee before. I didn’t make it there during my traveling years and I hadn’t been there in the seven years I’ve been living in the Midwest. When I received an invitation to cover one of the biggest music festivals in the world that happened to be in Milwaukee, it didn’t take me long to say, “Yes!” My friend Lisa, who was living in Green Bay at the time, met me in Milwaukee for a girls’ weekend. Margaret Casey of Visit Milwaukee picked us up at the Hilton for our first day of tasting and touring. Our first stop was at Indulgence Chocolatiers . I wish we had a place like this in Champaign. Julie, the owner of Indulgence, fell in love with the chocolate shops in Europe and decided to open one in Milwaukee . She creates a selection of chocolate truffles, barks, and bars. Then, she pairs them with your choice of white wine, red wine, beer, whiskey, or cheese. Everything sounded scrumptious and we finally settled on sharing chocolate &

Long before I wrote about travel, food, wine, spirits, or even tennis, I was an entertainment writer. I was young and it was a lot of fun going into New York City and seeing plays, movie previews, and concerts. I knew it wasn’t the kind of life that I could keep up with once I was an “adult,” but it was a great time for a while. I’ve recently received a lot of opportunities to cover music. While I’m not going to make a full time job out of it and trips into the “city” – now Chicago – are not something I can handle nightly, I do like to go to a concert and meet a band whenever possible. I was especially excited to see Soul Asylum and meet the band backstage at the House of Blues in Chicago. My friend John accompanied me into downtown and we arrived early enough to do some exploring around Navy Pier and enjoy a cocktail or two. When we arrived at the House of Blues, there was still plenty of time left before the concert so I asked for a tour. The only House of