Exploring Wisconsin’s Eastern Shores

From Milwaukee to Green Bay, fun days await tour groups

Day 1 Milwaukee

Begin your visit with a couple of days in Milwaukee with your first stop at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Groups will enjoy the reimagined Streets of Old Milwaukee. This walk-thru exhibit depicts the city at the turn of the 20th century, highlighting businesses and attractions that are still viable today. The dioramas found throughout the museum are some of the best in the country, and a visit to the live butterfly vivarium is a must. Head out to Boerner Botanical Gardens for a delicious luncheon. Then visit the Rose Garden, one of the official U.S. test gardens for the America Rose Selections; the Herb Garden with 12 herb beds containing over 300 varieties of herbs and approximately 7,000 plants; the Rock Garden, an intimate woodland grotto filled with native wildflowers and meandering trickles of water. Or take other themed walks or just a leisurely ramble throughout.

Day 2 Milwaukee/Greenbush/Neenah

Our morning starts with a city tour and stop at beautiful Villa Terrace with its Renaissance Garden overlooking Lake Michigan recreating the classic elements of a 16th century Tuscan landscape. The home, now a decorative arts museum, includes furnishings and works of art from the 15th through 18th centuries. The mansion was originally the family residence of Lloyd R. Smith, president of the A.O. Smith Company. It was designed and built in 1923 by renowned architect David Adler in the style of a 16th century Northern Italian villa. It was originally called Sopra Mare, which means “Above the Sea.” Before heading north, take some time to explore the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.

Did you know that Golda Meir grew up in Milwaukee or that the Kohl family of Kohl’s Food Stores (now the major department store chain) all started in Milwaukee? These stories are part of the history, heritage and culture of the Jewish people in southeastern Wisconsin. Go back in time before groups traveled by motorcoaches and see a community where Yankee refinement met the Wisconsin wilderness with a visit to the Wade House stagecoach hotel in Greenbush. The three-story Wade House opened to the public in 1850, its Greek Revival style reflecting the architectural fashion of the “civilized” East. To travelers, Wade House represented the prosperity and progress of the young village. The hotel was the scene of cotil- lions, business meetings, political cau- cuses and circuit court sessions. The taproom buzzed with debates of issues as mundane as last year’s crops and as heady as secession and the abolition of slavery. Our day ends at the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass, which has hundreds of antique paperweights, Germanic drinking glasses and jaw-dropping contemporary glass sculpture.