Kicking off a downtown tour w the Milwaukee Art Museum

The Milwaukee Art Museum opens at 10 a.m., so that was the first place we headed from the airport. Downtown is about a 15-minute drive, and as we got closer, we were greeted with a very industrial panorama of the city. Phil and I think Cleveland’s entry points are thankfully a bit more urban.

Since Phil isn’t exactly a man of the arts, I knew I’d have to make my Milwaukee art itinerary on the light side or risk his wrath. So, we agreed to check out the lakefront outside the Milwaukee Art Museum as opposed to spending a couple hours inside viewing the collection, particularly since a lot of folks mentioned the exterior is more impressive than the collection. (This is my third Great Lake in two weeks.)

The Cleveland Art Museum has me completely spoiled. A) it’s free B) we have a comprehensive collection (no Asian art at MAM) c) our building’s exterior is growing more impressive with the expansion efforts.

But, Milwaukee’s art museum was something to see. Overlooking Lake Michigan, it looks like an elegant ship and has a “plank” that connects to a parking garage, which provides nice views of the city.

The lobby was really cool. Plenty of architectural eye candy and one Chihuly installation. If I had more time (and an art enthusiast at my side), I would have spent more time there.

P.S. If you find street parking, be aware that the city is cheap: a nickel gets you two minutes. Seriously?

CLE whole body scanners embarrassing and SLOW

As of Sunday, only two airports in the country, CLE and Houston, have installed whole body a.k.a. "naked" imaging scanners in passenger security lines. At CLE, there appears to be one full-body scanner in each security checkpoint...all other scanners are the normal ones.

This morning, I was directly behind Phil in one of the security lines, and he had to go through the full-body imaging scanner (ha!) while I walked through a normal one. Despite a short line overall in security, he took five minutes longer than me to walk through because of the extended time the new scanners take.

I'm not sure if more of these scanners will be added in the future, but if not, I'll do my best to avoid them so I can get through security quicker (and not think about someone checking out my lady parts).

$32k to fly with Zippy? I think not

I love my pooch a lot...enough to send my retired racing greyhound to doggie daycare once a week. But, I don't think she's worthy of flying business class with me to Milwaukee tomorrow (hell, I only fly biz class when upgraded for free).

Check out this story in USA Today about a lady who booked out the entire biz class section on an international flight. I wonder if her dog stole her airline pretzels like my carb queen would (see empty bread loaf wrapper in photo)...