The Huz and I headed to Milwaukee for a little anniversary getaway, and I have to say, we had a heck of a good time.
The plan was pretty simple: see one of my favorite comedians, spend the night downtown, eat some good food, and enjoy a little time together without the usual responsibilities of home. No chores staring at me. No figuring out dinner for the whole family. No rushing around trying to get 17 things done before I could sit down.
Just the two of us, a hotel room, and a night out.
And, as it turns out, a very confused husband.
Leanne Morgan, Lori Morgan, and One Confused Huz
I’ve been following Leanne Morgan since before COVID, and I absolutely love her. Her humor is real, authentic, and downright hilarious. She’s the kind of comedian who talks about everyday life in a way that makes you think, Oh my gosh, that’s us!
I love her Netflix specials, her Netflix series, and her book. Basically, if Leanne Morgan puts something out there, I’m interested.
I was especially excited to see her live because I’ve loved watching her career take off. Her success came later in life, which I find incredibly inspiring. We put so much pressure on ourselves to have everything figured out when we’re young, as though our dreams come with some kind of expiration date.
They don’t.
Sometimes life takes you down a few detours before you figure out what you’re meant to do. Sometimes the experiences you accumulate along the way are exactly what make you good at it. And sometimes you don’t hit your stride until an age when your knees hurt, your kids are grown, and you’ve got enough material about marriage to fill several comedy specials.
I love that Leanne is proof that it’s never too late to chase a dream. I find that encouraging, especially as I get older and realize there’s still plenty of life left to live.
Anyway, back to my husband.
We pulled into Milwaukee, and The Huz spotted Leanne’s face on a billboard.
He looked at it and said, “I’m so confused. I thought we were going to see Lori Morgan!”
I laughed so hard.
LORI MORGAN. The country singer. One of my favorites.
LEANNE MORGAN. The comedian. The woman I’ve been following for years.
Two different women. Two different careers. One man who apparently needed to see the ticket.
I couldn’t have scripted it better if I’d tried.
And then, during the show, Leanne talked about how she and her husband, whom she refers to as Chuck Morgan, accuse each other of not being able to hear.
I was sitting there thinking about how her husband can’t hear, my husband can’t hear, and maybe the real problem is that neither of them listens.
The irony was almost too much.
I mean, how do you not love a comedian whose material accidentally starts before you even get to the theater?
We had front-row seats, right on the aisle. This was intentional. It was my anniversary gift to The Huz, and I wasn’t about to make the man squeeze between strangers for an entire show. His long legs need room, and frankly, I didn’t want to spend two hours watching him try to fold himself into a position normally reserved for carry-on luggage.
Front row. Aisle seats. Plenty of legroom.
I’m a thoughtful wife like that.
And the show was fantastic. Leanne is just as down-to-earth and funny in person as she is on screen. Her observational comedy is so relatable because she’s not trying to convince you she’s someone extraordinary. She’s telling you about the ridiculous things that happen in ordinary life.
Which, after being married for a couple of decades, I can appreciate.
Sometimes you don’t need a punchline. You just need to tell people what your husband said when he saw a billboard.
Our Hotel Had a Little Presidential History
My other anniversary gift to The Huz (and let’s be honest, myself) was a room at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee downtown.
This was a brilliant decision if I do say so myself.
The hotel was just a short walk from Miller High Life Theatre, so we parked in the hotel garage, checked in, and didn’t have to think about an Uber or finding parking for the show.
But here’s the part I really loved.
I’m a sucker for history, and I was absolutely thrilled to learn more about the history of Miller High Life Theatre and our hotel.
The theater originally opened in 1909 as the Milwaukee Auditorium. And on October 14, 1912, it was the site of one of the wildest presidential stories I’ve ever heard.
Theodore Roosevelt was campaigning for president when he was shot outside the Gilpatrick Hotel, which stood on the very site where the Hyatt Regency is today.
Let that sink in for a minute.
We were staying in a hotel built on the site where a former president was nearly assassinated almost exactly 114 years ago.
And what did Teddy do after being shot?
He went to the auditorium and gave his speech anyway.
Yes, really.
Roosevelt had a folded speech and a metal eyeglass case in his breast pocket, which helped slow the bullet. Despite being wounded and bleeding, he insisted on delivering his speech before getting medical attention. He reportedly spoke for roughly 80 minutes.
EIGHTY MINUTES.
I can barely get through a work meeting that runs ten minutes over its scheduled end time without wondering if I can fake a Wi-Fi problem.
Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt gets shot and decides he still has a speech to give.
His famous response included the line, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
You can’t make this stuff up.
The Milwaukee Auditorium, now Miller High Life Theatre, was where he delivered that speech. The Gilpatrick Hotel, where the shooting happened, was eventually demolished, and the Hyatt Regency was built on that site decades later. The Hyatt even preserves a historical plaque commemorating the assassination attempt.
So there we were, going to see a comedian and staying at a hotel, while unknowingly spending our evening surrounded by a pretty remarkable piece of American history.
I love discovering things like this. It makes an ordinary trip feel a little more special when you realize what happened on the very ground you’re standing on.
And it gave me something else to think about besides whether The Huz was going to mistake another woman for Lori Morgan.
Although, honestly, that was pretty hard to top.
Milwaukee Was BUSY
We weren’t the only ones who decided to spend the evening downtown.
Weird Al Yankovic was playing at Fiserv Forum, just a couple of blocks away, and the Milwaukee Admirals had a game at Panther Arena, right next door to the theater.
Between the concerts, the hockey game, and Leanne Morgan, downtown was absolutely hopping.
People were everywhere. The sidewalks were busy, restaurants were packed, and there was plenty of activity all around us.
And I loved it.
I’ve lived in Wisconsin my entire life, and I was raised on the idea that Milwaukee is unbelievably dangerous. Maybe there are areas where you need to be cautious. Of course there are. Every city has its problems, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
But I think sometimes we Wisconsinites are so quick to write Milwaukee off that we forget what an incredibly historic city it is.
The more I visit Milwaukee, the more I find myself falling in love with it.
There’s so much to see, so much history, so much architecture, and so many interesting little places to explore. It has an energy that you don’t get in a smaller town, and I think I’ve spent too many years hearing about all the reasons to avoid it instead of discovering all the reasons to go.
I’m not saying I want to trade Central Wisconsin for downtown Milwaukee tomorrow. I enjoy being able to get where I’m going without sitting in traffic, and I have absolutely no desire to parallel park on a busy city street.
But I’m starting to appreciate Milwaukee for what it is instead of judging it by what I’ve always been told about it.
Turns out, there’s a lot more to the city than crime reports and warnings to lock your car doors.
There’s history. There’s culture. There’s great food. There’s entertainment. There’s a whole lot of Wisconsin waiting to be explored.
And apparently, there are also husbands who think they’re going to see country singers when they’re actually going to see comedians.
Milwaukee has a little bit of everything.
Cheeseburgers, Baseball, and Bad Hotel Television
After the show, we walked over to Major Goolsby’s Pub & Grill for a late dinner.
If you’ve never been, imagine a sports bar with at least 50 televisions. You could probably watch every sporting event happening in North America simultaneously and still have a screen left over for the weather.
The place was packed, and people were watching the American League Championship Series to see who might advance to the World Series to face our beloved Milwaukee Brewers.
The Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians were playing game four and I later learned they tied the series 2-2.
And yes, I know they’re called the Guardians now. But in my head, they’re still the Cleveland Indians, because I grew up watching Major League, and Harry Doyle will forever be the voice I associate with Cleveland baseball.
Bob Uecker was a legend. I can practically hear him calling a game whenever I think about that movie. I still miss knowing that his voice was out there calling Brewers games, and I can’t help but smile when I think about him.
Anyway, the restaurant was so busy that we decided to order our food to go.
We were staying right across the street, so why fight the crowds when we could take our dinner back to the hotel?
I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion. The Huz got a regular double cheeseburger.
Both were delicious.
And there’s something downright luxurious about bringing food back to a hotel room, kicking off your shoes, and eating while watching bad television.
No dishes. No cleanup. No one asking what’s for dessert or whether there’s anything good to eat in the refrigerator.
Just burgers, a comfortable bed, and absolutely no responsibilities for the rest of the night.
If that’s not romance after years of marriage, I don’t know what is.
Forget the fancy restaurant. Sometimes happiness is a cheeseburger you didn’t have to cook and a television you don’t have to share with the kids.
Milwaukee Public Market Is Going on My List
The next morning, we slept until 9:30.
NINE-THIRTY.
I cannot overstate how much I appreciate not having to get up and immediately start doing things for other people.
We packed up and made a quick stop at Milwaukee Public Market before heading home.
Oh, my goodness. What a place!
I could have spent a lot more time wandering around there. There are specialty food shops, little counters, chocolates and candy, wine, and all sorts of things that make you want to buy something even when you don’t have a particular need for it.
The Huz picked up smoked fish from St. Paul Fish Company.
I found dill pickle salsa at West Allis Cheese & Sausage Shop. Because apparently, if there’s a way to combine a pickle with something else I can eat, I’m going to investigate.
I also bought a bottle of Riesling from the wine counter. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
And the Bloody Marys I saw?
They looked absolutely fantastic.
We may need to plan a return trip around brunch.
The market is also closer to Henry Maier Festival Park than I realized, which makes it a pretty good stop to remember for when I’m back in Milwaukee for Polish Fest in June.
I definitely want to return with more time to explore. We barely scratched the surface.
This is becoming a theme with Milwaukee. Every time I visit, I discover something else that makes me want to go back.
The Secret to Keeping Marriage Fun
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about since we got home.
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day business of being married. Life gets busy. There are bills, work, kids, appointments, errands, and approximately 47 things that need to be done around the house at any given moment.
Sometimes, you realize that most of your conversations with your spouse revolve around logistics.
What’s for dinner? What time do we have to leave? Did you remember to pick that up? Did you hear what I said?
Well, in my house, that last question has a particularly complicated answer.
But somewhere in all that daily responsibility, it’s important to remember that your spouse isn’t just the person who helps you manage life. They’re the person you’re supposed to enjoy life with, too.
And that takes effort.
You have to make plans. You have to make time. You have to find things you enjoy doing together and actually do them instead of talking about doing them someday.
Sometimes that means a big vacation. Sometimes it’s a concert, a comedy show, or a weekend away. Sometimes it’s a drive to a nearby town and lunch at a restaurant you’ve never tried.
It doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. It just has to be intentional.
I think we can get so comfortable in a relationship that we forget to keep dating each other. We assume that because we’ve been together for so long, we don’t need to make the effort anymore.
But I don’t want a marriage where we’re just two people sharing a house, dividing up responsibilities, and occasionally discussing what’s on the grocery list.
I want us to keep having fun.
I want us to laugh at ridiculous things, discover new places, make memories, and have stories to tell later.
I want to keep learning things about the world, even if one of those things is that my husband cannot be trusted to correctly identify a comedian on a billboard.
And I want us to keep choosing each other, not just in the big, important moments, but in the ordinary ones, too.
This weekend reminded me how much I enjoy spending time with The Huz when we’re not rushing off to do something or worrying about everything waiting for us at home.
We got to be a couple, not just the people responsible for keeping everything running.
We laughed. We ate good food. We slept in. We wandered around a market. We learned a little history.
And we did it together.
That’s the thing about marriage. The years go by, life changes, and the two people who started out together grow older. But there’s no reason the fun has to stop.
If anything, I think there’s something pretty wonderful about reaching a point where you know each other well enough to laugh at the same ridiculous things, appreciate the little moments, and not feel the need to make everything look perfect.
We’re not newlyweds. We have responsibilities, routines, and a whole lot of life behind us.
But we still have plenty of life ahead of us, too.
So here’s to more weekends away, more comedy shows, more discovering places in our own state, and more memories that have nothing to do with work or household chores.
And here’s to Milwaukee, a city I’m learning to appreciate more with every visit.
Next time, we’ll explore a little longer. Maybe we’ll try those Bloody Marys. Maybe we’ll spend an afternoon digging into more of the city’s history.
And maybe I’ll take The Huz to see Lori Morgan.
You know, just to see what happens.
After all, a little laughter, a little history, a good cheeseburger, and the person you’ve chosen to spend your life with?
That’s a pretty darn good weekend.
Even if he doesn’t always listen.
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