No matter how you slice it, dice it and say it, Milwaukee has always had a hard time shrugging off this simple and unfair image us Illinoisans have created.

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Booming Brady Street: North Side Neighborhood Bustles With Activity What has quickly become one of Milwaukee's most endearing symbols is the famed Art Museum located on Lake Michigan just east of the downtown area.

We've all been to Milwaukee before. It's that fairly large size town located about 90 miles straight north of where most of us live and work. About an hour and a half drive.

But how many of us have really truly visited the town?

Now's a good time, what with pleasant weather and a trend toward shorter, driveable vacations. Milwaukee is spreading its wings developing everything from a Riverwalk to a world renown art museum.

Like Chicago, once old, nasty neighborhoods are being transformed into hot spots for young urban professionals to call home. Parties are held almost every weekend from spring to summer in this City of Festivals. In short, there's alot going on in Milwaukee. It's time for us flatlanders to take notice.

Milwaukee's roots date back to the 1840s in an area where three rivers‹the Menominee, Milwaukee and Kinnic Kinnic‹converged. Over the years, immigrants settled in the area creating small community pockets where their way of life and language flourished. Eventually, the two large communities in existence in the 1840s came together into one great town that maintains to this day neighborhoods that bear strong identities. Today, Milwaukee is considered one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country. It's the most German town of any major U.S. city with 37% of its inhabitants claiming that background.

Milwaukee's connection to its ethnicity is evident in its image as Beer Town USA. At one time, four of the biggest brewers in the country operated in or near the city's downtown area: Blatz, Schlitz, Pabst and Miller. Over the years, nature and inertia took assumed control to the point where today, only one Big Boy Brewer remains‹Miller. There are still, however, many micro breweries in and around Milwaukee creating their own barley and hop concoctions.

What remains of the Schlitz, Pabst and Blatz influences are the many buildings where teams of workers for the better part of a century and a half created the beers that made Milwaukee famous. Today, the remnants of the Schlitz brewery is a combination office park and school. The Blatz brewery property downtown is an apartment complex with new, mega-expensive condos nearby.

As for the former Pabst brewery property at Milwaukee's northeast corner, plans are underway to transform the 22 acres of historical land into a $317 million Town Center complete with residential, restaurant, office, and cinema components.

Aside from all of that, the bottom line for most of us when considering visiting Milwaukee is what's there to do? Why should anyone from Chicago's "Great Northwest Suburbs" schedule a weekend or week-long visit?

To begin with Milwaukee is a town where navigating either by foot, taxicab or boat is a snap. The downtown area is compact to the point where one can visit the enthralling new Art Museum in the morning, lunch in a nearby outdoor cafe later, and then walk a few blocks west to the new Public Market that opens this Friday, July 15. A $10 million project, the Public Market is an indoor venue where people can shop til they drop or at least until they partake in visiting one of the dozens of food vendors on site. It's located in what is now billed as Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward. Up until a few years ago, this area was mainly home to a plethora of deteriorating dark brick warehouses and factories situated just south of the I-794 overpass. What's emerged in just the last few years is a Renaissance where many of the 110-year-old structures are being or have been converted into expensive condominiums which fuel new night life entertainment.

Many new, modern hotels are located in Milwaukee's central core with the historic and high quality Pfister remaining the anchor.

Other fun things to do include strolling along the Riverwalk, a work-in-progress project that doesn't yet equal San Antonio's famed Riverwalk. Some day it might as new sections are being added where visitors can sip a cool drink at one of the many restaurants along the walk or get a good view of Milwaukee's skyline that blends architecture of the new with artchitecture of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

River boat rides are also offered by local vendors which can take customers out on Lake Michigan for a full panoramic view of the city. One of those rides is the Edelweiss Dining Cruise that shoves off in the early evening.

In the forefront of any view from the lake is, of course, the enthralling Milwaukee Art Museum. It's a must-see for any visitor as it evolves into becoming the city's most recognizable symbol similar to the Empire State Building in New York and the Eifle Tower in Paris.

Four years ago, the signature aspect of the museum was unveiled. It's a 215-ft.-wide sunscreen that, to many people, resembles a giant white wing. It can be raised and lowered to help control heat and light in the museum.

Inside the Museum is displayed a huge collection of fine art work ranging from famed Impressionist masterpieces to Asian, Ancient and Modern Art, as well as photography and sculpture.

For the gambler, a 10-minute ride from downtown Milwaukee takes you to the huge Potowatomi Bingo Casino.

Organized walking tours bearing names such as "The Naughty Ladies of Beer Town" and Gargoyles, Grotesques & Dragons are also available to take for fees that don't exceed $7 per person.

* Want to see major league baseball? Milwaukee's new sport gem, Miller Park, hosts 81 Brewers games a year. It's only a short drive from downtown. Games with the Cubs are usually sold out.

* Want to rent a sailboat and cruise around a harbor, or for the brave, venture out onto Lake Michigan? That can be arranged for an hour up to a full day.

* Historically minded? The gripping Black Holocaust Museum leaves a lasting impression by taking visitors back to the days of the horrific slave ships and lynchings.

* Interested in the theater or opera? Milwaukee has two theater districts in the downtown area.

* Like to feel the rush of air tingle your nose and the thrill of independence on the roadway? Milwaukee is home to Harley-Davidson of motorcycle fame. A new museum is under construction not far from downtown that will be ready to open on the 105th anniversary of the company in 2008.

* We won't even ask if you like to eat. Many superb restaurants dot Milwaukee's landscape such as the famous Mader's that features German cuisine, the Water Street Brewer and Third Street Pier Steak and Seafood House.

Milwaukee, like the beer that's been brewed here for more than a century, is a city whose distinctive flavor is rising to the top. Interested in taking a sip or chugging a mouthful? Check out more by calling the Greater Milwaukee Convention and Visitors Bureau at 800-554-1448 or calling up their Web site: www.visitmilwaukee.org.

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