Usually when we do the Chick Trip, Saturday is the main day for activities because Friday and Sunday are travel days. This was the case for CT07, so we tried to pack a lot in the one day. Luckily we got the requisite shopping trip done the night before, so Saturday morning after enjoying our "enhanced Continental breakfast" we headed off to the Miller Brewing Company for a tour of their little beer-making facility. It's a nice little free tour should you find yourself in the area, we learned a lot about how a multi-billion dollar business makes some of their more popular brands, which as you probably know includes the Miller family (Lite, MGD, High Life, the new limey Chill, the Beast, etc.), Hamm's, Plank Road, and Leinenkugel. It also imports Pilsner Urquell and Peroni. Saturday is maintenance day at the brewery so we didn't see much action on the floor, but I'm sure we learned a lot about the process anyway. The nice thing, though, is the free sample portion of the tour, where we received very generously-sized cups of Leinie's Summer Shandy because it's new this summer, and our choice of two of any of the regular Miller brews, Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat or Berry Weiss. After this we decided we REALLY needed to get some food in our tummies. We went to a favorite chain restaurant, P.F. Chang's and shared some delicious Chinese appetizers and entrees. After returning to the hotel to rest a bit, we headed over to Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Miller Park opened in 2001, so it's pretty new. It has a space-age retractable roof which was closed the evening we were there because rain was threatening. It was packed because I suppose you could say the Brewers are doing well this season, unfortunately. I mean, good for them or whatever, but they are competing with the Cubs for the top of the NL Central division and cause me to freak out about daily and honestly it is stressing me out. Anyway, we had great seats and they had neat LED out of town scoreboards as you can see from the photos.


Other highlights of a game at Miller Park are the Sausage Races, their mascot Bernie Brewer who has his own clubhouse and slides down from one level to another when the Brewers get a home run, the parking lot tailgating, and how they sing "Roll out the Barrel" during the 7th inning stretch. A minor complaint - they have a DANCE TEAM - please. I do not approve of a dance squad in baseball. It is just not right. Also it feels weird to be watching baseball inside a building with a roof, but I'm sure never having weather-related delays or cancellations is great. I was reading that Bill Simmons once referred to Brewers fans as "over-protective Little League parents" - I was reminded of this when the fans seriously FLIPPED OUT when someone singled in the 8th inning. I couldn't figure out what the deal was. I asked Kris if I missed a run being batted in or something. But no, they were as excited about the single as they would be a grand slam home run. It was kind of...odd. The Brewers beat the Phillies which I was unhappy about because as mentioned before, it kept the Cubs one game back. But it was fun for all of us Chicks to be together and it was a great time. <3 the Chicks!