you stay classy PBR.

when mr. lesley realized we were going to be so close to milwaukee, wisconsin he insisted we visit the PBR brewery...

i called, signed us up for a tour, and we were on our way. 

now when my parents realized we were going to milwaukee, they insisted we go to fork in the road 

for the absolute BEST mac and cheese EVER.

and let me tell you, it was amazing!

even though we had to get take out and mr. lesley literally fed me as i was speeding down the highway in order to make our tour, even then, it was SO GOOD.

if you ever find yourself in mukwonago, wisconsin, you HAVE to stop and give it a try.

i guarantee you won't be disappointed. 

actually, it will change your life and will probably give you a foodgasm (is that inappropriate?).

fortunately for us, we made it to the BEST place in time for our tour...

only to realize it's not a brewery anymore, but rather seven city blocks of abandoned buildings that used to produce PRB.

12 years ago, our tour guide jim (a 50 something guy wearing a PBR t-shirt and on the verge of being drunk himself) decided to buy the place out of his love for PBR and started doing tours.

the tour was...well...interesting. 

let me give you some of the highlights...

1. there were about 8 other people on the tour with us, and we all had to go around and say our names, where we were from, and our best PBR memory. ummm..."i'm here because my boyfriend really likes PBR. does that count?"

2. we watched old PRB commercials from the 50s, 60s, and 80s while our tour guide sang along with the jingles. 

3. we got our picture taken with mr. pabst himself. 

4. the best part was when he took us upstairs to the very obviously non renovated part of the building and said, "we can't go any further because of the aesbestos." awesome. 

5. while upstairs walking a midst empty beer cans, random file cabinets, and dusty mardi gras decorations, mr. lesley and i stared at each other with eyes that said "where are we?" while everyone else in our tour was "ooing" and "ahhhing" and taking tons of pictures.

6. jim showed us pictures of his grand kids. i mean, what beer tour is complete without a little personal touch? 

when the "tour" was over, we grabbed our PBR stock tickets (a little piece of history that was included with the price of the tour) and left very confused. 

not a bad confused, but more of a "what was that?" confused.

either way, it was a memory. 

and now we have stock tickets to proudly display for all to see, so it was well worth it.

we then decided to walk around milwaukee and see if we could find anything fun to fill the evening.

we walked along their riverwalk and lake michigan...

...and of course, had to see the pabst mansion...

but after that we were hot and sweaty (the midwest is so HUMID), so we decided to head back to rocktown.

just in time to catch dinner at another rockford staple, lino's. 

once again, a place that if you're not from rockford, you don't really get the hype. 

but how can you not love a restaurant that has a leaning tower of pisa replica inside? 

i think lino's provided a little more confusion for mr. lesley to top off the day.

pretty appropriate, i'd say.

what a day. 

and i loved every minute of it.