Car Rentals Wisconsin

Discount Car Rentals in Wisconsin

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Things to do in Wisconsin

• Milwaukee Art Museum
  From its earliest thought to the initial building, the museum of art in Milwaukee has strained to grow into one of the finest museums of art in the midwest.  From 1872, until 1888, the museum was in the minds of the citizens, with numerous attempts to make it a reality.  In the early 1880s, Alexander Mitchell gave all of his collection so that it could be put into a permanent gallery.  The Milwaukee of Fine Arts was started in 1882, but was gone by 1888, and a conglomeration of German artists and local businessmen started the Milwaukee Art Association took over the task, and the first real permanent home to the fledgling museum was Layton Art Gallery.  The Milwaukee Art Institute was built right next door in 1911, and the Milwaukee Art Museum was formed in 1957 by combining both collections.  It is home to some 25,000 works of art, with many old masters, 19th and 20th century artwork, with post 1960 American, German expressionism, Haitian and folk art.  A great many paintings by Gabriele Munter and Georgia O'Keefe are included.   Other well known artists pieces are; Andy Warhol, Nardo di Cione, Robert Gober, Francisco de Zurbanan, Cindy Sherman, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Laszlo Mohly-Nagy, Claude Monet, Jean-Honore Fragonard, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Winslow Homer and Joan Miro.  Many exhibitions tour the museum, with sculpture, artifacts, furniture and decor, photography, drawings and prints, decorative art, ancient art, early European art, American art to 1900 and early European art.  It is a marvelous venue and will keep your eyes and minds busy all day long.  The museum gained international fame in 2001, when the white concrete Quadricci Pavillion was built, and it was designed by Santiago Calatrava.  It is a spectacle to see and would be worth the visit just to enjoy the incredible view it gives.
   

• Harley-Davidson Museum
  This unique and awesome museum was opened in July of 2008, on 20 acres of land in the Menomenee Valley in the historical and industrial part of Milwaukee.  Its 130,000 square foot area is spread out in three buildings that house over 450 Harleys and many hundreds of thousands of memorabilia of the Harley-Davidson's 106 year past.  It took the design company of Pentagram Architects 8 years to come up with the design of the museum and $75 million, with legend dirt biker Scott Parker doing a burnout on a Harley-Davidson XL883R sportster, rather than the usual golden shovel.  Throughout 2 floors of permanent exhibits, the marvelous story of the bike is told.  Using photographs, ads, clothes, posters, trophies and video footage, it unfolds the majestic tale of the legendary motorcycle.  Inside, a cafe, restaurant, retail shop and special event spaces accentuate the incredible history that comes alive, with the top floor housing the motorcycles in grand procession.  The chronological history is shown through interconnected galleries on the east side, with the 10 by 15 wooden shack where it all started into the giant manufacturer it is today; producing some 330,000 motorcycles every year.  The piece d resistance is the glass enclosed Serial Number One, the oldest Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the world.  The second floor is where the engine room is and a knucklehead, panhead and shovelhead motors are shown how they operate and the various parts unassembled.  In 1915, the owners pulled one motorcycle from the assembly line to save for a museum.  The company's archives have given over 85 per cent of the pieces on display in the museum.
   

• Milwaukee Public Museum
  One of the most prominent natural history and science museums in the world is internationally recognized for its collections, ongoing research and exhibits.  It opened in 1884, the museum is home to over 6 million artifacts and thought to be one of the best in the nation.  One of the first important exhibits opened is the Streets of Old Milwaukee, in 1965, which shows the city as it was long ago and is a marvelous representation that will mesmerize the visitor.  Presently, 17 permanent exhibits are shown which will enthrall those entering this esteemed establishment.  Africa showcases 4 dioramas of the savanna and wildlife; a watering hole, a bamboo forest and watering hole and a Masai lion hunt.  Artic shows dioramas of the Artic with natives, both animal and human.  Asia has a Japanese garden, collections of Chinese art, a market in Old Delhi, India and displays from Myanmar, Tibet and Thailand.  Bugs alive, has live bugs of thirteen different species of millipede, insect, centipede, crustacean and arachnid from Madagascar, Australia, Africa and Central America.  European Village recreates shops and houses of 33 European cultures as they looked in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Exploring Life on Earth gives the visitor the various environments, processes of life of the past and the present with labs and collections examined by the museums scientists.  Pacific Islands display exhibits from the Easter Islands, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.  Rain Forest showcases the ecosystem of a tropical rainforest where visitors can walk through.  Pre-Columbian Americas show the origin of the Native Americans and cultures of Mesoamerican civilizations of the Incas, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs and other Central Andean natives.  The Third Planet show the plate tectonics and how the state would have looked like during the many ages long ago where dinosaurs and other creatures roamed the earth.  Many species of these animals are displayed in life sized exhibits.  A sense of Wonder holds over a thousand specimens of various items including the skeleton of a humpback whale.  South and Middle American holds a diorama of a Guatmalan marketplace, Mayan lowlands and the Andes.  Temples,Tells and Tombs contain the many artifacts of the near east, such as Assyria, Crete, Cyprus, Egypt and Persian plus ancient Greece and Rome.  It is the only exhibit of its kind in the world

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• Ice Age National Scenic Trail Wisconsin
  The 1200 miles of the Ice Age Trail traverses the state of Wisconsin where the last ice glacier carved a magnificent sculpture of land, lakes, streams and mountains that is today a wonderland of nature.  The trail is right-of-ways and nine state protected areas of trails in the state.  The Two Creeks Buried Forest State Natural Area, on Lake Michigan's shores and the bottom of Door Peninsula; containing the results of the glacieral path Lake Michigan and the Buried Forest; Kettle Moraine containing interlobate moraine, eskers, kames and kettles; Campbellsport Drumlins containing the drumlins; Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area containing an extinct glacial lake; Cross Plains which holds the sub-glacial gorge and driftless topography; Devil's Lake containing the lake and terminal moraine; Mill Bluff State Park has sandstone bluffs that were part of the lake bed and islands in the Lake Wisconsin glacial; Chippewa Moraine State Recreation Area that is home to ice-walled lake plains, kette lakes and ponds and stagnant ice terrain; Interstate State Park featuring potholes in the bedrock, a deep gorge called the Dalles which was created by the glacial meltwaters.  The ice in the moving lobes of the glacier were constantly moving towards the outer edge, and as it moved, it froze around grains of sand, boulders, pebbles and stones.  They would be picked up and moved along causing a number of changes in the land, rock or streams below.  Boulders that were moved a distance were called erratics and other material that was frozen in the bottom of the ice that gouged and scraped the land beneath left scratches called straistions in the rock.  In many areas, the elongated, streamlined hills are named drumlins.  The state capitol sits on a drumlin and more in the southeastern portion of the state.  When the ice melted, the debris that was left behind were called moraines which were formed ridges.  When the flow stopped, the ice became stagnant and huge blocks were broken off and buried in debris.  Numerous lakes in the states sit in the depressions that were formed and are called kettles.
    

•  Noah's Ark Waterpark
  The city of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin is the home of Noah's Ark Waterpark, which is the biggest water park in the country, if not the world.  It contains 49 slides, 2 lazy rivers, bumper boats, which was actually the first attraction at the park in 1979, mini golf with 18 holes, Paradise Lagoon with slides and ziplines, OctoExplorer is the children's play area, Flash Flood, a 20 passenger boat that drops 50 feet into a huge pool of water and the bridge area where the watchers will get splashed a lot by the boat drops; Noah's 4D dive-in theater, which the area's biggest 4D movie theater where the movie SpongeBob SquarePants 4D is now playing, Tadpole Bay Kiddie kingdom a play area for the little kids offering 4 small waterslides, 50 different water features and a bucket dump of 800 gallons.  The latest attraction is called the Curse of the Crypt where you enter a dark area and wonder if you will ever come out.  Anyone going there or that has gone has said only the best park in the states, and everyone should go there at least once.  The amount of fun that can be had is stupendous and the amount of rides will keep you going all day long.  It is a fabulous place to spend the day, even more so when the weather is really hot.

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Local Restaurants in Wisconsin

The White Gull Starting 1896, the White Gull Inn in Fish Creek, Wisconsin is an inviting and enchanting country inn that is on the beautiful Door Peninsula, where the famous fish boils are the most tempting meals around.  The antique decor of the well lighted rooms, suites and cottages are impeccably cleaned with some featuring fireplaces and double whirlpools.  Quite well known for their hearty breakfasts, the inn serves the most delicious meals all day long with their famous fish boil on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings in the summer and fall; and in the winter, on Fridays.  The romantic ambiance is inspiring and elegant with special packaging for those that need a marvelous weekend alone.  National Geographic Traveler Magazine list the inn in 2009 as one of the best in the nation.  The menu is extensive, with breakfast, lunch and dinner; but dinner is something special here; although the season changes what is best, since most of the ingredients are grown locally.  The whitefish is caught daily in the lake and brought to the inn for its offerings.  The first course offers; soup du jour, house salad with fresh greens, shaved fennel, oranges, onions, olives, with sweet citrus vinaigrette; Wisconsin brie, baked in phyllo with toasted pistachios and a strawberry raspberry salsa; whitefish cakes are the seasoned whitefish caught on Lake Michigan smoked and served with lemon herb yogurt; asparagus bundles baked in phyllo, proscuitto and garlic butter.  A few dinner offerings include; whitefish fillet steamed with aromatics and herbs on braised lentils, wild mushroom broth and seasonal vegetables; Quinoa, is stir fried marinated beef and chicken with fresh seasonal vegetables in a sesame soy hoisin of glaze atop steamed quinoa; walleye pike crispy and baked filled with homemade garlic tartar, roasted potato wedges and fresh vegetable; beef tenderloin oscar which is broiled Black Angus medallions with smoked whitefish cakes, fresh asparagus and herbed lemon hollandaise or Wisconsin duckling slow poached semi boneless half duck with Door County cherry rhubarb port sauce on smoked bacon asparagus risotto.  The homemade desserts appear on a tray and are a fantastic finish.  Wine and beer is available.   The Sanford in Milwaukee The Sanford is celebrating their 20th year in the restaurant business after the family grocery store was transformed into this delightful eating establishment.  The grocery store had been the family business for over 80, when Chef Sandy D'Amato decided that his culinary expertise would be better showcased in a family restaurant offering the Mediterranean cuisine he loved to eat and cook.  His wife, Angie, brought her personal style of decorating to the old grocery store and soon the place was a restaurant of extraordinary cuisine, using only the freshest ingredients that were in season.  If tomatoes were not grown locally, they didn't serve tomatoes.  So, with their committment to the excellence and use of only homemade delicacies, the family went into the restaurant business.  After 20 years of success, the results have been spectacular and widespread.  Well known in the state for its modern, Mediterranean, French, and American cuisine, this is the only place to dine in Milwaukee for a fantastic meal.  Some of its fare includes; saute of morels, ramps, fiddleheads and Yukon gold with red pepper oil; paillard of organic king salmon on tart greens and roasted beets with herbed vermouth dressing; fragrant curry soup with dried apple and radish chutney and cardamom yogurt; appetizers include; confit pheasant thigh and seared foie gras with candied radish and spring onion with rhubarb essence; ravioli of beef cheek and spring peas, red wine truffle reduction; smoke salmon on semolina griddle cake and roasted leek goat cheese; lamb coppa with pickled fennel and golden raisins and toasted fennel dressing; soup offered is; provincial fish soup with rouille; chilled saffron mussel soup with grilled asparagus and chive oil; fragrant curry soup with dried apple and radish chutney and cardamom yogurt; salads; field greens wit prosciutto di Parma, aged Wisconsin Asiago and brittle pear wafers with orange parsley vinaigrette and the entrees follow.  They are; citrus seared Alaskan halibut on spring onion risotto cake and asparagus nage; sauteed soft shell crabs with scalded spinach and caper dressing;  grilled wild American sturgeon on crab hash pancetta red onion vinaigrette; chargrilled strauss veal loin and 17 hour veal breast, veal ragu arancini and caponata, tomato caper compote; seared breast of pheasant with dried plums, leeks and lemon molasses crispy crumb bread sauce.

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• Apostle Islands
  Atop the northern tip of Wisconsin, some 21 islands spread themselves across the shores of Lake Superior covering almost 70,000 acres of pristine beauty that will astound you.  It is nationally known for its marvelous sandstone sea caves, historic lighthouses, natural animal habitants and old growth remnant forests.  Lake Superior is the biggest, coldest and cleanest of the exciting Great Lakes.  With uncomprimizing beaches, cliffs and caves, the magnificence and exquisite beauty of this park is beyond the imagination.  The islands are the results of the last glacial movement on the northen top of the United States, when the glaciers started melting, the waves from the lake caused massive erosion that eventually formed the islands.  Because of the shift of the glacier, most of the islands are red sandstone and it is believed that Native Americans were the first to inhabit these islands.  A lot of the islands offer overnight docking, and fishing is a favorite of all.  With various species of trout and salmon, some caught as close as ten feet from the shore, this has become a place of joy for the average fishermen.  Camping is another venue that is very popular, allowing the visitor to spend more time in the park exploring the many wonders that abound here.  It is offered on 18 of the 21 islands and some are very primitve, while others include amenities like well water, toilets and lockers for food.  Permits are required and can be gotten from the National Park Service.  Hunting is allowed on some of the islands for white tail deer, black bear, grouse and other small game.  Kayaking or canoeing is the preferred way of traveling from island to island with some rentals offered in the area and you are more than welcome to bring your own.  For over a century, the lighthouses that line the shore have guided boats through the hazardous waters of the lake and through the islands.  The most beautiful lighthouse to visit is the Sand Island one and it stands 44 feet in the air and was one of the first to be lit in 1921.  One of the last official trips that John F. Kennedy made before going to Dallas in 1963 was to visit these wonderful islands in Wisconsin.
   

• The Angel Museum
  In Beloit, Wisconsin, the Angel museum began as a Roman Catholic church in 1914, chartered by the Diocese of Milwaukee, so that St. Paul's Catholic church could serve the Italian immigrants living in the area.  The church was a rather unique one in that it went beyond the boundaries of a regular one by serving anyone, regardless of denomination.  One of its main interests was education, and it gave often to the Beloit Catholic High School, as well as building a center for the spiritual and intellectual needs of the local college's students and faculty.  In 1988, the church was closed after its priest died and then was sold to Beloit College, which used it for storage.  Later, the town went through a renaissance and riverfront development in 2000, and the church wasn't used.  They decided to tear it down, until local residents and the Historic Preservation Commission took it over to find a good use for it.  Local residents, Joyce and Lowell Berg needed a home for their extensive angel collection and thought of a museum as the perfect venue.  The church was determined to be the best place and most logical use for it.  The Berg's collection of 11,000 angels was installed and after 15,000 hours of volunteer work, the museum was opened in 1998.  Since that time, over 170,000 visitors from 50 countries and every state in the nation have come to view the exquisite collection.  Sitting along the riverfront, the wonderful museum is the only one of its type in the nation and quite probably the world.  Joy in your hearts and a smile on your lips is the experience that the creators envisioned and it seems to be what happens viewing the 12,000 various artifacts from the collection.  With donations like the 600 black angels donated by Oprah Winfrey, the Berg collection is growing as angels from over 100 different materials and from 50 countries increase the bountiful beauty.  In 2001, the collection was found to be the biggest in the world by Guiness.  The gift shop includes angels for sale, as well as other memorable gifts, many being duplicate angels from the Berg collection.

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• Yerkes Observatory
  Frequently referred to as the birthplace of astrophysics, the Yerkes observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin was built in 1897, by George Hale and financed by Charles Yerkes.  It was the first time that an observatory was used for education and laboratory work for physics and chemistry, as well as housing a telescope and observer.  The 102 cm or 40 inch refracting telescope built by Alvan Clark is the biggest refracting telescope used for science research in the world.  It also houses 102 cm or 41 inch (to avoid confusing anyone) and 61 cm or 24 inch reflecting telescopes, with smaller scopes used for education.  It is run by the University of Chicago and presently researches globular cluster formation, near-Earth objects, infrared astronomy and interstellar medium.  The university also keeps good sized engineering center there, devoted to making and maintaining science instruments.  In 2005, the university said it was going to sell the property and observatory and two parties were interested.  One was a developer, interested in the pristine property along the shores of Lake Geneva and the other was the Aurora University that was next to the property.  In June of 2006, the University of Chicago said it would sell the surrounding property to Mirbeau for development, as long as the observatory would stay.  In 2007, however, the plans were suspended while a study was conducted by the university, because of all the controversy involved.  It was used in the movie Chain Reaction from 1996.
   

• Old World Wisconsin
  As well as celebrating the 200th anniversary of this country, the site of old world Wisconsin was opened with all the fanfare of this nation's birthday celebration.  The museum includes over 60 authentic structures that were painstakingly removed from their former sites and brought to the land at old world and reconstructed.  Furnished houses, outbuildings, and a small village were taken down, the boards, bricks and everything else involved was numbered and catalogued so that it could be rebuilt here.  Researchers went through the entire state, from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, and from Illinois to Lake Superior finding the most pristine buildings from the past that would enhance and embrace the wonderful history of the state.  The setting where the museum was reconstructed was much the same it had been centuries ago and the process was extensive.  Presently, the site at Old World Wisconsin is the biggest museum devoted to the history and memories of rural life as it was so many years ago.  It is a spectacular monument to the spirit and determination of a people that overcame hardships, tears, blood and sweat to carve out this magnificent land into what it is today.

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• Hoard Historical Museum
  The museum is a marvelous center of information about the history of the Wisconsin dairy industry, with numerous other stories about the settlement and people that were involved in the building of Fort Atkinson.  The town is found in the south central part of Wisconsin and first settled in 1836 by Dwight Foster.  He discovered land that has been marked by the Native American tribe of Sauk, living by the waters, building mounds and the panther effigy intaglio.  Here Chief Black Hawk, the Sauk warrior that soon became involved in the Black Hawk War of 1832 and the story about a young soldier named Abraham Lincoln.  William Dempster Hoard has become the father of the dairy industry here and Loraine Niedecker, the famous poet lived and wrote about the area.  With artifacts, artwork and more the history of Fort Atkinson unfolds.  The Lincoln period library and exhibit room contains over 1400 volumes, artifacts and other items that show Abe was here to fight in the Black Hawk War, the Civil War and his influence on young Hoard.  The Bird Room holds over 500 stuffed birds mounted by Thure Kumlien and taxidermist Walter Pelzer, with an extinct passenger pigeon among the beautiful birds.  Loraine Niedecker's room is very special to this area, who as a poet in place, entwined her poetic words with the environment and experiences she lived while around the Blackhawk Island.  The Raymond Thomas Lawton collection is encased in 7 glass enclosures that cost him forty years of researching and purchasing from the area known as Jefferson County, except for the tomahawks in case 7.  These items were bought from the Voigt family, but most were found around the Lake Koshkonong and Fort Atkinson areas.  The pieces were hand made by native tribes throughout the area with arrowheads, spearheads, mauls, drills, celts, scrpaers, knives, axes, pestles and fish net sinkers.  Also included are items retained from the fur trading times that include; pipe bowls, pipes, brass tinklers and glass beads.  The museum also contains over 130 exquisite quilts that were made in the area and are rotating often to show them all to visitors.  The Foster house, built in 1841, was constructed by pioneer Charles Rockwell and cost $2000.  It has five rooms, two stories and windows that came from New York via the Erie Canal.  It contains furnishings from the 1840 to 1870 period.

• Hyde Log Cabin
  Grand Isle, Wisconsin is home to one of the oldest log cabins in the nation.  It is a one and a half story cabin built in 1783 by Jedediah Hyde, Jr. with 14 to 18 inch cedar logs, measuring 20 by 25 feet with a large fireplace on the end.  An overhead loft for sleeping is the top part of the cabin and the Wisconsin Historical Society obtained the cabin in 1945.  They moved the cabin two miles to where it sits today, and worked on its foundation so they could renovate it.  The Department of Forests and Parks finished the renovation in 1952, when it was given to the Wisconsin Historic Sites commission.  Grand Isle County Historical Society was just being started and it was given permission to furnish it, hold meetings there and make it into a museum for all the local people and eventually an information center.  The Wisconsin Division for Historic Preservation took over the reigns of the Historic Sites commission in 1985, and roof work was done so that the home was now in its original condition and looks.  Grand Isle is the biggest island in Lake Champlain, and is also known as South Hero Island.  It is home to a state park, which opened in 1959 and set on the island's 14 mile long and 3 mile wide land.  It is one of the most popular camping areas in the state and visited by people from all over New England.

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• Cave of the Mounds
  This limestone cave is found near Blue Mounds, Wisconsin because of the two mounds nearby that are called the blue mounds.  The cave is found in the eastern hill and its magnificent beauty is derived from the mineral formations called spelothems and is thought to be the most important cave in the upper midwest.  Because of this and its incredible imagery, it is called the jewel box of the American cave system.  It was named a National Natural Landmark in 1988, by the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service.  This limestone began forming almost half a billion years ago in the Ordovician age when the country was covered with warm shallow seas full of shellfish.  Over the eons, the shells were left  and accumulated forming great amounts of limestone.  This particular limestone is called galena dolomite as it contains a large concentration of the lead ore galena.  The cave itself began forming about a million years ago in much the same way that most caves are formed, where the lifeline or crack in the surface let rain water into the stone.  It in turn combined the rain, air and carbon dioxide to make weak carbonic acid which began dissolving the limestone and cavities were formed.  The water drained out over time and the remaining air filled the caves, while the rain water continued dropping to make the speleothems.  It takes about a hundred and fifty years to make one inch of material and is still happening now.  The area around the mounds were first settled in 1828 by Ebenezer Brigham, a lead miner from Massachusetts and came to the area because of the lead rush of the late 1820s.  He started his mining operation just north of the caves, built a house, which then became a trading post, then an inn, a stagecoach stop and then the first post office in Dane County.  Brigham eventually became a colonel in the Black Hawk War and was involved in the building and commanding of Fort Blue Mounds and died after living a good long life, never finding the cave beneath his farm.  The cave was discovered in 1939, when limestone quarry workers blasted an area that opened into the cavern.  It was then closed and work stopped until the next year when lights and walk ways were built to allow visitors to explore the wonderful cavern. 
   

• Ten Chimneys
  In Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, the Ten chimney estate of two of the greatest actor and actresses of the stage in the history of the theater was built to allow the team to come and relax, retreat and rejuvenate.  Because of their fame, respect and love, many came to visit and work with them at this majestic home.  It soon became a retreat for the discussion, inspiration and creation of artistic figures from across the nation.  It was a home for the arts, very literally and often metaphorically with unique and exquisite treasures that were accumulated during the 1920s, 30s and 40s; hand picked antiquities that live on today.  For many years, the home became a fantastic retreat to the artists, writers, directors and designers of the nation and now it is open to the public.  The items that reside in the Ten Chimneys home are historical furnishings, personal decor, divers collections and hand-painted murals and have been kept pristine and marvelous since they were procured by the Lunts.  The memorabilia is unbelievable and still will enchant every visitor with visions of grandeur and artistry.  With snapshots of the Lunts with the Queen, notes from Laurence Olivier, mementos of Noel Coward and Helen Hayes, first edition books inscribed by Alexander Woollcott and Edna Ferber, the collection is awesome.  Alfred Lunt was also an accomplished chef and wrote down 192 fabulous recipes that are contained in a book with vintage photos of him and Lynn Fontanne.  Katherine Hepburn wrote of her visits to the home; "every time I was visiting the Lunts in Genesee Depot I was in a sort of daze of wonder; the dining room, the table, the china, the silver, the food, the extraordinary care and beauty and taste...a sort of dream, a vision."

July 21, 2009