Historic Hilton Milwaukee City Center Hotel

For our anniversary Nick and I decided it would be fun to visit a “new to us” city and explore. We chose Milwaukee because it was within driving distance and it had a historic hotel we were wanting to see… The Hilton Milwaukee City Center Hotel.

Photo of the Original Schroeder Hotel, courtesy of Historic Hotels

Constructed during the Roaring Twenties this Hilton stands as a model of Art Deco elegance. Known originally as the Schroeder Hotel, this hotel opened in 1928, boasting of it’s expansive architecture, grand furnishings, and impressive art deco interior.

We arrived and were promptly greeted by Millie and Sadie, the residents pups. These doodles were so precious and we had almost as much fun giving belly rubs as they had receiving them.

After checking in to our room we were whisked upstairs in this elevator that still exudes so much character and charm from years ago. I love when industrial things are embellished and fancy, I think it is so fun!

For our anniversary the hotel surprised us with an upgrade to the Royal Suite which was so sweet of them! It was definitely a room with a view as we could see all of Milwaukee from our room. While we enjoyed the living room and dining room, my favorite thing was the bathtub! It was so nice to soak in after sleeping in on Saturday.

You can see how the hotel accommodations have become quite a bit fancier and more expansive than when the hotel first opened:

Original hotel accommodations, photo courtesy of historic hotels

After an amazing breakfast and a long soak in the tub we were ready to do some hotel exploring. Which usually feels like hotel snooping as we are always just trying doors to see what is unlocked, but that’s the fun of exploring old hotels.

The ballrooms were magnificent. Each one held it’s own sense of elegance and style, varying gently or greatly from the one before. The history that these rooms must have seen is so wonderful to think of. And the details of all of the rooms were gorgeous.

The salon of the hotel, the entrance, was magnificent and breathtaking. With a lower entrance to the grand foyer, it definitely created a moment when you entered the quiet din of the grand room after taking in all of the noise and din from the world outside. The details are breathtaking. The front desk was a timepiece left from another time, with the bank style bars and all of the small details left from a world where the world took it’s time and things were done in a proper, certain way. Those are the details I cherish. Well, those and fancy doorknobs.

All of the small details. I can romance anything, I know, but the time taken to create all of the finial work, the mouldings, the hardware for the hotel, it is romantic and ethereal to look at. It is all a symphony of details that come together to form a masterpiece that has truly stood the test of time, coming out timeless, classy, and undeniably elegant.

Lest I mention my one true love, the lighting. Y’all know I love a good hotel light and this place did not dissapoint. The enormous chandeliers all in a row in the entrance? The wooden art deco circle lights? The stately french chandeliers in the salon? I am not sure which is my favorite but I know I loved them all.

We loved our stay at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center and highly recommend you visit. You will love how many details remain from the Art Deco movement, the peacefulness you’ll feel when sitting in the lobby, and all of the plush accommodations in the well appointed rooms. And make sure to say hello to the puppies for us when you visit!

For some fun historic hotel kitsch at home, shop our fun swizzle stick collections. These are so fun to keep on your home bar!

Indiana’s State Nature Passport

Mondays are our adventure days.

Or our exploring days.

I’m not really sure what we’re calling it but what I do know is that Mondays are days that we don’t have a traditional school days but instead find something fun to do. Sometimes we spend the day hiking at a park. Oher times we find a museum to visit. Occasionally we have a day of just kicking it around the house in our jammies. And sometimes we clean the house from top to bottom when I get really sick of teenage messiness.

Today we decided to visit an Indiana State Park.

For Christmas we purchased an Indiana State Park pass. This was a great idea. Here’s what we did:

For a family Christmas gift we purchased a park pass gift pack. I believe it was $99 last year. With that we received a magazine subscription to the Indiana Parks mag, an annual pass to the Indiana State Parks (read: you get in for free at all of the parks), and we got a $60 gift card to the Indiana Parks Inns. So that was a wonderful gift for us. We now have an incentive to visit the parks as a family and we can stay at one of the inns or cabins with our gift card. Such a great gift!

Anywho… today we decided to go to Pokagon State Park. The four of us had never been! Since Nick was with us I decided it would be fun to go somewhere a little further away from home as I always feel safest when he’s with us (I am not a change a flat on the side of the toll road kind of gal!).

We drove up to Angola, Indiana and we found somewhere super fancy to eat lunch…Moe’s Southwest Grill!

We then entered into the park for our day of exploring! We went on a wonderful hike (Trail 1) that started near the Nature Center. We walked around to where there was an apple orchard, then looped back around to our car. We then drove through the park to see what all was around. We checked out the campgrounds for future trip ideas, scoped out the beach area, and then spent some time at the CCC Pavilion. It was a gorgeous, sunhiney day, where everything nearly glistens with the hope of spring coming. It felt so great to be able to run around in fresh air with the kiddos and Leroy (the dog with the biggest ears).

All in all it was a wonderful day! While we were there we “checked-in” on our phone to the Pokagon Park for the State Nature Passport through Visit Indiana. By checking into 60 different nature areas designated in the program you can be entered into giveaways and contests throughout the year.

It is a free program and although this was our very first check-in we’re all excited to participate throughout the rest of the year.

After we drove the length of the park we made our way back to the Potawatomi Inn, the hotel in the park. Opened in 1927 this inn has such a rich history within the state of Indiana. They have a reader board outside of the front door. On it we learned that during the World War II, Indiana didn’t have a waiting period to get married after you got your marriage license. Because of that the inn became a popular place for couples from Ohio and Michigan to sneak away and get married before the grooms were deployed. Isn’t that just the cutest thing?

The hotel was fun to walk around and explore with it’s sunning deck, pool, craft room, and recreation room. Lots to do and such a quaint, old world kind of charm!

And then it was back home! We had such a fun, laid back day of adventuring and we can’t wait to add on more places for our State Nature Passport!