milwaukee, Burke Brise Soleil (art museum)

burke brise soleil, wings open

burke brise soleil, wings closed

inside windhover hall

the matrix display

side on view

from downtown milwaukee

harley davidson museum

Saturday 30th May
Well up and about fairly early and down for breakfast. Packed up the car and then headed to Milwaukee which was only about 15 minutes away. Once we hit the town we drove around a bit and just checked out downtown. As usual the town centre was dead quiet. Not a person about or a shop open anywhere. It seems in America that all the cities close down on the weekend and everyone’s goes to the outer shopping centres.

We had a pamphlet for some of the attractions to visit. Thought we would start with the Milwaukee Art Museum. This building has wings attached to it called the Burke Brise Soleil. These moveable, wing-like sunscreens rest on top of the Museum’s vaulted, glass-enclosed Windhover Hall which is 90 feet tall. The “wings” open and close at selected times on selected days. As it turned out we were there at 12.00 pm and that is when it closed on a Saturday and then they open back up straight away. It was cool to watch and Bronte took a string of photos showing it going through the process, it takes 3.5 minutes to close. The Burke Brise Soleil has a wingspan comparable to that of a Boeing 747-400, its two ultrasonic wind sensors automatically close the wings if the wind speed reaches 23 mph or greater. Unlike the airplane, the Museum prefers to remain on the ground!
The Windhover hall joins to the art museum through a long corridor which is an older original building. The museum was cool; it had lots of stuff in it with a Matrix light display which you can see in the blue photo above. If you look closely at the photo you should be able to see me and Bronte. These looked like glow sticks attached to strings held from the ceiling to the floor spaced in rows all through the room. There was also another light room full of fairly lights and mirrored walls which made it look like you were in space. After about 3 hours in the museum we needed lunch.

Headed to the closest Subway and had some lunch. From there we went to the Harley Davidson Museum. Even though we don’t like motor bike we still went to see the building as it was pretty special. We had a look through the gift shop and then took some photos and decided to head off to our next point which is Green Bay Michigan.

Arrived at the motel and checked in. Went out shopping for a few things and then returned to the motel and washed the car. The car was very dirty and if you return a rental car dirty they charge you to clean it. Last year we drove the car for 9000 kms and did not wash it once. It took like 4 hours to clean it it was so dirty. Not doing that again so we are going to wash this one each week.

Went out for dinner at Ihop which was really nice. Headed into the main part of town for a cruise around and then went back to the motel and spent a bit of time on the internet and booked our next accommodation at Sault Ste Marie. This it at the top of Lake Michigan right on the border of Canada and USA. Not long till we get to Toronto and Niagra.