If you follow me on Instagram, you know I spent last weekend in Milwaukee. One of my very best friends graduated from college and since the three of us “sisters” take any excuse we can find to see each other, we hopped on planes for the Brew City.

After living in Arizona for only nine months, it’s surprising how nostalgic I get when I’m in the Midwest. My face was pressed up against the window as we flew in, it’d been a while since I’d seen that much grass, water and brick. I like Phoenix, but being a new city, it just doesn’t have the character that Milwaukee does. I loved roaming the city, looking at all the history, brick buildings and architecture that shows it’s age. It was a nice break from all of the stucco you see out here.

So although the weekend was dedicated to Caroline’s graduation, we still had a lot of fun in between. She took us on a grand tour of her school, Marquette University. We were able to the Joan of Arc Chapel and Church of the Gesu, both were beautiful and we even learned that Joan was 19 when she died—19! Nuts. We also ate tons of good food, drank lots of good wine and binged on coffee (Starbucks was attached to our hotel).

Now I’m not about to act like I know anything about Milwaukee, but I want to be able to catalog the trips I take and share a few of my favorite places/activities/food. So, starting with this Milwaukee trip, I bring you The Travel Ten. My top ten highlights from Milwaukee. But seeing as this was Caroline’s last weekend there before moving to New York City, it’s also probably my last trip for an extended period of time, so here are my favorites from the past three trips.

The Milwaukee Travel Ten:

1. Cafe Benelux: Oh my goodness. We went to this Belgium cafe for brunch last summer and it was beyond. The three of us girls took a Europe trip once, which included several days in Belgium, I must have eaten five pounds of frites on the streets in two days. This restaurant with a rooftop patio brought us right back to that trip—frites with curry ketchup, refreshing cucumber cocktails and flavorful egg scrambles.

2. The Milwaukee Public Market: I’ve always been a big fan of markets, especially when I’m traveling. All different types of vendors selling unique local goods in one place, most of which are food, it really doesn’t get much better than that. We had awesome cheese, coffee, wine and very fresh, very delicious seafood. Oh, and we were once there during the presentation of a gingerbread house contest. I can’t find any of the photos, but it was amazing.

3. Indulge: This swanky little wine and chocolate bar was conveniently right next to our hotel on this last trip, and also inconveniently addictive. We wandered over there after Caroline’s graduation dinner party drank several bottles of wine, too many truffles to count and I had the most awesome thing that has ever existed: Nutella Creme Brulee. Yeah, I know.

4. Transfer Pizzeria and Cafe: This was the first place (other than Caroline’s apartment) I ever went in Milwaukee, and it was a complete hit. It had gluten free pizza and beer. There was no skimping on the pizza toppings, either. The menu had so many options on it, it was overwhelming.

5. Summerfest: Apparently the world’s largest music festival, but even if it’s not, it’s still way too much fun. It’s spread out over two separate weeks (the end of June and beginning of July) and hosts a large variety of musicians. For example, last year we saw both Nelly and John Mayer, and it was awesome. If you are planning a trip to Milwaukee, it’d be a good idea to line it up with one of the Summerfest days.

6. Lake Michigan: This one is kind of a no-brainer. If you’ve never been to a Great Lake, get to one now. Lake Michigan feels much more like an ocean than a lake. The water is clear, albeit cold, and goes on forever. Sandy beaches, boat rides, long piers, it’s perfect.

7. The Pfister Hotel: We didn’t stay here, but we did have a champagne brunch there after the graduation ceremony. The food was amazing—bloody mary bar, mimosas, prime rib, colorful salads, gigantic roasted veggies, jumbo shrimp cocktail—the list goes on, but that’s not what this is about. This is about the interior. It’s absolutely stunning! I’m sure there is a ton of history about this building I should know, but I don’t, so if you have any insights, leave it below in the comments!

8. Water Street: I really don’t have much to say about this one. It pretty much just speaks for itself. It’s where you go for a good night out on the town, you know, the one that requires a tall glass of my favorite hangover cure the next day. I will say it’s a younger crowd, but I have some pretty good memories from nights out there, including riding a mechanical bull for the first time and secretly watching ESPN while on the dance floor.

9. The Pasta Tree: Before setting foot in the restaurant, I had heard so much about it and how it was everyone’s favorite, and I have to say, it did not disappoint. I was impressed with the fact that it had delicious gluten free noodles that could be paired with just about any of it’s large variety of sauces. However, I wish I could have piled on the gluten as they make all of their noodles fresh in-house. The spinach linguine looked phenomenal covered in pesto cream sauce. Yum.

10. Marquette University Campus: Like I said earlier, I love looking at the character of a place, it’s beautiful architecture and stamps that show time. So when Caroline was giving us a tour and her grandpa asked, “What’s your favorite thing about Marquette?” I loved her answer, “The buildings.” She helped us see the wide variety of architecture through the eras that showed the schools history. I wish I had taken more photos as evidence, but I was too busy discussing the asymmetry of the mid-century building across the lawn, oh and taking pictures of these models.

Last but not least, that graduation gift idea I promised. Ever since I started dating a Navy man who lives too far away, I’ve gotten really into cramming a lot of activities into one weekend. Since we can’t go on dates outside of Skype during most of the year, when we do get to see each other, we try to go on as many as we possibly can, which brings me to my obsession with the New York Times 36 Hours books. You pick a destination out of the book and are given a prioritized list of what you need to see, do and eat during your 36-hour stay in a new place. They have one for all of the U.S. and Canada (as well as some other foreign countries), but they also breakdown the U.S. into more detailed books for specific regions. Seeing as Caroline is off to join the real-world in New York, I figure there would be many weekends she would just need to get away. We bought her the Northeast book and printed photo strips from Social Print Studio of travel adventures from our past to serve as inspiration, and bookmarks.

Now let’s all go back.

Until next time, beautiful Midwest plant life and beautiful Midwest Katie, until next time.