PBR Me

Here I am with one of Milwaukee's finest gentlemen - Captain Frederick Pabst.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to tour a little bit of Pabst Brewing history. Walked through the old Gift Shop/Tour Center for the Pabst Brewery as well as Blue Ribbon Hall and the corporate offices, including Captain Pabst's office. Pabst left Milwaukee in 1996 and the buildings are now going through redevelopment with ideas for offices, restaurants, potential site for a brew pub and The Beer Museum. When this takes place I really think it is going to be another positive thing for Milwaukee. The buildings are still in nice shape with awesome woodwork, stained glass and brickwork. We're probably looking at 2009/2010 for project completion. I am excited for this to happen and in the meantime I think we could do some tours of the brewery "as is" for people interested in Milwaukee history, Pabst history, and architecture.



I am sitting in Captain Pabst's office reading about Brett Favre!



Love this guy! Great stained glass windows in the old tour center for Pabst Brewing Co.

Business Update

I've been working on a few things this week for KBC Tour Company. On Tuesday I completed the CTA (Certified Tourism Ambassador) training given by Visit Milwaukee. So now I am a Certified Tourism Ambassador for Milwaukee. I already received my CTIS (Certified Travel Industry Specialist) training through IUPUI and American Bus Association when I worked at the CVB. So now I have a bunch of letters to follow my name to make me look really important - Kay Collins, CTIS, CTA.

I've been working with some local Milwaukee tour operators to use me for their Milwaukee area tours. Hopefully all will be successful and my 2008 tour season will be a busy one.

Had lunch today with a tour planner in the Wauwatosa village at Pizzeria Piccola run by the Bartolotta Family. It's a great place for a nice casual light lunch or dinner. Gotta love the wood fired pizza. Had the Chicken Sausage and Pine Nut personal pizza today - yum! Did you know the first pizza was made in 79AD??!!!??? They found artifacts indicating pizza making in the ashes of Pompeii!

Tomorrow will be fun - going to the old Pabst Brewery for a tour. It's going to be cold. Hope to have some good pictures as I have nothing to post today. It's snowing again and I don't need to show that again...