Went to San Francisco to celebrate Daughter 1's birthday. Compared to a few years ago, the tower crane scene in the City is pretty quiet. Given that the bulk of the activity is in the <clears throat> less desirable part of town, I get the sense that San Francisco is coming to the end of the current building cycle. 

The first two pictures are from the Tenderloin neighborhood in SF. If you are not familiar with the Tenderloin, it's a pretty rough neighborhood and it lived up to reputation when I decided to jog through it so that I could geek out on tower cranes. It's tough to look up at cranes and dodge the copious crap (literally, crap) on the sidewalks, but I managed.

Tenderloin project #1

Tenderloin project #2

The project above is located in the area bordered by Market, Gough, Otis and 12th Streets. Again, not a common area for high-rise activity which is more data that development is being pushed to the fringes in San Francisco.

Lastly, the above picture was taken from Oracle Park (and was actually taken a few weeks ago). This project is in the Mission Bay part of the city and is likely tied to the University of California, San Francisco medical campus in Mission Bay. This is a desirable neighborhood that has undergone explosive growth for over a decade.

I am in no way qualified to blog about food, yet as a fan of tacos (see blog title above) I cannot neglect the Mexican food I consumed in Milwaukee (yes Milwaukee!) while there for Summerfest. Below are the highlights of foods I highly recommend. First stop: Milwaukee Public Market.

I really wanted (needed) coffee and a donut, but this breakfast taco was too good to pass up.

Yeah, I ended up getting donuts at the Milwaukee Public Market as well. 

After the gutbomb breakfast, we walked the Historic Third Ward in Milwaukee. After a few hours, I had my appetite back (I love vacation!) and we checked out a Mexican-ish restaurant called the Blue Bat Kitchen and Tequilaria. Strong recommend! Here's the roll-out of my order:

Bag o' chips with bat dust. I have no idea what bat dust is but I really like it. I'll let you know if I come down with any hantavirus symptoms. Of course I washed it down with a paloma, duh.

Street corn. With bacon. And bat dust. I destroyed this.

I may have mentioned this before but it bears repeating: I love tacos. These were incredible.

A little later before seeing the Zac Brown Band, I consumed the official meal of Summerfest:

Tall boy of Miller High Life and fried food. I heart you Milwaukee.

So, ZBB was incredible (always a great live show) and we were all set to check out Wilco right afterwards, but there was this taco place that caught our eye that we wanted to hit. Tacos > Wilco. On to Electric Lime.

How can you not order a drink off a menu title thirst trap? Marg for TReg, Spotted Cow for JReg. BTW, Spotted Cow is a must drink in Wisconsin. It's not the greatest beer in the world, but the fact that you can only get it in Wisconsin and it is really good is pretty compelling.

Nachos and tacos in the wee hours? Hell yes.

Fast forward to the following morning. A bit groggy (read: hungover) and TReg takes me on a refreshing walk to a coffee shop she has frequented before as MKE is in her territory. Coffee and breakfast would be so good at this point...

Coffee: check
Breakfast burrito: check
Breakfast sandwich: check
Cinnamon roll: check
Weird street musician playing Turkish folk music in the background: check
Collectivo Coffee was a perfect way to start the morning and the setting near Lake Michigan was super pleasant.

​It's about time to head to the airport to return to Sacramento. Time for one more meal.

Return to Blue Bat for chilaquiles and a Spotted Cow. Thank you for raising my cholesterol 200% Milwaukee. Let's do it again soon.

A few weeks ago, TReg and I went to Milwaukee (via St. Louis) to attend Summerfest (we saw Chris Stapleton and Zac Brown Band. Both great shows although I would have liked to see Run the Jewels ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Anyway, with the recent uptick in architectural billings, particularly in the midwest, I was excited to see the action in person. One thing is for sure, STL > MKE on the tower crane front. In all fairness, Milwaukee is on the tail end of a big growth cycle. The tower cranes I observed in both cities are below:

Three tower crane project at the Washington University Medical Campus. This project site is close to the Cortex light rail station. The general contractor is McCarthy Building Companies which is <checks notes> headquartered in St. Louis.

Multi-family residential project near 

This tower crane is located in the STL suburb or Clayton. Clayton is a funny area...population 15,000 and primarily businesses and luxury condos. This project was also being built by McCarthy.

Next door to the previous picture is another project in Clayton, also being built by McCarthy.

This was the sole tower crane I saw in Milwaukee*.  High rise condo building downtown. I'm a fan of MKE's public art, including these birds.
*I did see another tower crane east of I-94 and south of the river while driving back to the airport, along with three large crawler cranes. Too far to run/walk to for closer inspection...