Lisa Hoppe Travel Consulting

Celebrate North America's largest outdoor French themed festival in downtown Milwaukee! Bastille Days is held annually in July and features impromptu street performances, roaming minstrels, a variety of musical entertainment and a signature 43-foot Eiffel Tower replica. Runners and walkers kick off the festival with the "Storming of the Bastille," a 5-K run and two mile walk.

The Kettle Moraine State Forest consists of northern and southern units that frame Milwaukee. The Northern Unit is less than an hour's drive away from the city and features several biking and hiking trails (including part of the famous Ice Age Trail), campgrounds and fishing and hunting sites.