Snuggle up with some holiday cheer as OnMilwaukee shares stories of everything merry and bright in the spirit of the season.
The OnMilwaukee Ho Ho Holiday Guide is brought to you by Harley-Davidson Museum and MolsonCoors.
The Milwaukee County Zoo offers free daytime admission during Frosty Free Week, Dec. 26-30.
Note that regular parking, attraction and Wild Lights nights event rates still apply. The Zoo is open from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9:30 to 4:30 on weekends.
That will be the perfect time to check out the newly renovated and greatly expanded Penguins of the Pacific habitat, which is home to a breeding colony of 15 Humboldt penguins. The penguins are included on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as "Vulnerable" in their native Peru and Chile.
Renovation construction began in March and the ribbon was cut on the project last week.
Penguins of the Pacific not only has a larger pool, but also bigger viewing windows, shade structures, a penguin waterfall, an upgraded water filtration system and more.
The work was funded by a $3.5 million grant received in 2023 via the the Tourism Capital Program from the State of Wisconsin, and Milwaukee County kicked in an additional $1.5 million.
Wild Lights – with decorative displays and hundreds of thousands of lights – is also still running at the zoo through Dec. 31 (except on Dec. 24-25).
For more information, call the Zoo at (414) 771-3040 or go to milwaukeezoo.org.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
