Shop Crawl

Pretty soon people will be able to shop their way from Milwaukee to Madison.

If you start in downtown Milwaukee, after taking in the Shops of Grand Avenue, you could head west, taking a brief detour north on Hwy 45 to Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa.

After experiencing the biggest mall in the state at Mayfair, you'll return to 94 west and hit up Brookfield Square Mall about five miles away.

From there it's on to the shops in Delafield off the Hwy 83 exit near the Amish Barn (formerly of smiley barn fame).

Then it's just a short ride to the newly proposed lifestyle shopping center, also in Delafield -- not to be confused with the newly proposed Pabst Farms Towne Center four miles further west on the interstate in Oconomowoc, which will be your next stop.

Feeling broke, yet? Well, don't fear, your next stop is at the outlet mall in Johnson Creek.

So far you've taken in 7 shopping centers over a 45 mile stretch, which is why it's probably a good thing you have a bit of a drive -- about 30 miles -- to the next full-fledged mall at East Towne in Madison.

But for those who can't just wait, there are plans to build a handful of shops off the Hwy N exit in Cottage Grove. And I bet Lake Mills won't be far behind.