Where do you want to go?

If you’re flying out of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE), that question has plenty of possible answers. MKE boasts more than 30 nonstop routes to cities like Charlotte, Nashville, and Los Angeles. A new nonstop route to Austin was added this spring. On top of that, MKE flies to hundreds of one-stop destinations and serves all major airlines. Do you absolutely need to drive to Chicago to fly to your summer vacation hotspot? Maybe not!

Speaking of Chicago, isn’t O’Hare a nightmare? It’s obscenely busy, obscenely huge, and it doesn’t even have a small museum that includes memorabilia from the storied career of Major Dick Bong. Not so in Milwaukee! MKE is pleasantly chill, pleasantly sized, and it DOES have a small museum that includes memorabilia from the storied career of Major Dick Bong. And so much more!

Flying out of MKE with time to spare? Picking someone up from MKE with time to spare? Here are some things to check out at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.

MKE Meditation Room

Flying can be stressful—even in a manageable airport like MKE. So if you’re looking to relax, decompress, or just grab a few minutes of peace and quiet before you enter (or after you leave) the Main Terminal, there’s the MKE Meditation Room. Located near the 3N skywalk and beside the parking garage, the cubicle-like room is stark white and filled with messages of peace and compassion. Its main feature is a seating area that resembles a chapel; indeed, the stated mission of the room is to provide a “designated space and support for meditation, prayer, and worship.”

“All are welcome,” the room’s dedicated website says. “This sacred space serves as an interlude and moment of peace, reflection or prayer.” And don’t forget to sign the guestbook.

Renaissance Books

Airport bookstores are a dime a dozen, but how many airports can claim not just a bookstore, but a used bookstore? Located in the Main Terminal next to the delightful Mitchell Gallery of Flight (more on that in a bit), Renaissance Books has been a Milwaukee airport staple for nearly 50 years. Take a stroll through the rambling store and you’ll encounter everything that makes used bookstores so special: friendly employees; towering shelves stuffed to the gills with books; and individual shelves loaded with everything from literature, mysteries, music, sci-fi, and true crime to history, poetry, kids lit, manga, and gender studies.

Seriously: it’s an honest-to-goodness used bookstore…in an airport! How great is that! All that’s missing is the standard-issue used bookstore cat, though we imagine the airport probably frowns upon that sort of thing.

Mitchell Gallery of Flight

The namesake of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport is General William Mitchell. Mitchell served in World War I and was instrumental in the creation of the United States Air Force. You’ll learn that and much, much more in the Mitchell Gallery of Flight, located in MKE’s Main Terminal. The nonprofit museum is dedicated to both Milwaukee’s history in aviation and to some of its notable names. In addition to information and artifacts about Mitchell, there are displays dedicated to Captain James A. Lovell, Tuskegee airman Alfred M. Gorham, and Captain Laurel B. Clark. (Clark, a Racine native, perished in the Space Station Columbia disaster in 2003.)

The Mitchell Gallery of Flight is informative, well-presented, and charming. And, yes, there’s information on World War II ace Major Richard “Dick” Bong, a.k.a. the namesake of the Richard Bong State Recreation Area in Kenosha County.

Summerfest Marketplace, Miller Brewery Shop

MKE’s biggest convenience store happens to be branded by the city’s biggest festival, Summerfest. The contents of the store are equally homegrown. Sure, there’s the usual assortment of airport store goodies—snacks, magazines, toiletries, etc.—but there’s also plenty of Milwaukee and Wisconsin gear. The Cream City section of the Summerfest Marketplace features regional T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, mugs, and postcards. Even better are the goods made by local artisans: candles, jewelry, handbags, and more.

And, yes, because this is Milwaukee, there’s an entire store dedicated to beer: the Miller Brewery Shop. Stock up on merch from all your favorite Molson Coors beer brands!

Gravity Well

We’re not exactly sure why, but we love MKE’s Gravity Well. You know, one of those things where you drop in a coin and watch it spiral into oblivion. It’s fun! It’s also fitting that it’s located just outside of the Mitchell Gallery of Flight, since Gravity Wells are most often found in museums.

Oh, and the coins go directly to the Mitchell Gallery of Flight, which is great. Gravity Wells as fundraisers! Again, we love it.

Recombobulation Area signs

Moving beyond the Main Terminal, there are those signs. You know the signs we’re talking about. The Recombobulation Area signs that hang just past the airport’s security checkpoints. Yes, when you’ve finished taking off your jacket, removing everything from your pockets, placing your laptop in a separate bin, and going through that metal detector pod where you have to hold your hands above your head, it’s time to pick up all your stuff, sit on a metal bench, and, well, recombobulate. It’s not even a real world, but we all know exactly what it means. A few airports have since copied this brilliant idea, but MKE is the originator of the Recombobulation Area signs; they were invented by the airport’s now-retired director Barry Bateman.

Bus access

The bus stop at MKE may not look like much—a sea of cars and concrete surround it, the occasional aircraft buzzes it—but it’s incredibly useful. From the airport, the MCTS GreenLine can take you back into the city and/or all the way out to Bayshore in Glendale. That’s quite the route! After a flight away from Milwaukee, here lies your ticket back into it. It’s easy. It’s cheap. And, like so many other things about Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, it’s great.