We have found some of our best summer fun in the most unassuming places. For instance, last weekend we made our way to Almond, Wisconsin, home of the very a-peel-ing Tater Toot Festival. It's hard to say what delighted us the most -- the kiddie train that zoomed up and down an empty Main Street, [...]
We followed an eagle into summer last night and could not be more grateful for the guidance. As is our reflex, we sprinted north when we realized we had the opportunity and plunked our tubes in the Oconto River as soon as we arrived. Soon after, a majestic bald eagle swooped overhead and beckoned us [...]
The public outdoor pools closed for the year yesterday in our area and, with that sad and impossibly swift seasonal ending, came the realization that my husband Vince and I had not gone down the water slide across the street from our house even one time this summer. Now, you might point out that our [...]
If regions had a flower, I'd like ours to be the sunflower. Friendly, unassuming and resilient, sunflowers meet raging storms with a wink and a Midwestern shoulder shrug. Then, they shake the rain off their petals, straighten their stems and stand tall again. They start each day with enviable cheer, turn their faces toward the [...]
Many will remember the summer of 2020 for its terrible cacophony of pandemic and politics, reckoning and rage. But I am still struck by its silence, the eerie stillness of its streets, the sad spectacle of silent swimming pools and limp park swings, the mute stages and empty playing fields. That’s why, even more than [...]