So proudly we hailed Rocky Bleier this weekend, the grand marshal of the country’s largest Flag Day parade. The Appleton native, army veteran, Purple Heart award recipient and four-time Super Bowl champion led one of the best Flag Day parades we’ve seen. He worked the crowd ahead of the parade, shaking hands, especially with fellow [...]
We are, we agreed last night as we sat munching grilled burgers in the shadow of a park that had hosted us all weekend, lucky ducks. In one weekend we experienced nearly all of the summer activities we’d been dreaming about since last fall. We swam every day in the public pool across the street [...]
If you ask me and the two little elves at my side, the best way to watch the Appleton Christmas Parade is on a rickshaw peddled by your extremely athletic friend smack dab down the middle of the route. "This is the best night of my life," one of the elves shouted repeatedly as he [...]
A little rain and a disappointing forecast may have shrunk the biggest Flag Day Parade in the country a little, but it sure didn't dampen the fun. That's easy for us to say, though, because we landed right next to the cheerful Grandma Ks, who offered us big smiles and the loan of exactly the [...]
I couldn’t write about this last week because it felt too sad, but I think it’s important to recognize that kindness, beauty and innovation still exist in a world so bruised and reeling. Last week, two little park experts and I set off on a project to rate Appleton parks. We made a chart and [...]