Checking out Chicken Fest

We technically don’t live in Darboy USA but we live close enough to say we are in Darboy. For some, Darboy, nothing more than an unincorporated land area outside of Appleton, has Chicken Fest. Like any small Wisconsin town, this is their annual festival. It is held in the small community park down the road from us. Being a sucker for small town festivals, I wanted to go… the hubby not so much.

This year I wanted to get my stuff for the Chicken Chase and managed to convince Danielle to come along with me. She brought the boys along. I wasn’t planning on doing much other than getting my packet and wander for a bit. But when you bring kids to a festival, you get to experience the festival a little more.
While I got my race packet, Danielle and the boys ate hot dogs. Everything at Chicken Fest, like most area festivals, used tickets for food, drinks, and rides. 1 Ticket = $1. I’m not sure what the hot dogs cost but I know a funnel cake was 5 tickets!!!!

After they finished eating, we checked out the midway. I didn’t bring any extra money because I wasn’t planning on doing much but wandering around. Danielle got me on the Ferris Wheel. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s been awhile since I was on a Ferris Wheel or what but this one freaked me out. It went BACKWARDS initially!!!! Ok, if I was really paying attention I would have noticed this and from what I remember they all do that. I was white knuckling the bar and trying not to freak out too bad. After a couple of rotations, I was fine and actually managed to take a few pictures. We got gimped because we were the last 2 one and the first 2 off I swear. The boys and Danielle rode a few more rides and I kept my feet firmly planted on the ground. I checked out the music tent for a few minutes and Grand Union Station was playing. They weren’t bad. I even did splurge on that $5 funnel cake.

We went on the first night of chicken fest. It wasn’t bad but there were a lot of teeny boppers. The music tent wasn’t packed but that might have been because we were there before 7:00 PM. For a little blip on the map between bigger cities, it’s not a bad way to kill an evening. On Saturday there was going to be a parade. I’d like to have seen that. Maybe next year.

#962 Go to the Flag Day Museum

As I mention before, Waubeka is the home to Flag Day. Because Waubeka is the home of Flag Day, it naturally has a Flag Day Museum. The Museum is not open unless you request an appointment or it is Flag Day. It is located within the Americanism Center.

It Museum is more than just about Flag Day. There is the military room that houses all sorts of cool military uniforms, gear, and other artifacts mostly from area residents.

Then you get the Waubeka Room which is the history of Waubeka and has artifacts from local area business such as barber chair that turned out to be from my cousin's godfather's barber shop.

The last room is devoted to Bernard J Cigrand, the founder of Flag Day.

There is also the Avenue of Flags that depict the various American Flags throughout our history such as the 48 star flag.

It is quaint little museum that if you are ever in town for the Flag Day Parade, it's worth stopping in and checking out the artifacts and seeing the history of the area.

#630 Go to the Flag Day Parade

Waubeka is the home of Flag Day. It is where Bernard Cigard first asked his class to write about the flag and it's importance on June 14, 1885 . Appleton has the oldest Flag Parade, which began in 1950. When I think of Flag Day and it's celebration, I think of Waubeka. Probably because I grew up in Port Washington/Saukville and Waubeka isn't all that far away from. I didn't even know Appleton had a Flag Day parade, or the oldest, until I moved up here. Although I thought about seeing the Appleton Flag Day to complete this item, I really felt that I should pay homage to where Flag Day began and see the Waubeka Flag Day Parade.

Mom and Dad were willing participants in coming to the Flag Day Parade with me. I wasn't sure what to expect. I was concerned about not getting a good seat for the parade by getting to Waubeka until around 12 for a 1:30 parade considering Waubeka is the size of a postage stamp. I remember dad putting out our chairs for Fish Day Parade on his way to work every year. I had nothing to worry about. When we got there around 12, there was plenty of front row seats available on Main Street. It really didn't start filling in until about 1, when the program was over.

Main Street before the parade

Despite the small size of the town, the parade actually was longer than most of the parades I marched in during High School. It was no 10-foot parade. It last over an hour and had over an 100 units..sure there were supposed to be about 20 different fire trucks from various department but there were several no shows. The parade included military units, marching bands, and scout troops. The Flag Day Parade honored the Marines this year and almost every float depicted the raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima.

There was even candy being tossed from the floats which apparently is a no-no in the Appleton Parade. Not only did I manage to snag a few Tootsie Rolls, I ended up with String Cheese and a bouncy balls. I had 2 bouncy balls (dad got 1) but I gave one to a kid that desperately wanted one. What was I going to do with 2 bouncy balls with dinosaurs in them. Even the firefighters were handing out Freeze Pops.

As mom said, "it was a nice parade for Waubeka. I think we'd go back". Me, I want to go back in 6 years for the 75th anniversary. I also want to see the Appleton Flag Day Parade some year. It is difficult with tournaments this time of year.

Explore Memorial Park in Appleton

I don't know how many times I have been to Memorial Park in Appleton for Softball games and never actually left the diamonds? Now that I have been trying to walk every day, I decided this year during the Rockers Tournament, I would go for a walk around Memorial Park.

I was missing out. There is a lot more to Memorial Park than just 7 softball diamonds. Just a short walk across the road from diamonds 5-7, I found a whole new side of Memorial Park.

What did I find?

A fishing pond

Trees and grassy trails. I kept going in circles.

Then as I kept walking, I stumbled across the Scheig Center, an oasis in the middle of Memorial Park. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking what the Scheig Center has to offer.

The best part of Scheig Center was the giant kaleidoscope. It took me a minute how to work it but once I realize you spun the flower pot and not the arms, it was amazing. 

Just like looking into a kaleidoscope that I had when I was a kid, as the planter spun the flower designs changed. They even moved in the same branching out pattern. This is the one spot, I had to show Danielle when she meet me for a walk on Saturday. Gavin enjoyed watching the flowers bloomed.

I discovered some wood chip paths just past the Scheig Center on my walk with Danielle on Saturday but didn't have time to explore them. There's always time.

If you want a place to fish, hike, roll down a giant hill, enjoy nature, or even take family pictures take some time to explore Memorial Park. It's only about 10 minutes from my house and this was the first time I truly found all that Memorial Park has to offer and then some. 

#735 Do a Beer Run

When I was first creating my original bucket list, I heard an ad on the radio advertising an upcoming beer run in Milwaukee. I didn't drink beer at the time nor did I have any ambition to run a race and still really don't drink beer but I thought that a Beer Run might be fun. On the list it went.

Fast-Forward 10-15 years and I have done a handful of races by now. Someone posts something on Facebook about a beer run in Milwaukee last year. That gets me thinking about actually doing one. I looked into the event that was upcoming up and realized that it was too expensive and didn't fit in the schedule but I kept it in mind for this year. When Danielle and I were planning our races for the year, we counted on a doing the Kohler Beer Run in October.

Apparently Kohler didn't get the memo to keep the beer run in October and moved the Beer Run (and the Festival of Beers) to the end of May. Okay all that meant was 5 races in 15 weeks. Danielle, Andrea (who actually informed me of the event), and I signed up.

The Beer run would have been awesome if it was 65 and sunny. It was 50 and raining. By the time we finished the 3.1 miles course, we were soaked but didn't care because they gave us free beer.

At a typical beer run, you get a 3 oz beer at every mile or so. I figured I could do 3 3oz beers. Either Kohler and Shock Top took pity on us in the pouring rain or Kohler just does everything better. We got a full bottle of beer (12 ounces) at each mile. That's 36 ounces of beer by the time we finished the race. And you had to finish the beer before the leaving the area. I can't chug a beer. I tried. I failed.

Beer #1 -- Lemon Shandy. I tend to like Lemon Shandy beers or beer and lemonade but this one I was not a fan of. I drank about half of and poured the rest out. Yes, I wasted perfectly good beer.

Beer #2 -- Belgian White and this was good. I had drank my entire cup of beer in the pouring rain.

Beer #3 -- Not quite sure. It might have been another Belgian but I wasn't impressed. I gave it to Danielle.

So I did not have 36 ounces of beer. I probably had more like 20 if I was guessing on the high side. Despite the weather, we had a blast. My official time was 48:49. Not bad at all.

The best part would have been being able to dance to Sex and Beer after the race but we were wet, tired, and had to get back to Appleton. There's always next year.

Who knows maybe we will still do another Beer Run in October.

Eat at Sobelman's.

Sobelman's was not on the bucket list but it is Milwaukee institution. When trying to decide on a place for lunch (that was open) on Memorial Day, Stacy's husband suggestion Sobelman's. It claims to be the home of the best burger in Milwaukee. Best Burger had me sold.

Little did we know, Sobelman's was a place to hang out before a Brewer's game and the place was packed. We didn't have any set time table for the Forest Home Cemetery so we didn't mind waiting, besides we didn't really have another option. 

Besides being home to Milwaukee's Best Burger, it is also home to incredible Bloody Marys. They are a meal in themselves. If you have 30 minutes to wait, you could order a pitcher complete with a whole roasted chicken on a stick in it. Stacy had one with bacon wrapped Jalapeno Poppers. I stuck with beer. I am not a fan of tomato juice and didn't want to waste my money on something I wasn't going to like. I should have sampled Stacy's though.

I'm not sure about the competition in Milwaukee but I have to disagree with the fact that they claim to be the best burger in Milwaukee. I think Kopp's are better. My issue started when they didn't ask how I wanted my burger. If you are going to be the best burger, you better give me the option of ordering it medium, medium-rare. Second there was no such thing as a just a Bacon Cheeseburger. I could get a Cheeseburger or a Sobelman which was a bacon cheeseburger with fried onions and diced jalapenos. Despite not liking fried onions or jalapenos, I ordered the Sobelman. I brushed off most of the onions and jalapenos. It wasn't bad but it wasn't out of this world. My burger wasn't juicy. It really didn't have a distinct flavor. I guess in a Food Wars episode AJ Bombers beat Sobelman's for the title of best burger. I've not been to AJ Bombers but based on my burger, I could see how that was possible. 

Maybe I just got a bad burger. Maybe I have grown to love butter burgers. Maybe I am just a burger snob. Whatever it is, it is not enough for me to stop going back but next time I will stick with the plain cheeseburger and maybe even try a Bloody Mary.

#3973 See the Forest Home Cemetery Reenactment

At cookie baking Stacy mentioned that Forest Home Cemetery does Reenactments of Milwaukee citizens during Memorial Day and she always wanted to check it. I added it to the list. It worked perfect that Chocolate Fest is always Memorial Day Weekend so we could do a weekend around Chocolate Fest ending at Forest Home Cemetery. 

Forest Home Cemetery puts a nice program on Memorial Day. It starts with a Memorial Service in the Chapel and Veteran's Garden of Honor, then the Re-enactors tell their stories around their graves, and the day ends with a walking tour of History of Milwaukee around the cemetery. You could also buy lunch.

The rain stopped and we were able to see the re-enactors outside. There were 8 Milwaukee Citizens featured all with a part in the Civil War. The ones we heard didn't seem to see much of the battle. We only caught three or four of them because honestly they weren't very exciting. The best one was the woman who told the story of Quentus Brown, who was her neighbor and actually never lived in Milwaukee. He just happened to die in a boarding house fire in Milwaukee after the war. 

After we listened to a couple of re-enactors we set out on our own walking tour to find the Beer Barons. As Stacy said, those are probably the most exciting tombs.  As we meandered our way through the cemetery, I decided I need to become important so I can have a big obelisk tomb. Stacy said I just need to be wealthy. I said when I become important I will be wealthy so that will work. 

We did eventually find the Beer Barons. And just like every good town in Wisconsin that has a bar on every corner, the four beer barons of Milwaukee are on the four corners on the same intersecting paths of the cemetery (or close enough).

Forest Home does do other guided tours throughout the year and some of them would be interesting to take, especially if I was closer. They also have pamphlets for self-guided tours. If you like green space and you don't mind walking among dead people, Forest Home Cemetery has over 400 acres to explore. It is shady enough that it won't be too hot on a summer day.