A few weekends ago, when the only excitement involved pulling weeds, Tara asked, “Are we lame?”
“Totally,” I replied.
For the record, I don’t really think we’re lame. But it had been awhile since we’d gone exploring, so Saturday, we set out to change that.
Our first stop was Oshkosh, by gosh. Wisconsin’s ninth-most populous city is roughly 90 minutes north of Fort Atkinson. What’s in Oshkosh, you may be wondering? Well, apparently it’s the Vegas of the Midwest…
…but also home to Original’s Mall of Antiques. Tara and I do love to hit up vintage stores, and Original’s did not disappoint. We emerged 2.5 hours and $250 later, poorer in wallet but richer for the experience, proud owners of a giant wooden barometer, ceramic cow creamer, guitar-shaped desk clock, macrame hanger, and about three dozen 45 RPM records to add to my growing collection, among other things. What do you know? We really did hit the jackpot in Oshkosh!
Our ultimate destination was Appleton, 25 minutes farther north. Appleton’s population is 75,644 – about the same as Rapid City, but just the sixth-biggest city in the state (whereas Rapid trails only Sioux Falls in South Dakota). Tara pointed out how cool it is that Wisconsin has so many mid-sized cities, each with plenty of things to see and do.
Appleton is a college town located along the Fox River. The setting is lovely, if slightly industrial, but it was an overcast, windy, and chilly day, so we mostly stuck to indoors exploring. If that meant spending a couple of hours in a cool underground brewpub that resembled a medieval dungeon, while indulging in delicious food and tasty beer and cocktails, so be it. Sometimes, sacrifices must be made.
Fun tidbit: I’ve actually been to Appleton before. Decades earlier, when we were living on Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, my dad – an avid runner – signed up for Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN, so we piled into the Family Truckster for a road trip to the Twin Cities. We spent one night in Appleton, and to this day, my mom swears she had the best beer cheese soup of her life there. Wish I could remember the name of the restaurant! Pretty sure it was not the Stone Arch Brewpub, as I’d have recalled dining in a dungeon. Plus, they weren’t open in the mid-’80s, so there is that inescapable detail.
We drove around through some of Appleton’s nicer neighborhoods afterward, as well as some of Appleton’s not-so-nicer neighborhoods. Our plan had been to check out Cleo’s Brown Beam Cocktail Lounge, where it’s Christmas year-round. Unfortunately, a lot of Appletonians had the same idea. We did not factor in a big St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl when planning our trip. This being Wisconsin, we should’ve known the streets would be teeming with rowdy leprechauns. I ducked inside Cleo’s, but it was standing room only, and it’s a pretty tight space to begin with. All the Christmas lights and nutcrackers looked pretty cool though, so we’ll have to plan a return visit sometime.
We got back home a few minutes after 7:00, just as the sun was setting. Nothing like a fun 10-hour day checking out new places to make you feel like you aren’t lame again!
Mark My Words 
Leave a reply to Ally Bean Cancel reply