Escape from to my hometown

Spending the day in my hometown this past weekend was so much fun. You already know about the fireworks 101 class that we were lucky enough to participate in, but that was only a fraction of our day.

Another part of the day was spent on many a shoulder:


And we spent a good chunk of the day frolicking at Lime Kiln Park. The name is exactly what it seems to be - there are three of five kilns still standing at this park that used to kiln lime. Or something like that.


I have always loved this park. I grew up playing here.

Even in high school, we would play on this weird, giant concrete slab next to the kilns. My dad says there is another one somewhere, so we think it was a sort of bridge for some kind of transportation that came to deliver or pick up the lime. I actually have no idea - it's a total guess.

What I DO know, is that the giant concrete slab was so much fun to climb up and hang out on.


So, I tried it again. Not quite as fearless as I once was, I needed a bit of help. And a paper bag to keep me from hyperventilating from fear of falling. Thank the lord for a chivalrous husband to help me up and down.

Funny, now that I look at the picture it doesn't look so skyscraper high. Hmph.


The kilns and weird concrete blob lead down to a beautiful, rambling portion of the Milwaukee river. In high school I took many photos down here for my photography class. You know, back in the old days when all they had was film for your SLR. It was fun to take some again, this time with a digital SLR!


On to the playground, which has been totally revamped. Not nearly as cool as the rickety old brightly painted metal playground we had, but still fun.

As evidenced by Sydney, demonstrating the sheer pleasure of going down a slide.


And if you look in the background of this picture, you can see a bridge. It's a bridge that has been moved to this park, and now resides over the smallest stream of water I have ever seen. It's a bit goofy, and the poor thing now gets ridiculed for where it stands, but I think they just didn't want to scrap the bridge -- most likely for my sake.


I used to walk over this bridge every day on my way home from school (uphill, both ways, and usually through a snowstorm), when it stood proudly over the rushing Milwaukee River!

After spending a good deal of time at the park we hurried home to catch the parade, which went right by my parents' house. All we had to do was pull the lawn chairs out of the garage and set 'em up!

Much to our excitement, a small handful of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band made an appearance in the parade. (Go Bucky!)


The band came to a halt right in front of us as they waited for the parade to move forward, so two band members decided to make themselves comfortable in our lawn chairs. Which luckily were the perfect team colors.

They actually sat for quite a while and watched their fellow band members perform.

I believe "dance monkeys, dance!" were the guy in the chair's exact words.

Seriously, one of the best parades that I've been to in a while. Mark and I hope that Elisabeth goes to UW-Madison someday so that we can park and tailgate at her apartment that she'll have just off of Regent Street on football Saturdays. Wishful thinking?

PHEW! Was this post as long for you as it was for me? If it was, I'm sorry! But it was such a great day.

It's nice to be able to go back to your hometown and not hate it there, you know? I didn't think that would ever happen. I overheard another Grafton escapee that was back in town for the weekend say "you know, all I wanted to do was get out of here when I was in school, and now I find myself driving through town with my kids in the backseat and thinking 'what a cute town this is!' "

Couldn't agree more fellow escapee, couldn't agree more.