2022 was an amazing year for the Franklin Street Inn Bed and Breakfast in Appleton, WI. It became a year of hope and renewal as we slowly put the worst of the COVID days behind us.  We were fortunate to capture many highlights with our cell phone cameras. As such, we thought we would share them with you. Although this article will look a little longer than usual, we  kept the descriptions short and included plenty of pictures.  Too many pictures could cause slower loading times for your computer or other device, so we broke this post into two parts.  Part 1 includes pictures and notes from January - June, while Part 2 will cover July - December.  We hope you enjoy!

January - March

With folks looking to travel as COVID began to wane, the Inn hosted record numbers of guests in the early months.  Despite the winter weather, we had full house bookings on several weekends.   

 

Many of our guests enjoyed time with Kodi, our retriever-border collie mix who serves as our special "guest-greeter."

 

Despite some snowy or wet late winter weather, locals flocked to City Park, just a half block from the Franklin Street Inn, to take pictures of the new family of owls.  A pair of barn owls spawned three young ones in their nest in an old oak tree.  It was the highlight of the winter and spring until the young owls learned to fly and then were not seen again.

April - June

Spring flowers blossomed early and the gardens were beautiful this year.  The columbine and bleeding hearts were the first to bloom.

Large turnouts enjoyed the return of the Saturday morning Appleton Farm Markets, just a short 2 blocks from the Franklin Street Inn. Strong travel in Spring brought a steady stream of guests, both new and returners, to the Inn.

While many of our guests traveled a couple hours for their respite in Appleton, Lori's cousin Dennis (second from left) and his wife Jo-Carroll (far right) came from Texas for a late June visit. Klaus (second from right) and his wife, visiting from Germany, struck up a friendship with Dennis, who is fluent in German. The four were able to enjoy breakfasts together conversing in both German and English.

The local Kiwanis club sponsored the Fox Cities Butterfly Festival at City Park again last June.

Other events

There were many other events throughout the early part of 2022.  Various guests enjoyed Death by Chocolate, shows at thee Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Ice Sculpture weekend, and Mini-Golf on the Town.  However the guests kept us busy at the Inn, so we were not able to get to many of them. We do enjoy getting to the ones we can, and hearing our guests talk about their experiences.  To learn more about events in Appleton for 2023, check out our local event guides.  Appleton Downtown Inc. has an events guide for the downtown area. The Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau events calendar covers the larger area of events. Watch for Part 2 of our 2022 Year in Pictures to be posted soon.