February 10, 2023
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!
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.
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.
The local Kiwanis club sponsored the Fox Cities Butterfly Festival at City Park again last June.
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.