Our dear friend Laurel is always suggesting great events for us to attend. Usually in the form of concerts. And it seems we rarely get to check out these concerts… sigh. But last week she told us about the Czech Festival in Wilber, Nebraska. What? You’ve never heard of Wilber OR the Czech Festival? Well, we hadn’t, but figured we had to fix that deficiency. It seems Wilber is the Czech capital of the U.S.!

So in spite of the weather looking a bit like rain, we headed to Wilber; just a little over a half hour from our place. Main street was blocked off, making a pedestrian avenue with all the requisite shops and booths. We met Laurel and several other friends, and joined them where they had great seats for the upcoming parade.

Before the parade, the thing to do was buy Kolache from a famous shop right behind our seats. I’m sure they were fantastic, because half of Nebraska’s population was in line to procure some! We decided to wait till after the parade, and the Crepe Cafe caught our eye so we didn’t faint from starvation! (The Strawberry Crepe was great!)

There were lots of people, and some dressed in Czech outfits. Some places selling Czech attire and other souvenirs.

Then came the Parade!

It felt like an old-time small-town parade. Which I guess it was!

Near the start of the parade were the Czech Queens or Princesses or whatever… from years past and from other states too. A lot from Minnesota… I took pictures of each gal. There must have been 200. Ok, maybe 20? I must be getting old, because I was more interested in the cars they were riding than the princesses themselves. So you just get to see the ones with nice cars.

Several well kept antique cars sauntered by, honking their interesting old horns.

Then came the Corvettes! A nice collection of old ‘Vettes.

Immediately following the Corvettes was this lone Crosley. The Shriners attend most every parade in the country, and have interesting and tiny cars. You don’t get to see their tiny Model T type cars here – next time show up to the Czech festival so you don’t miss them!

And the Tractors! John Deere won with the most tractors, and of course the best looking, but there were several other brands. I’ve included a lot, because, well… tractors!

The really old John Deere’s were called “Johnny Poppers” from the unique sound they made running. Here is what I believe is an actual Johnny Popper steaming along:

And another, newer, old tractor!

Here’s most of our crew after the parade. A great time!

This beautiful home was a couple of blocks from the main street, near where we parked our car. Had to take a picture of it!

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That same evening was the Lincoln Municipal Band concert in Antelope Park. This is another fun event that Laurel has told us about, and this is the first time we’ve made it.

The LMB has been performing open air summer concerts for over 100 years! They are very good, and played a very eclectic selection of music. From Wagner to Cyndi Lauper to Duke Ellington to (of course) John Phillips Sousa and more. A great time!

The evening was perfect. Lots were picnicking, some playing cards, some blowing bubbles.

A beautiful outdoor evening of music!

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While at the beautiful Kiyomisu-Dera temple in Japan, I bought myself a cute little model of it. Made of super tiny corrugated cardboard, it was laser cut to fit together really cleverly. I had fun putting it together, and here is a 17 second video of it growing up.

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The real highlight of the week was a semi-surprise party to celebrate Cherryl’s Birthday. And mine too, I guess. Becky, Kevin and friend Racheal hosted a Mystery Dinner party: we chose roles in the mystery and acted out parts, while discovering clues to decide “Who Done It.” In fact, my character was “Hugh Dunnit.” We were told to dress in 1920’s outfits. Silly names, silly clues, and silly acting made for a really fun evening.

Of course we had cake too!

The whole gang performed really well, and we had a super time! A wonderful Birthday treat! Thank you Becky, Kevin and Rachel!