I live in the Twin Cities and I have a children's entertainment business. I was entertaining in…read moreRochester last weekend and wanted to pick up some fireworks in Wisconsin when I was done with my job. I went on line to find the closest fireworks store to Rochester, MN but most were closed by the time I was done working. Maximum Load Fireworks in Arcadia Wisconsin was opened till 9pm. Even though they were over an hour from Rochester I went and figured I'd just follow the river going back home and treat it as a mini vacation because it is such a beautiful drive. Don't be surprised that it's not easy to find because my GPS didn't bring me to the right spot and the store is in a very remote area. After calling the owner they directed me to the store and I found it easily then. When I pulled up, to my surprise it was a real fun looking place and there was a bunch of cute fun teens out front shooting off fireworks - I thought what fun place. When I walked in there was a lot of friendly and knowlegdeable teens to help you decide what to get. Right away a baby goat came trotting up and my heart just melted. They let me pet and hold the goat, it was only a couple of days old. It was sooo cute! They not only had fireworks but they had a petting zoo and fairy garden too, outside. After I purchased my fireworks thanks to the very helpful staff a very cute teen girl gave me a tour of the zoo and fairy garden. I had so much fun. Even though I live 3 hours away from Maximum Load Fireworks I think I will make this a yearly mini vacation and bring my family with next time. Thanks so much you guys.

From start to finish, Maximum Load Fireworks was the best! They were so helpful at the store,…read morepicking out exactly what we were looking for; and the animals were a lovely touch. They put together the most amazing show right within our budget. If I could give more than 5 starts, I would.

Although this place is amazing, very beautiful, but this place is so shady and so insecure for…read morepeople last night when we went there with the family the moment we parted, there was a huge bunch of people who came in different cars mostly African-American. People are not US based Somalians or somewhere from that side of the country Because I could not hear them talk properly. They were dealing with illegal drugs and the park was so dirty and nasty that you could see used condoms all over the place. If you're going with the family I strongly recommend you avoid this side of the park because it's not very safe. We feel really insecure and left that place although the park is very pretty we could have stayed longer, but we didn't feel safe with the amount of people coming in there with the law-enforcement can make rounds in this area. They can have a good check on what's going on in there

Here's a weird fact. When I lived in Rochester, I never dropped by Silver Lake Park. I always drove…read morearound it to get to and from my home to the downtown area and beyond. The only explanation that I can muster is that I had a park within walking distance from my home. I visited that park often that I didn't think of visiting others. After having a decent lunch on Saturday afternoon, I decided to drop by the park to finally check it out. There are a number of parking spots. I backed my car into an available spot and walked around. Rochester is unique in that it's the only city in Minnesota that has manmade lakes. I believe that the number of lakes in Rochester is in the double digits these days, but the lakes were designed for cooling. Specifically, Silver Lake cools the Rochester Public Utilities power plant. The park surrounds Silver Lake. You can get quite the workout walking around it. I walked maybe a quarter of it. I had spotted a swing that had enough space to comfortably seat two adults. There were indeed two people on it, so I decided to walk somewhere else. When I noticed that they were walking towards me, I headed over to the swing. I like a good swing. This one faces the lake and it was enjoyable taking in downtown Rochester and the view while swinging on it. There are geese in the area. They are known as Canadian honkers. They have longer necks than your traditional Canada goose, which I didn't know about until I learned that Canadian Honker, the restaurant in town, was named after it. Cool! If you do see these birds, you can feed them. There isn't a bylaw that says that you'll get fined for feeding them. During the Fourth of July, fireworks happen in this area. It's definitely a smaller version of the Victoria Day fireworks at Ashbridges Bay in the Beaches in Toronto, but it's pretty decent. I never watched it from the park, but admired the display from afar. This park has a memorial dedicated to fallen firefighters. I also like that each tree has a sign that identifies what you are looking at. It's a cool place to walk around, and learn and discover on your own. It was great getting to know this park instead of driving around its perimeter! I look forward to returning and checking out the rest of it. (140)

They have a cute little ROTARY LIGHTS event going on for Christmas right now. You can either take a…read morestroll at night time in the cold and freeze your balls off like I did OR take your vehicle and drive around to see all the Christmas lights! choose your poison. They had a cute little place for us to make s'mores got me all giddy. They also sell hot drinks and it was pretty crowded when I went. You can really see the effort La Crosse put into this event. There's also an ice rink that they are working on. Might have to come back and try it out.

Lovely park area with shady trees, beautiful flowers - perennials and annuals. Nice walking…read moresidewalk next to the river. Enjoyed watching all the boats on the river.

We were looking for a place to walk after supper and someone had told us about this park. It has a…read morelovely lake around it, some baseball fields, tennis courts, a great playground area for kids, a museum, picnic areas, fishing spots, etc. We had a nice walk, caught part of a jazz concert, and watched an inning of a baseball game. Lovely area full of green! Coming from the desert, the green was a treat!

Love this place and the surrounding park areas that I assume are part of Carson Park as well. I…read morelove being near the water and to be able to just sit on a quiet bench right at the edge is really nice, and to walk around the rest of the place is nice and peaceful too. Amazing it's in the middle of a big downtown, especially how quiet it is.

This is where you go if you are serious about your fireworks!!!…read more This is the warehouse, not a retail store. So there's a minimum order of 800 bucks and everything is sold by the case. The savings are VERY significant. It's worth the drive if you have the bucks...or if you and a couple of buddies want to pool your money and make a big order. The warehouse (actually 2 HUGE warehouses) are in a nondescript commercial business and warehouse area. When you go up the drive (between both warehouses), the office is on the right side. They have a small display area so you can pick what you want. Then they go "pick" it for you out the the warehouse. The staff here are AWESOME! All of them are super nice, super helpful, and super friendly. Take a peek in the warehouse. It's amazingly clean and organized. It looks like you could eat off the floor. A note to everyone from Minnesota: Since our governor is a pansy and doesn't trust us to have real fireworks, make sure you check with your local laws before making a purchase. Our legislature and Marky Mark don't allow anything that shoots or goes "boom"! -Daddy Maxx Retro

Friendly and knowledgable people that listen and spend alot of time answering your questions about…read morewhat each item does and make recommendations that suit your preferences and open you to new and high performing items as well. The prices are most competitive and the selection is superb! They go on factory direct demo and buying trips to China every year which shows because there is not any arbitrary low performing junkie individual items or garbage filler items in their assortments. Mr. Gardas had rare and unusual items that other sellers did not have. Some were collectibles that were no longer made. The best overall fireworks experience I have had in my 64 years on this planet.

From the owner: Retail and Wholesale Fireworks Salesread more

Very friendly but the only complaint i have is most of there stuff is overpriced. but although very…read morenice people very educated