Green Bay, WI- Friday, June 30, 2017

 

      We're in Green Bay because Scott's family has always been fans of the Green Bay Packers.  Ever since the days of Vince Lombardi's championship era, when Uncle Gene and Aunt Joyce lived in nearby Appleton, Scott's dad's team has been the Packers.  His family has always had Packer posters and memorabilia in their house.  There's even a picture of a one- or two-year old Scott in a Packer uniform, and the picture was autographed by Hall of Fame quarterback, Bart Starr.  Both Scott's father and his brother are stock holders in the team.  Scott doesn't really consider himself to be a football fan, but whenever he does watch a game on TV, it's always the Packers.  So now we're making the pilgrimage to Lambeau Field. 

     Two of Scott's friends from college contacted us when they saw on Facebook that we were in Wisconsin.  Cliff and Paula live and work in Green Bay now, and invited us out for coffee before they had to go to work.  We let the girls sleep in and we walked over the Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge across the Fox River to a coffee shop.  It was fun seeing old faces from then and chatting with them for a while.  We talked a lot about the travels that we've taken and ones that might come some day.  Paula gave us a ride back and we started to rouse the girls to get them up for the day.

     Our first stop was the Packer Pro Shop at Lambeau Field.  Scott really wanted to get a new Packers shirt for any pictures that he might be in today.  Anna got a hoodie and some leggings too.  It's a huge store, yes, but didn't seem to have the best things in Scott's size and didn't have a section on books, CDs and DVDs.  Even so, we dropped a lot of money there.

     Scott and Anna changed into their new Green Bay swag, and Julie and Emma went into the Lambeau Field Atrium to get tickets for the tour and the Packer Hall of Fame.  Our tour started at 11:30.  First we saw space that was designed for rentals for proms, weddings and large meetings.  The whole atrium area was added as part of the update of Lambeau Field under Bob Harlan and had previously only been parking lot space.  The idea was to help gain revenue for the struggling team.  They had won championships and been having great seasons, but were still among the lowest revenue producing teams of the league.  The additions to the field helped turn that situation around.  The guide said that they have people visit all year now, from all over the world and all 49 states.  They don't count Minnesota here.  One little baby on our tour was only 2 weeks old, incredibly.

     We were taken into one of the 500 square foot luxury boxes, and had our first glimpse of the field from there.  The guide used this vantage point to point out what parts of the original Lambeau Field were still there and what parts have been added in the renovations.  Here we also got a quick history of the team-- the story of how Curly Lambeau formed the team in a semi-pro league in 1919.  That means that the centennial of the team is coming up in two years.  It was Lambeau that secured the sponsorship of the Acme Meat Packing company for the team, and it was he who got the team membership into the newly forming National Football League.  After Lambeau left the team, it fell into a long period of losing.  However, we also heard of how Vince Lombardi was brought in to help the team start a new tradition of winning.  "Papa Bear" George Halas, of the rival Chicago Bears, had apparently suggested that the Packers give Lombardi a try.  That was the beginning of the Packer's "Glory Years," with three straight NFL championships won under his coaching.  

     We were then taken out into the aluminum benches that make up the seats in the oldest and lowest part of the stadium.  These benches were wooden when the stadium was first built in 1957 and throughout the Lombardi era.  We were shown the big addition of seating that has been put around the stadium, but most notably in the South End Zone.  The guide pointed out the names around the stadium walls that are the names of the Packers who are in the National Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, as well as the six Packers whose numbers have been retired by the team.  We learned that the field itself is a hybrid field-- part artificial and part grass that is mixed together to form the playing surface.  It was not marked with the gridiron lines today because it is being worked on,  but even so, it is cut every two days and it wouldn't be worth repainting the lines when there is not a game to be played.  The goal posts were also missing, apparently because of the work that continues this summer.  Scott was disappointed to learn that video was not allowed during the tour and was also not allowed inside the Hall of Fame portion, but we took lots of photos instead.

     Following Cliff's suggestion, we left Lambeau temporarily and went to the Stadium View Bar and Grille for lunch.  He said that they had excellent brats, and Scott certainly enjoyed his.

     After lunch, we returned to Lambeau.  We took some opportunities for photos by the statues out front.  Scott thinks that it looks like Curly Lambeau is pointing at Vince Lombardi's hat and is threatening to knock it off with his football.  Lombardi seems to be staring back at him, just daring him to try.  There's a group of statues of fans that are supposed to give you a chance to pose for your own "Lambeau Leap," although ours didn't work out quite as planned.

      We spent a while inside the Hall of Fame.  There were lots of interesting exhibits.  Scott liked one that was in honor of Brett Farve's induction into the National Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.  One part of that exhibit had a large wall detailing the 40 come from behind victories he had that made his quarterbacking so exciting to watch.  Of course, there is also a timeline of exhibits set up on the second floor that takes you through the almost 98 year history of the team.  As you come up to the second floor, there is a cool display of the many uniforms that the packers have worn over their history, set up in a way that seems to have the mannequins that are wearing them participating in one long pass play.  Surprisingly, blue was worn by most of the early teams, and while green was sometimes used along with yellow, that pair of colors didn't really become standard until Lombardi's era.   Among the displays, Scott saw the record album of the Packer's "Glory Days," as well as promotional 8 x 10 pictures from the "Left Guard Steakhouse," both of which are in his father's collections.  Julie liked the large tabletop that had a big touchscreen built into it.  You could tap the items that float around on the screen to examine papers and objects of all kinds that you might have found in Lombardi's office.  

     We sat for a while at a diorama of the Ice Bowl-- the 1967 NFL Championship Game when the Packers earned their third straight championship.  A film showed highlights of the game, played in weather that was -15 degrees below zero.  Of course it included the last few seconds of the game when Bart Starr chose to run the ball in for a win instead of settling for a tie.  Oddly, there was no sound, even though there were speakers for it, but we could easily read the closed captioning on the movie.  We sat on the wooden bleachers among the life-sized mannequins that were rigged so that you could see their breath in the cold.  The iPhones of that our two daughters were studying intently here detracted a little bit from the illusion of being at the game, but they were keeping them happy.

     We saw another presentation that was creatively done on a pile of radios and T.V.s from many different eras, and gave a broad overview of Packer history as some blinked on and others blinked off.  We also watched a movie on the first floor that showed the importance of the team to the community of Green Bay (and vice versa).

     We ended by walking through the Packer Hall of Fame itself.  Each of the inductees is represented on a plaque that is the size and shape of a football.  There are currently 157 inductees.  The next section is dedicated to the members of the Packers who have been enshrined in the National Football Hall of Fame in Canton.  Each of these men has a display case dedicated to them and their careers.  Finally, there is the championship trophy room, which includes the trophies from the pre-NFL days, the championship rings, and of course the four Lombardi Trophies for the four Super Bowls that they won.

      Scott knew that many of the Iroquois from New York had moved to Wisconsin in the 1800s, but he didn't realize that the Oneida Nation has a reservation right outside of Green Bay.  He also didn't realize how closely that the nation is affiliated with the Green Bay Packers.  There is even a gate into Lambeau Field called the Oneida Nation Gate.  After the Hall of Fame, Scott walked along the Oneida Nation's Walk of Legends.   It is a trail of monuments, some to individual Packer players, and some to concepts exemplified by the team such as "Drive," "Power," "Glory," and even "Faith." Most of these monuments also had two other their sides dedicated to educating the public about parallel aspects in the Oneida Nation.  The entire walk has 26 monuments on it, and starts just east of Lambeau Field and continues to for several blocks.  It's the kind of walk that Julie would have really liked under normal circumstances, but her knee is still giving her issues.  The three girls followed Scott in the car, and some had ice cream and drinks as they watched him walking, standing by in case the threatening rain came.

      Cliff had suggested that we try Titletown Brewing Company for dinner.  It was already a place that had caught Scott's eye.  Its restaurant is in the picturesque old train station across the Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge from us.  There's a landmark smokestack on the brewery behind it, with "TITLETOWN" written in big white letters, and a large statue of Donald Driver catching a pass.  The rain had started and was coming down hard, so we ran to get into the building.  On the walls inside the train station are memorabilia of the long and apparently rich history of brewing in the Green Bay area.  Scott tried a couple of the beers and settled on one called "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Beer" as his favorite.  He enjoyed the burger that he got.  The girls were less happy.  Julie followed Paula's suggestion and ordered a turkey sandwich made with cranberry sauce on zucchini bread.  She said that all the ingredients were good, but that they didn't belong together.  The real fun came when Emma ordered dessert.  She got a "bacon cheesecake" but immediately regretted it after tasting it.  We all tried some, and Scott ate most of it.  Julie said it was like eating a big slab of bacon grease.  Still, we were laughing a lot while we were eating there, so we had fun anyway.

     When we were originally coming into Green Bay yesterday, we considered leaving early tonight in order to get closer to the Mall of America for tomorrow, but we love this hotel so much we don't want to leave now.  The atrium in the middle of it gives it almost a Disney feel, and we've got lots of room to spread out in the suite.  We're still shocked that we're only paying about 1/6 of the list price for it because of the internet deal that Julie found.