Green Bay Packers

Itinerary

Aug 15 (Wed) Chicago -Green Bay

Drove Saint Charles to Green Bay (242mi) taking a little over 4 hours with some construction delays.

Checked into the Hampton Inn Downtown. Newer construction. Stay here again next time in Green Bay. It is right downtown, has easy access, reasonable rate ($100 but $165 on game day). Rating: ****.

Dinner at Black and Tan Grille. A higher end restaurant downtown. Limited menu but, the food was very good. I had a filet and Kathryn had scallops. Yum! Rating: ****

Aug 16 (Thu) Green Bay- Packers vs. Pittsburg

Breakfast at the hotel. Hot and free. Good. The weather for the day was around 80deg but, very humid. Overcast skies made it not too uncomfortable.

Fonferek's Glen

In the morning we headed to Fonferek’s Glen about 15 miles from Green Bay up the peninsula. A little disappointing as what was advertised as a nice waterfall. The stream and waterfall were totally dried up. We hiked around and did get some nice pictures. Not recommended. Rating: *.

Al's, Downtown Green Bay, Heritage Square

Our afternoon was unplanned and looking through the tourist guides, there really is not a ton exciting to do in Green Bay so, we just drove around the city and Lambeau Field. The small city is nice. Around the field, even by noon (for a 7pm game) the street parking was taken and there were already people set up for tailgating in the parking lots and yards of the residents. It is a tradition for all the locals around the stadium to offer their yards for parking on game day. There is no other city like Green Bay on game day. Very cool atmosphere.

After driving around we dropped the car back at the hotel and walked downtown to find a place for lunch. We found a little hole in the wall place, Al’s Hamburgers (est 1934). We sat at the counter and chatted with one of the locals. The burgers we very good and the deep fried cheese curds were better that the Minnesota State Fair (according to Kathryn). It was a nice local good find. If I lived in Green Bay this would be a once a week stop for me. Rating: **** (at the diner level).

We left for the game around 4:45 (7pm start). Found cheap parking in a field (online earlier in the month via ParkWhiz) for $18 .3 miles from the stadium. Parking a block away ranged from $30-$40 so, this was a good find. Already everyone was tailgating all around the stadium. Next time, I think we should plan some tailgating. Fun to see every yard with tailgaters and green and gold.

Since we didn’t tailgate we headed to the stadium and after walking around a while, with a quick visit to Krawls (bar/restaurant across the street from the stadium). We headed into the stadium.

Our seats were Primo. Sec 116 (25yrd line Packer side of field), Row 14. It was pretty cool watching the teams warm up for the game. Note: bench seating most of the stadium but, you can rent seat cushions/backs for $6, but we didn’t).

The game started with fast scoring. On the first play of the game Green Bay intercepted (cb Tramon Williams) for a pick 6. 7 zip in the first minute of play. Then just a couple minutes later on the Packers first possession Rogers hit a 27 pass completion and then a few play later and 8 yrd touchdown pass to new tight end Jimmy Graham. 14 zip. However, Packer defense looked pretty bad allowing Pittsburgh to march down the field both running and passing and soon the game was tied at 14 -14.

Just after the Packers first touchdown, two Navy Helicopters flew around the stadium which was cool. Apparently, this was an unplanned fly over which left the police scrambling.

Halftime the score was Packers 34 Pittsburgh 14. Both teams scored another two touchdowns with the score Packers 48 Pittsburgh 28 at the end of the third and a final of Packers 51 Pittsburgh 34. I don’t remember a game with more scoring. Fun, fun! Rating: *****

Late in the game there was a bit more excitement as a fan jumped on the field and avoided the initial security around the perimeter. He was tackled by about 4 police officers quickly and not so gently removed from the field.

The stadium fits 80,000 fans (third highest in the nfl). Tonight’s crowd was 74K but, no major traffic issues after the game so that was nice.

Packer Game

Aug 17 (Fri) Lambaeu Field Tour- Green Bay - Chicago

Breakfast again at the hotel. We then went back to the stadium for a Lambeau Field tour.

The tour last about and hour and they give you some history about the Packers and the stadium throughout the tour. They took us to one of the 188 suites in the stadium. These would be awesome seats but, the cheapest of the suites costs $85K/yr, the most expensive up to $200K/yr. Yet, they still have a waiting list for the suites. The waiting list for regular seating is 120,000 people!

Going through the tunnel was pretty cool. If you look at the pictures, one shows the plaque that by tradition, every player touches before going out on the field. Also, you can see the three rows of bricks. These were taken from the first stadium so, every packer player from 1919 to the present has walked over those bricks on the way out to the field. Cool! The locker was not on the tour so, they just have a picture of it... so, I took a picture of the pic.

Some Packer History

The Packers were founded on Aug 11, 1919 by Curly Lambeau and George Calhoun. So, they are now into their 100th year as a franchise.

The team won six NFL championships from 1929 to 1944, including three straight (1929–1931).

Curly Lambeau retired in 1949 and the team went into an 11 year losing streak until they hired Vince Lombardi as coach in 1959. The Packers lost the 1960 NFL Championship, however they would go on to win five championships in seven years under Lombardi, including three straight between 1965 and 1967. This included the first two NFL Super Bowls, the first being the famous ice bowl with game day temperature of -13 deg.. The refs had metal whistles and on the kick-off the ref blowing the whistle had his lips and tongue stuck to the whistle. For the rest of the game the refs did not use their whistles and stopped play by yelling and tapping players on the shoulder.

From 1968 to 1992 the packers were in a slump getting to the playoffs only twice in those years. I remember these years well growing up in Milwaukee and being a huge (but dissapointed) fan.

Things finally turned around when they hired Mike Holmgren and traded for Brett Favre who led the team to 11 playoff appearances, two super bowl appearances (1996, 1997) and a superbowl win (1996).

Aaron Rogers was drafed in 2005 and became the starter in 2007. Amazingly, this is Rogers 14th season in the NFL. He has led them to eight playoff appearances and a super bowl win in 2010.

After the tour we headed back to Saint Charles. The drive was a bit faster than on the way as we did not hit as much construction traffic. Home sweet Home by 3:40.

Summary

This was a very cool, three day excursion.

Green Bay. Rating :****

Packer Game. Rating: *****

Fact Sheets