This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Vacation Recap 2019, Part 1
Sep
18
2019
Day 1
After last year’s excursion to the west coast, we took a shorter vacation this year, staying in the Midwest.
First off, we drove to Green Bay, WI. I had fond memories of going to tour Lambeau Field, so I wanted my kids to experience that. Actually, I have only one memory of the tour, but I do remember going when I was a kid. So day 1 of vacation was driving to Green Bay and then going on the official tour of the stadium.
First up: the statues. We parked near the statues out front. One of Curly Lambeau
And then one of Vince Lombardi:
Then next thing you pass as you make your way to the lower entrance is a replica Lambeau Leap. In order to appeal to more tourists, you don’t actually leap to get on the wall, you kind of sit. But I suppose it’s safer for small children and uncoordinated adults. We didn’t try it, but here’s some random tourist who did
Then we walked through the gift shop to get into the place, where we were welcomed by a sign:
Since I bought tickets ahead of time (we are not driving all day just to hope they have tickets left) and the tickets are for a designated time, I planned to get there early so we wouldn’t miss the tour. We outperformed expectations and got there early, so we had some time to kill waiting in the large atrium area for the tour to start.
It was cloudy when we got there, but while we were waiting, a storm blew in. The atrium of the stadium was certainly a better place to watch the storm than a hotel room, and I was glad we weren’t driving in it. It was quite the storm – trees were bending over and trash cans were blowing across the plaza out front of the stadium.
It turns out there was a tornado.
But we didn’t know that then. Our tour started after the worst of the storm was past. We went through the atrium, over to some elevators, and went up to the suite area. The tour guide told us some facts about the Packers and about the stadium, then we went into a suite. Here he talked some more and I’m not doing the tour justice by just saying “the tour guide talked” because it was more interesting than that. But we got to sit in the seats that Packers alumni sit in when they are guests of the Packers.
Here are some tourists taking photos from the suite:
And here’s the guide talking:
Now comes the part of the tour I thought was the best part: the tunnel. This is what it looked like:
It would have been even better if it hadn’t been raining because then we would have been able to walk all the way through the tunnel and go onto the sideline. But because it was too wet (after all their talk of how well the field drains water) we were kept back.
Then one more stop with a view of the practice facility, and we were done. The guide then pointed out, almost as an afterthought, where the humongous Lombardi Trophy replica is kept. So we went to see that.
The thing was a few stories tall, and nice and shiny. Tamatoa would like it.
We finished up with another walk through the gift shop, because that was the closest door to our vehicle. The rain had picked back up by then, so I had the fatherly duty of running out to the van and driving it up next to the door for everyone else to minimize their exposure to water.
Back to the hotel, where we caught some HGTV and Food Network because the hotel pool was closed for cleaning. Then it was evening, and morning the next day.
Day 2
We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Standard stuff, which means it did its job but was not remarkable. Then we were off. There were some other sights we could have seen in Green Bay, but we had a long enough drive that we just wanted to get going.
Stopped for lunch in Chippewa Falls at Olson’s Ice Cream. If you find yourself in Chippewa Falls, it’s a good place to eat. Generous portions, good customer service.
Then more driving, with a rest stop or two before we got to the lake house. It’s Minnesota, so many houses are lake houses.
We didn’t have time to do much on the lake that night – we unpacked, had dinner, and visited with the relatives we hadn’t seen in a while.
To Be Continued…
I would hasten to my place of refuge From the stormy wind and tempest.
Psalm 55:8
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:05 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
