Barry had made his list (and checked it twice) in preparation for our morning pilgrimage to West Marine. It was just out of town and on our way to Green Bay. He filled up the back seat of the rental car with hose, hose clamps, four gallons of oil, and miscellaneous other project pieces and parts. Our ultimate destination of Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, was a short 40-minute drive away. We passed more picturesque roadside barns ... and one crazy gnome.
Upon exiting the highway, we saw the overpass was adorned with the Packers logo. We were getting close. A statue of Vince Lombardi stood outside the beautiful atrium which houses the Packers Hall of Fame, team store, and offices. We entered, picked up our tickets at will call, and began with the self-guided tour of the Hall by sliding into the back row of an introductory video. Our view of Packer history was akin to Mystery Science Theater. Memorabilia, awards, and interactive displays were everywhere, going all the way back to the team's humble beginning in 1919. The area was nicely laid out and not a corner of space was wasted. Quotes from Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi graced the areas over the doorways.
The largest areas were devoted to recognizing former Packers who are in the NFL Hall of Fame (25) and to the roughly 160 members of the Packers Hall of Fame. Each member of the Packers' Hall is identified by a personalized football. I located the ball of Don Majkowski, who preceded Brett Favre at quarterback, but was also a three-year starter for UVA when I was a student there. The hometown Cavalier is the reason I began following the Packers way back when.
As expected, much space was set aside to recognize Favre and the team's 13 NFL championships. There is even a three-story replica of the Lombardi Trophy in the entranceway. From the Hall we ended up in the massive team store where you can find the team logo on any item imaginable and purchase cheeseheads by the truckload if so desired. Our tour time of 1:00 finally arrived and we started at the top of the stadium and worked our way down. The "G" logo was everywhere, including on each fence panel encircling the concourse.
The stadium is constructed in a bowl and there is not a bad seat in the house. The natural grass playing field was replaced during the past offseason and has come in nicely. The Packers have played two pre-season games here earlier in the month, but will not play at home again until the September 9 opener against the Chicago Bears. The goal posts will be installed and the field painted closer to gameday. Our two-hour tour ended back in the atrium and my final stop was to visit the Lambeau Leap "interactive" statue just outside the doors. Lucky for me, the wall height is about half the height of the one on the field and only required a small hop instead of a true leap.
On our way back to the marina, we decided to stop at a local cheese shop to pick up some cheese curds. (When in Wisconsin ... ) They had sold out for the day and we left empty handed, but not broken hearted. The walk back to our slip was totally different experience than the one last night. Light winds, blue sky, and calm water were all good signs. We will leave early in the morning, passing through the two draw bridges shown below, to enter back into Lake Michigan and continue south.
We have a long day on the water to reach our next destination of Manitowoc, where we'll await the arrival of another predicted storm on Friday, again bringing high wind and waves to the temperamental Lake Michigan.
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