Memories of Green Bay

Whoever said that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth obviously hasn't been to Green Bay, Wisconsin! Perhaps I've arrived at this conclusion with a somewhat biased point of view, seeing as how Green Bay is home to my favorite team, the Packers. Feel free to keep that in mind while I tell you why this diehard Packers fan was in her happy place this past weekend.

For my 37th (gasp - late thirties!) birthday, my husband surprised me with a hotel reservation in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I actually don't know any other person that would be pleased to receive that as a gift, but I was ecstatic, as in heart racing, butterflies in my stomach ecstatic, with a small scream or two thrown in for good measure. Hotel rooms in Green Bay are notoriously hard to come by during the NFL season; in fact, our room was the last room available at this hotel - and this was almost 6 months ago.

We left Toronto early Friday morning. We drove away from our house with our daughter's weeping face pressed against the window, her mournful cries lingering in our ears, and with our youngest son's tears only recently dried. As cruel as we felt leaving them behind (they were staying with their grandparents, not alone or anything callous like that), we were giddy with freedom and anticipation!

Because there is no such thing as a direct flight to Green Bay from Toronto, we made a two hour stop in Detroit. With all that time to kill, we did some terminal hopping to find the only Starbucks in the whole airport. The coffee was good (of course) but the bagel was average (no toaster) and the chocolate muffin was thoroughly awful. But we were hungry... After another quick flight and another full plane (we didn't even get to sit together this time), we landed in our happy place.

Now, everyone has a very different idea of what their happy place is. You might have more than one happy place, or it might change over time. I think it's important to have a happy place or two. I have a photo taken of me several years ago. I'm sitting in a rented Mustang convertible, top down, of course (the car, not me), parked across the street from the beach in San Diego, with a Starbucks cup in hand. The caption reads "My happy place."

Well, I've discovered a new happy place and it's called Green Bay, Wisconsin, or perhaps more specifically, Lambeau Field. We took a Stadium tour the morning after we arrived and got to see parts of Lambeau that people never get to see on game day. We stood on the ground next to the playing field (we were explicitly directed by our tour guides not to stand on, touch, or lick the grass - actions they've had to deal with in the past) and I looked up at 73000 empty seats and heard the roar of the fighter jets as they practiced their game day flyover and I was in my happy place.

*As a side note, I've always thought that the Packers were named after cheese packers. Turns out the original players were a bunch of guys from a meat packing factory who had a habit of soundly defeating every team they played.

On Friday afternoon, we wandered past a fenced off parking area where a handful of fans were waiting. This is the area where the players and coaches come out after practice and it's a golden opportunity to score an autograph. It's hit and miss whether the players will stop for an autograph, but I did manage to score one from cornerback Tramon Williams. The players parking lot was a shining array of tricked-out, pimped-up, black-tinted Chevy Escalades, Land Rovers and Suburbans. Big shiny vehicles for big shiny football players.

It's game day...

Sitting in the lobby of our hotel, looking out the window to my right, I can see the top of the stadium, not even a ten minute walk away. Everywhere I look outside, there are people dressed in ridiculous green and yellow get-ups (but who's judging) and there are cars and RVs pulling into parking lots, setting up hibachis for a day of tailgating. The lobby is buzzing with excitement and I can't find even one person, myself included, who is not sporting team colors. There are a couple guys wearing visiting team colors who stand out like sore thumbs. I have yet to see an age or gender demographic not represented in the crowd, although there seem to be a disproportionate number of beer-bellied thirty and forty-something guys. Packer fans transcend these sorts of divisions.

It's a perfect day here in Green Bay - the sky is cloudless and a brilliant October blue. The grass is still a vibrant green, in keeping with team spirit. The leaves are just starting to turn, but green still dominates.

The tailgaters have arrived in full force and no effort has been spared. The smell of charcoal permeates the fall air along with the aromas of beer and chili, and it's not even lunch time. Walking past tables laden with every kind of snack food you can imagine is a feast for the eyes. Fans and their vehicles are completely decked out in every imaginable combination of green and yellow, and even some you didn't imagine. It's like the merchandise at the Pro Shop - if you can color it green and yellow and put the Packers G on it, they probably have. (In fact, they claim to have over 2000 unique emblemmed items). They call the Pro Shop Packer fan nirvana, and I have to agree. Some items, such as the Packer-themed crib mobile, the shower curtain and the ladies logo-ed underwear, are borderline silly. You could even buy a tiny glass enclosure housing a few actual blades of grass from their recent Superbowl win - maybe those wanting to lick the grass could just break the glass and have a go?... Some of my favorite items? The football chandelier, the chess/checkers game using miniature team helmets and all the variations on the famous cheesehead.

Time to head to the stadium for the main reason we've come to Green Bay - to watch the Packers hammer out a win on their home turf. The parties are still in full swing as we get closer to the stadium and it feels like a pilgrimage of sorts for us. Not all these fans have tickets to the game. Many are still trying to get a ticket as the minutes count down to kick-off, but no one is selling. We experience our first and only annoyance of the weekend as we join a tightly packed throng of bodies trying to get into the stadium. We've all got our precious tickets, but first we must get through our security scan, conducted by no more than half a dozen Green Bay police officers. Just to clarify - that's about 6 officers for the entire crowd, not per person. Needless to say, it took a long time to get in, but we found our seats with plenty of time to spare before kick-off.

We had fantastic seats, just a few rows up from the field on the goal line, on the visitors side of the field. For the first two hours of the game we had the sun shining directly in our faces, keeping us plenty warm. Part of the magic of Lambeau Field is their well-deserved, hard-earned nickname Frozen Tundra - it's a huge advantage over teams visiting from less-hardy parts of the country. We were thankful to come to a game at this time of year, when all we needed was a t-shirt and sunglasses, not parkas and thermal underwear.

I'm not going to give you a play-by-play of the game, partly because I couldn't do it justice, and partly because that's old news already (and this post is really, really long). There were numerous times throughout the game when I turned to Stefan and gushed, "I can't believe we're actually HERE!" Whether it was seeing the glint of the sun off the players' helmets, or watching Greg Jennings catch yet another touchdown pass, or cheering as Aaron Rodgers came just a few yards away from breaking Brett Favre's passing record, or feeling the roar of the crowd as we chanted, as one, "GO PACK GO!" - each experience defined this magical day.

Leaving Lambeau Field was bittersweet - the dream realized, but now over. I found myself turning my head often for one last look as we walked away from the stadium, easier said than done while walking through crowds of (mostly drunk) people. To know and have experienced the history and legend that are the Green Bay Packers and Lambeau Field is truly special. To have shared it all with someone who appreciates it as much as I do made the weekend perfect.