Game on!

Game on! That is what Lisa's brother Paul kept saying while we were tailgating in the Kmart parking lot before the game last Sunday. Not to mention the double-fisted drinking, and the fact that he kept yelling, "Hey, it's the governor!" whenever a friend of his would stand in line at the porta-potty. He cracked himself up. The rest of us didn't have a clue. This is the same person who made fun of my "mukluk" hat and called me a "yooper" (I'm not going to explain, if you don't know what a Yooper is, it wouldn't mean much to you). Thing is, he and his sister are part Yooper.

Anyway, the trip to Green Bay started early. Like 6:30 early--that's when we left. Lisa was so excited she said she couldn't sleep--it was like Christmas. We gathered our tailgating gear (two coolers containing things like Boca brats, chicken brats, Spotted Cow beer, cheese curds, and other stuff), our ponchos, and our tickets and we took off.


Our Tickets--section 135, row 28.

We got to the Kmart parking lot and I said, "Where's Lambeau?" I think Paul said something along the line of "Over there dumbass." "Over there" was right next to the Kmart. How many other pro-football teams have a stadium next to a freakin' Kmart?

Oh, and tailgating. Lots of drinking at 9:00 am. The one thing we forgot was a bottle opener--luckily someone else had one. It was also lucky for the guys behind us grilling burgers in front of their car--they didn't have one either. And tailgating in Lambeau is real tailgating. We were fancy because we had a tent--it was raining. Usually it's just some lawn chairs, a cooler or two, a grill, and some beer. That is what most people did--I tried to take pictures, but I kept getting distracted. I took one right after we got there, but we were early, so just a few other people were there. I also tried to get a picture of the girl wearing green and gold short shorts with black tights and a tshirt or jersey or whatever. It was 40-some degrees out there and raining. And she was wearing shorts--with tights. I think she was wearing Ugg boots, too, because at one point we had a discussion about how much we hated Ugg boots--and that usually doesn't happen unless you see Ugg boots. Anyway, I couldn't get a picture of her without her knowing it.



Early tailgaters.


Lisa and I made our way to Lambeau and our entrance. Now the thing is, people in Wisconsin drink. A lot. All the time. And you can't take beverages into the stadium so they put dumpsters at each entrance. As we were shuffling and mooing our way to the Oneida entrance we saw a fairly constant stream of beer cans, bottles, and other beverage holders flying over the crowd to the dumpster.


Approaching Lambeau.


We found our seats just as the last players were running onto the field--our seats were in the south end zone, so we were right next to the Packers tunnel.


Al Harris running on to the field.


Lambeau: Much smaller than I thought. When Lambeau was renovated, they added some seats to the top, added some skyboxes, and changed the outside--but the bowl stayed the same. And you could tell. It was packed and intimate. And damn cool. It fluctuated from misty to almost raining the entire game--which made for a sloppy game.


Lambeau Field.


Wall of Fame.

The game: The defense won the game. I wanted to see Favre play before he retired. I did, but I saw more of the defense--and the defense was awe-some. There were some bad calls, especially the touchdown that was ruled out out of bounds--bullshit, he was out by contact. I miss Ryan Longwell, especially after seeing Crosby miss two field goals.


Brett Favre in action.


Game over--Packers win! Barely. It was awesome, and the "Go Pack Go" chant during the last few minutes of the game was the loudest thing I have ever heard. Cool.


Final score: 17-14.


We wandered Lambeau afterwards. Went through the Packers Pro Shop. I picked up a couple of things and looked all over for a small magnetic thingee for my car window, but no luck. Took pictures of Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi and off we went.

On that way back to the car Lisa and I were accosted by two very happy, drunk people yelling "Go Packers!" I think one of them tried to hug Lisa. He slapped me on the shoulder. We pretended not to see him.

The next morning as Lisa and I were recovering I said, "Ok, that was enough fun that I think I need to do this once a season." So next year? I'll be back. And the next year. And the next. It was just too damn much fun.