For Christmas this year, rather than returning to my hometown in Minneapolis, MN, my family went to my sister's house in Green Bay. The sole reason behind this move was that my little sister and her husband purchased Packer tickets for themselves, my dad, and me for their game on Christmas Day. They are pretty big sports fans, and love going to live events, sporting or otherwise.
In the past few years, they've brought me to a Badgers game, and a Twins game. The Badgers game had a huge amount of fans, but no drinking at all. The Twins game had plenty of drinking, but didn't really have the same level of fandom that Wisconsin brings to its game. The Packers game had both. There was massive amounts of drinking, and an incredible level of fandom. I'm not really into football that much, and I'm even less into the Packers, but it's hard not to get into the game and root for the home team when you're completed immersed.
I took some pictures.
The game took place at 7:20pm on Sunday. And with following day being a paid holiday time for most people, it was basically another Saturday night! Drink drink drink without the responsibility of having to work in the morning.
We were dropped off at Holmgreen Way, and walked the next block or two to Lambeau Field. All the surrounding bars had tents and canopies occupying their parking lots filled with people. The sidewalks were lined with street vendors peddling cheap Packers apparel and memorablia.
The parking lot of Lambeau had a huge wooden building called, "The Tailgate Zone"
People crowded around the outside of the building, as well as the inside. We hung around the outside, and got a few drinks. Their Bloody Mary's were pretty good, but lacked the flair of the vegetable condiments.
After an hour of hanging out, we used our tickets and entered the Oneida entrance on the east end of the building. Inside we went into the Atrium, and visited the Pro Shop. The Pro Shop was two levels filled with every piece of available Packers memoriablia and merchandise. Packers this, Packers that. Golf balls, license plate covers, toaster ovens, folding chairs, BBQ sauce, cookbooks, etc, etc...
We had another beer at Curly's Pub, then headed to our seats. Our seats were Section 127, Row 30. We were right above the visitor's goal, off to the side.
Most of the action was happening on the other end of the field, though. I thought it'd be pretty hilarious if they lost, but after the crowd continued to erupt in cheers and support for the Packers whenever they did well, it was far more entertaining and fun cheering on the Packers as they defeated the Bears. The final score was 35 to 18, which made the Packers 13 and 1 for season thus far, having only lost the previous week.
The freebee of the night was a very cheaply made Packers stocking cap. It's a pretty good momento of the evening. I really didn't need to buy some random Packers crap from the gift shop, but a cute winter (or Christmas) hat to commerate the evening seemed quite perfect.
It was a fantastic time :) And a great Christmas gift.
