A journey to Packerland

Tuesday was the day David and I planned to visit Green Bay to see a Packers practice. But after the Pack made it a closed practice, there wasn't much sense in leaving at 6 a.m. to see the start of a 9 a.m. practice that would be closed to us mere mortals. So we took the normal amount of sleep and left a little after 8 a.m.

We reached Green Bay at about 11. The trip was mostly about shopping--David had written down a list of places he wanted to get to, so we made the rounds. Hobby Lobby. Best Buy. Barnes & Noble. A video game/DVD exchange place.

But the featured stop was Lambeau Field, home of the Packers. Yeah, the Pack closed their practice to us, but we had to stop by and get some Packer stuff, anyway.

Here's the recently expanded Lambeau Field entrance, including atrium.


This one shows David taking a picture of a plaque outside Lambeau Field, under the stern gaze of a statue of Vince Lombardi, who has always been much larger than life among Packer fans ...


We went inside the atrium, and though much of it was blocked off, we took an escalator to the second floor and looked around at a variety of shops and entertainment areas, all of which seem designed to separate you from your money as quickly as possible. Kids games, too--you have to swipe a card to play. Get the idea?

Ironically, here is one of the games I saw in the kids area. Huh?

Actually, they did have an outdoor college hockey game at Lambeau Field last winter.

But the big money-maker is the Packer Pro Shop, where you can buy uniforms and souvenirs with the Packer logo on them. And more. Much, much, much more. I have always believed that people up here are so goofy about the Packers (yes, including us in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) that they will buy anything with a Packer logo on it. Over the years, I have not seen much to persuade me otherwise.

Here's just a part of the men's department ...


Uniforms, sweatshirts, T-shirts, pajamas, polo shirts, golf shirts (costing in three figures!). You name it, they've got it. And endless varieties, too.

And they have a women's department, as well, geared slightly more towards casual wear. They've got just about everything you could imagine ...


Everything, I say ...

If you can see, the price for these babies is $9.95. They cost $8.95 the last time I visited, in 2004. (Yes, I got a picture then too.) But they were white--not the team colors.

In fact, the Packer Pro Shiop has stuff for all ages. How young?

Please note that this is the official NFL product, complete with NFL hologram. Nope, these aren't those counterfeit pacifiers you may have read about. (Maybe in a few years we'll see walkers for the elderly, proudly emblazoned with the big G logo.)

We were in Green Bay about eight hours. Some of David's stops, particularly the videogame/DVD place, were very long. It was his big trip, and I didn't want to rush him. Eventually, though, even he got tired, so we stopped at a McDonald's for a bite to eat before the three-hour drive home.

This McDonald's has a retro sign in front ...

I have included this photo here for sentimental reasons.

This is the same McDonald's I've been seeing since back when my mom and dad were driving "up north," on weekend trips from our home in the Milwaukee suburbs to visit my grandparents (both sets) in the Iron Mountain area.

As I told David, that was even before the expressway around the city was built, and we had to take city streets right past the Packers' field (then known as City Stadium) on our way north. Back then, McDonald's was counting hamburgers sold in the 10s of millions. I can remember 30 ... 40 ... 50 ... the number changing over the months and years. Then 100. Then 200 ...

Our family made many weekend trips up north. Sometimes it seemed like we'd be going up there every other week. But we all enjoyed it up there, so that is why. When my mom got pregnant with their second child (I was the first), they realized they couldn't afford to stay on my grandfather's farm. They reluctantly moved down to Milwaukee. But their hearts were always back home.

I even remember some of the places we'd stop at along the way. The big truck stop near Oshkosh. John Nero's restaurant in Green Bay. A bar (forgot the name) about 10 miles from our destination where my dad would get a beer. Then the final few miles, through Iron Mountain and then the dirt roads leading to my grandparents' place. We'd get there about 11 p.m., after they were asleep. We'd get there, and soon I was lying on the living room couch, watching the slow flashing of the red beacon on the radio antenna atop the mountain nearby. And that was the last thing I would see before falling asleep.

Huh? Oh, yeah. Excuse my sudden journey back nearly 50 years in time. Just memories. Back to the present.

I made some unexpected decisions during my trip. At the Barnes & Noble, I was looking at a book about Photoshop--the king of photo software, costing much more than I can affod. Then looked at a book about Photoshop Elements 4.0, which is a lot less expensive. I wound up buying the book--and the software.

Here's how it is. I've decided that I want to learn more about working with digital photos. I want to get better at it than I am now. I also want to get better with photography in general. I'm OK now, but I want to get better. To that end, I'm thinking very hard about investing in a new camera.

I know I can't afford a digital SLR. Whenever the time comes, I'll have to keep it under $500 for everything. But I've been looking around, and I think I'll be able to get something pretty good for that price.

I've done OK with the camera I have now. But I think in a few more months, I'll be ready for a better model.