Day 1: December 20th, Friday
Miller Coors Brewery tour in Milwaukee; Cheesecake Factory for dinner
We set-out around 8am, headed in the general direction of Green Bay, Wisconsin. About two miles from home, we turned back because I’d forgotten my snow boots, sort of important. (I knew I’d make some airhead decisions as I’d tried washing my hair with bodywash that morning lol.) We stopped outside Chicago for lunch at a toll-road plaza–I got a slice of pizza and breadstick from Sbarro, which was healthier than all the other greasy fast-food options.
We ended up stopping in Milwaukee and toured the Miller Coors Brewery. It was interesting, but I liked the history of it more than the beer-related stuff since I’m not very partial to beer if any kind. But it was cool.
We found a hotel in Milwaukee for the night, then went out to dinner. While one thing I like to do on vacations is eat local, my traveling partners don’t care about that so much. Why eat Cheesecake Factory in Wisconsin when I can eat that in Ohio?! But that’s what we had. It was new, I’ve never had it before, so I was okay. I had Skinnylicious White Chicken Chili and a Strawberry Fruit Smoothie, loved both. Tried tiny bites of my compadres’ cheesecake and, while delicious, glad I didn’t cave into what I found out later was a 1250-calorie piece of dessert!! We played cards and swam in the hotel pool after dinner, but I was exhausted by 11, which was really midnight to me since we lost an hour in a time-zone switch.
Day 2: December 21st, Saturday
Harley-Davidson Museum and Motor Bar & Restaurant for lunch; Green Bay
Started off the day with a super bad breakfast: 3/4 of a Belgian waffle, two muffins, a donut, a hard-boiled egg, and a banana 😦
Then we went to the Harley-Davidson Museum, also in Milwaukee. I found it more interesting than I had thought I would. Though I’m still clueless as to how much of anything mechanical like motorcycles and automobiles work.
We ate lunch at Motor Bar & Restaurant, a Harley-Davidson place. Had some mediocre Broccoli Cheddar soup, but tried a bite of Nick’s buffalo chicken spiders and fries–those were great!!
We drove the rest of the way to Green Bay after that. It only took a couple of hours. We checked in at the hotel, full of Packer fans. Then an exploration was necessary. My father-in-law wanted to eat dinner at Brett Favre Steakhouse at like 3:30, but we managed to hold him off to about 4:45. Which was still early, but we were seated immediately, an oddity for game day eve. I had the steak kabobs, which were easily the best steak I’ve ever had. But I don’t eat steak that often, so I guess that’s not saying much.
We tried to go see the Green Bay Botanical Garden Christmas lights after dinner, but the admission line was astronomical. So we left, and decided on a whim to stop at the Packer Pro Shop at Lambeau Field on the way back to the hotel. Nick got a Matthews jersey. If I had to pick a favorite pro player, it’d be Matthews–he’s very nice to look at, despite his flowing locks (which I’m not keen on for any man). I just got a long sleeved tee. Oh, and a cheese wedge beverage holder 🙂
Day 3: December 22nd, Sunday (Game Day)
Green Bay Packers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
The morning was fairly uneventful. Breakfast in the hotel, playing some cards and watching TV to pass the time. Eventually we went to the Brett Favre Steakhouse tailgate party. Food was pretty good, I had a burger and a tiny bit of jambalaya–my jambalaya is better!! We were at the tailgate party at the beginning, so we had a good hour back at the hotel to chill before we went to the game.
Got to the stadium an hour before kickoff to go through what turned out to be the minimalist of security. And then we waited. Watched the stadium slowly fill until there were 77,999 people. (Which apparently is nothing compared to OSU’s stadium, which can hold 105,000.) We had pretty good seats, little over halfway up at the southwest corner. I did watch most of the game on the jumbo screen because there was a big guy sitting in front of me. It snowed lightly the entire game, dryer at the beginning. I could see the pretty snowflakes on my mittens 🙂
But, alas, the Packers lost, 31-38, to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But if our temporary quarterback Flynn hadn’t wasted so much time before the snap or slide around the field like a baseball player (so as to avoid a hit), we could’ve pulled it off.
Had snack foods for dinner after the game, since we didn’t want to wait forever if we went somewhere, or even try driving through the traffic. Played some more cards. But I’m okay with all the cards we played this weekend. It’s been awhile since I played euchre, and I’m still not sick of it.
Oh, we heard from my sister who was keeping an eye on our house, specifically the basement because we expected it to take on water due to lots of snow and rain. We had 2-3 inches of water in the entire basement by this evening. They had pumps going and I’m just very grateful that they spent so much time and effort to help keep our basement from getting entirely ruined while we were out of town.
Day 4: December 23rd, Monday
headed home
Breakfast at the hotel, left around 8:30 local time with a ETA of about 4:30 local time. Stopped around Kenosha for my mother-in-law to go to the Mars Cheese Castle for her Wisconsin cheese. We also ate lunch at Subway there. Back on the road, new ETA time of 5:30 😦 I just wanted to get home by that point. And we did get home by 6:00, to remnants of some water in the basement. But that’s for another day…
me...healthier 