Green Bay

John was working in Green Bay this week, and while up there, he found out they were having their office summer party on Wednesday, a luau at the Bay Beach Amusement Park. He invited us to come up and join him, and we did.

Meghan was at girl’s camp, so it was just the two younger kids and me. It took about two hours to drive up there, and we checked in and took our stuff up to John’s room and waited for him to get back from the office.

After he changed, we headed over to the park, stopping on the way to check out Lambeau Field. The kids and I got out to take some pictures. 

See the big group by the doors? Tour group. Many of them are dressed in Packers finery.

The Bay Beach Amusement Park is a small park with mostly little kids rides, bumper cars, a train, a tilt-a-whirl, big swings, a big slide, etc., and a roller coaster that had been bought from other larger parks. The rides each had a little sign telling about the history of the ride. Each ride was one or two tickets, except the roller coaster, which was four. As part of the company party, we each had eight tickets, and one of John's co-workers gave us her and her husband's tickets, so we had plenty for everyone. 

Sam, John and Ruby with Green Bay in the background.

 They had a nice dinner, including a full roasted pig and side dishes. We had a nice time meeting John's co-workers and chatting with the boss. Everyone was very friendly. After we ate, we rode some rides. We started with the train and worked our way around from there. Ruby was kind of skittish and didn't want to do anything she considered dangerous.

Except the roller coaster. She was on board for that one! It was once a part of Libertyland, and one of Elvis Presley's favorite rides. The wood is all new, but the coaster is still rickety and scary as all get out. I'm pretty sure I got whiplash at one point, and my glasses almost flew off.

The Zippin Pippin.

A good time was had by all, and while we were pretty tired, we still had enough energy to go out for ice cream! You just can't have a day at an amusement park and NOT have ice cream!

The next morning it was pouring straight down, and the kids and I decided to take it easy, have a leisurely breakfast and wait for the rain to pass before we headed for home.

On the way out of town, the kids and I thought we'd swing by Lambeau Field again and get a picture of everyone tailgating. Unfortunately, we got there around 11:30, and the parking lot didn't open until 3:00. Ah well. There were people at the houses around the stadium who were setting up in their yards, so I'm pretty certain that if the parking lot had been open, there would be a party going on! We did get this nice picture of the front on opening day.

Lambeau Field, Opening Day 2012.

Our route home took us though Oshkosh, WI, which is a big outlet center. We stopped at the American Girl Outlet and bought a couple of things for Ruby's doll. We also popped in to a couple of other stores to look for some deals on school clothes. The Levi's store had lots of shorts in Sam's size, and I started to grab a bunch, then I realized that here shorts aren't really school clothes, since it won't be long before fall arrives and it will be too cold for shorts! I did get a couple of pairs, though, and a couple of shirts.

On our way home, we heard from John that he had gotten a call from the hotel mentioning that he was supposed to check out, but his clothes were still in the room. He had originally planned to check out Thursday, but had forgotten to change his reservation. Alas, it was the Packers' home opener, and they did not have a spare room for him, so he had to go get his things and check out.

On the upside, he got to come home a day early!