Jersey does Titletown

Mom and Dad came out to visit us for a long weekend at the end of September.  We had a busy and fun weekend that included a Packers tailgate, antiquing and cheese shopping, day trip to Door County parks and shops including brunch at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant, a tour of the UW-Green Bay campus, a visit to the Green Bay Botanical Garden, and a trip to Shawano County (pronounced SHAWN oh), the barn quilt capital of Wisconsin, for sightseeing and the Sunday flea market and car show.  And no visit is complete without a trip to Culver's for lunch and ice cream.  We also had to work in a traditional Wisconsin Friday night fish fry dinner, and none other than Jordy Nelson walks in with his family and is seated right behind us.  Awesome!  The dinner got even more fun when a lady at a table across from us bet me $5 that I couldn't finish the meatloaf dinner I ordered, so I looked up and told her, "you're on!"  I did finish my dinner and she insisted on giving me the $5 to make good on the deal.  I paid it forward and bought a tin of boy scout popcorn at our next shopping stop.  Always a lot of fun to show Mom and Dad a good time in Titletown!

Go Pack Go!  High rollers tailgating at Lambeau- we left just before the game started and made it back home in time to watch on TV as everyone got evacuated out of the bowl for a thunderstorm.

Late season at the Green Bay Botanical Garden 

Views of Lake Michigan from Cave Point County Park, Door County 

Onward Phoenix!

I have neglected the blog again.  It's been a very busy spring this year, including some travel (2x) back to the east coast for the first time since the holidays for a family visit at the Jersey shore and a trip to Maryland for Scott's friend's wedding. And probably the biggest piece of news is that I have a new job!  I started in mid-June as a research specialist at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (Go Phoenix!).  I am coordinating several fish and wildlife habitat restoration projects in the Bay of Green Bay, which I will share more about when I have more details and cool photos.  These projects will get me back out into "the field" (i.e., what we conservation people call outside) more often, but it will be more like knee (or waist) deep in the bay and also driving a boat.  Awesome!  I also get to work with many of the same people from my previous jobs and I had a short stint at the university about a year ago as an instructor, so at least everything isn't completely new.  Very excited to have work in my area of expertise and to be back in the university setting, but needless to say it has been an adjustment back into the full time work force and trying to keep up with summer activities, classes at the gym, gardening, and keeping Teddy busy!

In May, I had the change to welcome my first visitor to WI besides my parents!  My college friend Rosie flew out to visit for Memorial Day weekend.  We had a great time touring Lambeau Field, visiting one of the largest dairy farms in WI (thanks to Rosie's dairy connections!), and auto touring/lighthouse touring/wine tasting the Lake Michigan shoreline.  We even stopped at a winery we had not been to yet called Cold Country Vines & Wines in Kewaunee- it was great and we will definitely be back!  It was wonderful to catch up with Rosie, and to "share" Wisconsin with her.  We pretty much covered it: dairy farming, cheese and wine tasting, microbreweries, lakeshore, lighthouses, and even lunch at Culver's (can't miss that!).  Whew!  Now that we have been here for just shy of 3 years, we know enough to be half decent tour guides.  Book your trip today, great rates (i.e., free) and we have lots of openings in the schedule (....as in no bookings until Mom and Dad come back out in late summer).  Thanks for visiting, Rosie!

 Nice off-season afternoon at Lambeau

Nittany Lions experience the Lambeau Leap!

Point Beach was early season chilly, but beautiful! 

Wine tasting at von Stiehl Winery in Algoma

This spring has been very rainy and, early on, it was pretty cool. We planted the garden during the last few days of May once the frost danger ended, and have only had to water a couple of times since due to all the storms and rain over the last month.  Nearly all of the plants seem to be doing great, and we really have a handle this year on the weed management and garden plot set up (thanks to my UW-Extension gardening courses!).  This year we have: onions, lettuce, kale, redskin potatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, winter and summer squash, tomatoes, and peas.  So far, so good!  It should be about another month before we have veggies.  So hard to be patient!

Early stages of the garden- mid-June

Also looking forward to getting to some Bullfrogs baseball games soon- we haven't made it out yet, but hopefully schedules will settle in here and the excessive rain will stop...and we can get in some nice evenings at the ballpark.

Garden State does Badger State

Mom and Dad came out for a visit for the last week of August.  I had a great time doing touristy things with them- ate Friday night Fish Fry at Leatherhead Brewing Company, toured the Packers Hall of Fame, and even a frigid dip in Lake Michigan at Neshotah Beach!  We had really nice weather for most of the visit; a stop at the Packers Hall of Fame and dinner at Titletown Brewing Company served as a great rainy day activity on the one day that was not as nice.  Unfortunately Scott was in Nebraska for a work trip for part of the time, but he was able to join us for some fun in Door County.

We both took the day off from work and spent Mom's birthday up in Door County, the thumb of Wisconsin, beginning with Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant for brunch, followed by an auto tour of Peninsula State Park, including a stop at Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, and finished the day with a sunset boat cruise/tour of Green Bay with Fish Creek Scenic Boat Tours. The tour was fantastic with the guide playing live music on his guitar, an easy breeze, beer in hand, and a beautiful sunset.

Mom and Dad did some sightseeing up in Door County while Scott and I headed back to work for a couple of days.  They were busy with wine tasting, farm stand shopping, and taking the car ferry out to Washington Island to check out the famous Schoolhouse Beach.  Then, they stopped back in Green Bay for one more night so we could enjoy dinner and a walk at the Green Bay Botanical Garden.  It was a very full trip, but everyone had a good time!  Thanks to Mom and Dad for making the trip.

Neshotah Beach, Two Rivers- voted the best beach in Wisconsin.  Dad and I got in- the water was about 68 degrees! 

 Packers Hall of Fame was just recently renovated- looks great!

Cave Point County Park

 Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Peninsula State Park, from the sunset cruise

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Beautiful sunsets on Green Bay

                    

Thanks to Mom for sharing many of the photos, and Scott for his usual photographic contributions.

Summer games and gardens

The last few weeks have been pretty busy with evening activities.  We went to several Green Bay Bullfrogs collegiate league baseball games, and even got to play a game on the field (the hole-in-one challenge!) during an inning change.  Scott actually got one of his shots in so we didn't look too bad! The games often have good food and drink specials, so its always nice to enjoy a beer at the ballpark.  Unfortunately the players are back to school so the season is over until next year.

Let's go Frogs!

We also were able to score some tickets to a pre-season Packers game against the Oakland Raiders (thanks, Steve!).  Tickets for regular games are pretty hard to come by, so we jump at the chance to go for a warmer (and cheaper) pre-season game.  The third string of both teams played all night, but it was still a fun game and a nice night at the stadium.  Plus, the Packers won 20-12!  We also got to see Matt McGloin (a former PSU quarterback) in as quarterback for the Raiders, which was pretty cool.

Go Pack GO!

We also stopped in to the Green Bay Botanical Garden for free community night on Wednesdays. The season for many blooms is coming to a close, but the garden does not disappoint and offers great photo opportunities in the evening!

Speaking of gardens, our garden is doing pretty well.  We harvested the potatoes and onions, so watering takes a little less time.  We have been eating lots of tomatoes and squash, and a few peppers and cucumbers.  Scott also pickled some cucumbers including a few of our own (we had to supplement the stock at the store). Some of the plants didn't do as well as we had hoped (see first eggplant below), but we have ideas for next time!  And I have two of my own pumpkins coming for fall!

 Eggplant, with some tomatoes

 Pumpkin will be ready soon!

Fall planting of sugar snap peas is coming along

Another lesson learned:  Do not plant yellow squash and cucumbers next to each other.  They hybridize with each other (but still taste pretty good)!

Cucumber on the bottom, squcumber on top

Happy New Year 2016

The last couple of months have been a blur.  My three jobs kept me busy for most waking hours of each day, leaving little time for thinking, blog writing, or interesting adventures.  Many of the weekends in December were rainy, so our normal routine involved Christmas shopping and beer tasting.  We did get the chance for a very quick Thanksgiving visit to western PA, and then a Christmas/New Year trip to visit family and friends over the holidays- over 2,100 miles, more than 30 hours in the car, spent the night at 4 different houses in 3 different states (thanks to our hosts!).  We had a nice time visiting despite travel fatigue and jet lag (that 1 hour makes quite a difference).  We had nearly 70 degree weather on Christmas in New Jersey, but returned to 13 inches of snow on the ground in Green Bay.  Thank goodness for a nice neighbor with a snowblower.  The Frozen Tundra might have been a little late this year, but its back.  Next week the highs will be in the single digits.  5 degrees is not acceptable as a high temperature!

 Getting pretty good at riding in the car!

Before we headed out for Christmas, we revisited the WPS Garden of Lights at the Green Bay Botanical Garden.  The garden is open on weekends leading up to Christmas, many of which were rainy and mild, so it was hard to believe Christmas was on the way.  Clearly a lot of work goes into setting up all the displays, but it makes the garden nice and festive and draws quite the crowd.

Garden of Lights, Green Bay Botanical Garden 2015

 

We also had the chance to attend a Green Bay Gamblers hockey game at the Resch Center (across the street from Lambeau Field) with some of our DNR co-workers.  We all had a quick dinner at Stadium Bar and walked across the street for the game.  The Gamblers are supported by the Menominee Casino Resort, hence the team name.  It was a lot of fun and reminded me of the college games we used to attend.  Forgot to take photos though!

 Wishing you all the best in 2016!

Dog days of summer

Well, the dog days of summer are here.  The meteorologist recently confirmed that July 10-25 is typically the warmest period of the year (mid-80s) before we start gradually cooling off to head back in the other direction.  Things have been a little slower for us as far as blog material due to some travel for Scott (work and home to visit) and since we are in the process of moving again (ugh!).  We are renting a duplex house about half a mile from our apartment, so we are slowly but surely moving into the house this month while the two places overlap.  We will have a two car garage and some extra storage space, which will hopefully make things a little easier once we get all the moving stuff out of the way. 

Needless to say, I have some catching up to....

While Scott was away in late June, I had to take advantage of the beautiful weather with a repeat bike ride down at Point Beach State Forest on the Rawley Point Trail (i.e., the flatlander's mountain bike trail).  Sunny, 75 degrees, Lake Mich, and no mosquitoes when in motion = a nice afternoon. 

Bike ride on Rawley Point Trail at Point Beach State Forest

...to Two Rivers public beach.

We also spent our first 4th of July in Green Bay.  I was amazed at how many folks were setting off their own fireworks, despite the fact that it is illegal to do so in the city without a permit.  We decided to check out Fire on the Fox, the fireworks display downtown on the river.  Even while we were walking toward the show, people were setting real fireworks off in the streets- and are still setting them off a week later!  Fire on the Fox takes place from a barge in the river, so we didn't exactly know where would be the best location to show up at the last minute to watch the show without too much of a crowd.  We parked on a side street and walked toward downtown, and ended up stopping in front of a laundromat where people were gathering.  We had a pretty good view.

 Fire on the Fox (River), 4th of July

What would summer be without baseball?  We also caught a couple of Green Bay Bullfrogs games, as part of the Northwoods Collegiate League that plays from Memorial Day to early August in the Upper Midwest.  The games and entertainment are a lot of fun, and their ballpark food is pretty good (we enjoyed the Wisco Special- two brats, two ears of corn, two beers, and an order of fried cheese curds). Scott even caught one of the balls thrown into the crowd to win a free pizza the other night. 

 Green Bay Bullfrogs Northwoods Collegiate League Game

A concert at Lambeau

When I heard country artist Kenny Chesney was coming to play Lambeau Field about 6 months ago, I really wanted to go.  Tickets were very hard to get (and very expensive) so, not surprisingly, they sold out right away after they went on sale.  Randomly, I was online about a month ago looking for something else and came across tickets for sale from Ticketmaster.  Despite the cost, I decided to splurge for it since concerts at Lambeau Field are pretty rare.  I can see why now!

We drove to our "usual" (free) parking spot in a nearby neighborhood and walked the rest of the way to Lambeau.  The weather report was not looking good for the afternoon and evening, so we brought out rain jackets.  It never rained.

We entered the stadium at about 4:30 and the first performance had already started by the time we sat down, so that was a bit confusing since it wasn't supposed to start until 5 PM.  Between the 3 opening acts (for the country music fans out there- Brantley Gilbert, Cole Swindell, and Old Dominion) plus Jason Aldean as the other headliner and all the set changes in between, the concert ended up lasting well over 6 hours.  People were stumbling into the stadium after tailgating beforehand, and a lot of them just got rowdier and rowdier as the concert progressed and they continued to drink (how do they afford more than one $8-10 Lambeau beer?).  By the time it got dark and Kenny came on at almost 9:20, everyone was pretty fired up!  The crowd stood the entire time for both Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney, so the folks that rented the padded seats were out of luck (Lambeau only has bleachers without backs).

The weather worked out in our favor and there were only a few minor annoyances from the rowdy fans around us.  The Green Bay Press Gazette reported that more people were ejected from the stadium and arrested during the concert than during a regular Packers game (read the article here).  The police and medics had a very busy night, and the stage equipment wrecked the field yet again, just as it did when Kenny last played here in 2011.

Good thing we went to a concert at Lambeau just in case it never happens again!  It was a long night, but a great experience.

 

About 53,000 packing the stands (including those dedicated? folks on the floor that stood the entire time!)

 Jason Aldean fired up the crowd for an hour and a half (and then came back out with Kenny at the end)

Kenny finally came on after dark- cell phones nowadays instead of lighters

Go Pack Go!

The Green Bay Packers NFL football team has a number of characteristics worth noting (pronounced in Wisco vernacular as greenbay as opposed to the easterner tendency of GREEN bay).  Back in the day, I too was sucked in to Green Bay fandom without realizing it.  Some say it may have been the green and gold (which later became my high school colors), others say that G in the logo reminded me of my native Glassboro, NJ.  Guess we'll never know....but I really wish I still had that Starter jacket right about now.

Me and my brother Steve, Christmas 1997

Anyway, here are 5 things you should know (and I just recently learned) about the Green Bay Packers (GBP):

1.  GBP are one of the oldest teams in the NFL (est. 1919).

2.  Green Bay is the smallest city in the US with an NFL team (pop. ~104,000).  

3.  GBP are the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States.  Yes, that's right.  The fans who buy season tickets are partial shareholders in the team (hence, the GBP are The People's Team).  Training camp is open to the public, and the team has contributed to the building of a number of parks and community structures around town (including a playground at the Sanctuary I wrote about earlier).

4.  Historic Lambeau Field (aptly located at 1265 Lombardi Avenue, named after legendary Coach Vince Lombardi) opened in 1957 at it's present location under the name "City Stadium" after a move from the downtown location near the current site of East High School.  Lambeau currently holds 80,735 fans- which is the largest venue in the State of Wisconsin and second largest NFL stadium in the US (#1 is MetLife Stadium in the great State of New Jersey with 82,566 seats, home of the NY Jets and Giants).

5. GBP have won 13 league championships (more than any other team in the NFL).  Hence, the nickname for Green Bay...Titletown.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited when I scored some free tickets to a pre-season game after only a few days in town.  I was in our new State Farm agent's office to get policies moved over and we were talking football.  I told her I was no stranger to college football, but I had never been to an NFL game.  She said, "Would you like to go to a Packers game?"  Um, yeah, of course!  She promptly went to her car and brought in a pair of season tickets for the August 28th game against the Kansas City Chiefs!  She said she would be out-of-town during the game and would like us to use her tickets.  The only rule?  Don't get kicked out of the stadium, because a season ticket holder will be banned for life for misbehavior!  Apparently they don't mess around.

As the day approached, I was disappointed to learn that we were expecting rain for the Thursday evening game, and pretty heavy storms at that.  The game started at 6 PM CST, so that at least gave us the chance to get part of the game in before the heavy rain was expected.

We decided to drive toward the Lambeau Field and park in a residential neighborhood to walk the rest of the way.  Our idea ended up working perfectly- easy in, easy out.  As we walked, homeowners were standing out in their driveways with flags and signs for parking in their driveways and on their front lawns.  It was funny to see the neighborly competition, and of course the parking fees increased as we reached the field ($8, 10, 15).  We found our seats easily in the corner end zone about halfway up.  From inside, Lambeau looks a lot like the Beaver Stadium bowl in State College (complete with bleacher benches rather than seats), except only one upper level of seats at Lambeau.  They make up for this with the huge number of multi-level boxes around the other upper level of the stadium.

Most of the attendees were families and older folks, so it was a really friendly atmosphere (not what I imagined for an NFL game).  A number of local people participated in the game- from carrying the water jug out to the bench (it was empty), to waving the flag on the field to welcome the team, to delivering the game ball, to running out to grab the tee after the first kickoff.  The Star-Spangled Banner was complete with fireworks.  We even did the polka to celebrate Wisconsin heritage after the third quarter (made me think of the Hokie Pokie at VT).  They actually had signs posted all over saying that you could report misconduct issues via text message, so they must do a good job of keeping everyone on their best behavior.  Granted, it was "only" a pre-season game.  I have heard the strongest rivalries are with our neighbors the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears (da Bears).

The weather even held out for us!  It rained for about 10-15 minutes at the end of the third quarter, and then promptly stopped again until much later in the night.  It turned out to be a really nice night- we definitely lucked out.  To top it off, Green Bay won the game (34-14) and I got to see former Penn Staters Andrew Quarless (Packers) and Tamba Hali (Chiefs) on the field.  Looks like we found another college town with a football problem.  Go Pack GO!

P.S.- Happy Birthday, Mom!

"First" impressions

First impressions can be telling.  I say "first" because I have actually been to Wisconsin a handful of times (1 cross country road trip with the family, 2 Wildlife Society conferences, and a job interview), which is rather surprising since it's not exactly on the way to anything, nor is it adjacent to the states I have frequented for my 30 years.  Not to mention, the University of Wisconsin Badgers are a great rival of my Penn State Nittany Lions...

Hating on U of Wisconsin @ PSU, circa 2004

So after 3 weeks in WI (nearly one of which was in WY, to be fair), here are my first impressions. Disclaimer: I am seriously generalizing (and perhaps exaggerating) a little here.



1.  They like to drive fast on rough roads.

I was wondering how the driving scene might unfold.  I learned to drive in a high density, aggressive atmosphere.  There was no room for mistakes as a new driver, and people were not afraid to tell you did something wrong (or just simply ticked them off for some unapparent reason).  I also have experience driving in some really rural areas in Pennsylvania and Virginia.  Green Bay has a population of ~100,000 plus a few surrounding villages that function as mini suburbs (e.g., we live in Howard, pop. ~18,000).  It's not a very large city (in fact, the smallest city with an NFL football team- more to come on that later).  The surrounding area is largely rural farmland.  I was interested to see how WI drivers took to their roads.

Surprisingly, they drive really fast.  Not aggressively, like NJ drivers.  They just want to move fast- 55 MPH means about 70.  35 means about 50.  I am not a slow driver, but they are blowing around me leaving me in the dust (my VA license plates probably do not help in this situation).  This becomes an even greater feat when you realize how badly the roads are impacted by winter (I am assuming).  The roads in Green Bay are full of cracks, potholes, and craters, but they just blow right over them.  Not to mention, there are no vehicle inspections in the state, so many vehicles are completely rusted out (again, from winter, I am assuming) and falling apart.  This (presumably) winter wear and tear doesn't bode well for my 18 month old car...at least it will be garage-kept now!


2.  They love their Green Bay Packers and Friday Night Fish Fry.

I knew this in advance, of course, but I like it.  I can identify with loving your team and LIVING it in your daily life.  Walmart is full of GBP t-shirt-wearing people (and a whole room of merchandise, should you need to add to your collection), cars are stickered and license-plated out, kids have GBP backpacks and sneakers...and its only July.  In fact, you have an up-close-and-personal view of Lambeau Field from the city's shopping mall.  It doesn't matter what month of the year it is, or whether it's football season or not, you love your team, win or lose.  I can relate to that, and since I am NFL-unaffiliated, I am happy to jump on the bandwagon (more to come on this!).  I might even get to bring some high school colors back out again since green and yellow clothing is suddenly "in" again (Go Pioneers!).

And who could resist a Friday Night Fish Fry at Titletown Brewing Company on the Fox River while watching the Milwaukee Brewers game?

Delicious perch fish fry platter at Titletown Brewing Co., Green Bay

3.  It's all about beer, cheese, and processed meats.

I have never seen anything like it.  The grocery stores have a whole aisles and sometimes whole sections dedicated to these three food/beverage groups.  You have hundreds of choices of cheese, produced right here in Wisconsin.  Would you like, shredded, block, string, flavored curds, sliced, cubed....you name it, they got it.  Buffalo cheese curds?  Black pepper shallot garlic?  Absolutely.  Don't you dare pick up that "ordinary" Kraft or Sargento.  By the way, if you don't know what a cheese curd is (you should, shame on you), it is chunks of extremely fresh cheese.  When you eat a good curd, it's supposed to squeak against your teeth (true story, oddly interesting).  In addition to the diverse cheese selection, we can also get Wisconsin cream cheese, sour cream, butter, and milk.

The processed meat selection is amazing- hundreds of brands and flavors of gourmet hot dogs, bratwursts, summer sausages, etc.  During one trip, I bought mushroom swiss bratwurst patties.  I just had to try them (they were really good on the grill!).  I haven't been to McDonalds yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they serve a bratwurst sandwich and/or fried cheese curds!

Beer deserves its own blog sometime in the future, but needless to say, a number of varieties and brands are produced right here.  I even had a Leine's (Leinenkugel for us Easterners) ON TAP at a baseball game!  At least 5 microbreweries right here in Green Bay, so we have a lot of work to do.  Not to mention, we also have a couple wineries on the list to check out.

The processed meats aisle at Piggly Wiggly

4.  That accent.  Don't cha know?

I haven't mastered my authentic imitation yet (I'm working on it), but it's definitely distinct.  A little Fargo (the movie), a little Canadian, lots of high inflection.  I was telling someone the other day that it always sounds like Upper Midwesterners are quite chipper, despite what they might be saying to you.  The "oooh" sound is drawn out and inflected up.  E.g., "Minnesoooohta, toooh.  Don't cha know?"  I don't think it's hard to understand, but I have noticed less comprehension of OUR "accent" so far (Scott claims we do not have an accent, and the people here say we do).  Not sure how this dialect will mesh with my Yankee Southern dialect....(Scott doesn't have an accent, remember?).

Wikipedia (weak source, I know) has an enlightening and very confusing description of Upper Midwest American English.


5.  Tons of farm fresh produce.

Wisconsin is known as "America's Dairyland" as printed on our new license plates once we acquire them.  So, no surprise about the dairy products...but there's more!  We visited the Madison farmers market last weekend during a trip down for Scott's work and to pick up some of his things he had stored at a friend's place there on the trip up.  The farmers market was set up around the capital building downtown, and it was huge.  They had absolutely everything you could imagine- lots of farm fresh produce, honey, syrup, berries, breads, CHEESE (the fried cheese samples were excellent!), and so much more.  We bought lettuce, broccoli, and yellow (green) beans for a total of $3...all delicious!  Good produce has been available in many of the places I have lived, but you don't get this scale of production and variety in the Appalachian Mountains.  I already have gotten pretty darn close to creating an entire meal with beverage and condiments that is almost entirely from Wisconsin.  Looking forward to checking out the Green Bay farmers market sometime soon.

State capital, Madison, WI

We have also heard about some fantastic cherries in our neighboring county.  Door County is the peninsula in between Green Bay and Lake Michigan and apparently very famous for its picturesque coastlines, quaint lakeshore towns, and "Cape Cod-like" atmosphere.  Hopefully we'll get to visit soon!

Apparently this blog turned out to be mostly about food...very different and tasty up here in Wisconsin!

Jeremiah was a Bullfrog

A little bit of a hiatus on the blog. Disclaimer: I was traveling for 5 days for a Land Ethic Leaders workshop that I was invited to attend several months ago at the Murie Center in Moose, Wyoming inside Grand Teton National Park. This blog is about the Midwest, so I won't tell you how great it was to meet other conservation professionals from around the US and Canada, or how beautiful the Teton Range was, or about the wildlife I saw in Yellowstone, or how cool it was to stay on Olaus and Mardy Murie's ranch and have conversations about wilderness on their front porch, or how much I remembered from when I was there at 9 years old, 21 years ago to this month...Despite the very short 4 full days I spent in WI before jetsetting, it was well worth the adventure (official group photo on the Murie's porch is below).

Meanwhile...our first opportunity for a spontaneous adventure came up yesterday!

I saw an ad on Facebook (of all places) for a special promotion at the Green Bay Bullfrogs baseball game the next night against the LaCrosse Loggers and just had to check it out. It turns out that the Frogs are in the Northwoods League, a summer league for collegiate players. Their field is located at Joannes Park adjacent to (or part of?) Green Bay-East High School about 10 minutes away. The ad was for the "Wisconsin special" ticket and meal package, which consisted of 2 third base line seats, 2 brats, 2 ears of griled corn, 2 WI beers, and an order of cheese curds for $26. The WI special did not disappoint! Despite a little out-of-towner confusion on arrival about where to park and where to claim our food, we had a great time and hope to catch another game soon. The Christmas in July theme added to the ambiance (see Jeremiah the Bullfrog below).

 

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad!