Green Bay in a Day

Last week, we had planned on flying to Seattle to visit Hubby’s nephew, as well as see as much as we could in the four short days we would be there. Unfortunately, and as our spring break weather always guarantees, our flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was cancelled due to snow. We banged our heads together trying to salvage the trip, but decided it just wasn’t meant to be. (We had cancelled the same trip last June because my back was just too bad at the time, not that my pain is 100% cleared up even now.)

I suggested a few places we could drive to for just a day or two so that the week wasn’t a total waste. We decided to head to Green Bay on Tuesday just for overnight. 

As you can see, the stupid late March snow was still in our yard when we left. And if anyone from the Green Bay area is reading this today, I’m sorry that your winter storm was worse than ours this week. Stupid Wisconsin Fake-Spring. 

First thing Wednesday morning we visited the National Railroad Museum. We’d both been there a few times before, but it’s still always fun. Doesn’t everyone have a twinge of love for old train cars, the romance of the rails? 

The Merci Train was a train of 49 French railroad box cars filled with tens of thousands of gifts of gratitude from at least that many individual French citizens. They were showing their appreciation for the more than 700 American box cars of relief goods sent to them by (primarily) individual Americans in 1948. The Merci Train arrived in New York harbor on February 2nd, 1949 and each of the 48 American states at that time received one of the gift laden box cars. The 49th box car was shared by Washington D.C. and the Territory of Hawaii. (From the Merci Train website) 

Some fancy cars. Some not so much. Pretty sure this bed would give me more pain than I’ve had in a few months. 

Our next and final stop was at the Packer Hall of Fame. 

I took an unbelievably few pictures there. I was stupidly emotional the whole time we were walking around. 

I’ve become very jaded towards professional sports in the last couple of years. How can anyone justify the huge salaries any of them are being paid? And how can they make some of the most bone-headed plays? It just all seems so staged sometimes, like they are getting those big paychecks to keep their mouths shut when they have to throw a game.

But then there was that one shining season when the Packers won the Super Bowl after a very long drought. When Brett Favre was just a kid with an amazing arm and the spirit of a little boy. When I knew the names and positions of all the players and Reggie White was the Minister of Defense.

I have two secrets – one I won’t share here or anywhere else EVER! The other is my birthday, I’m just weird about it. But I’ll let that secret out.

Because Reggie White was born on the exact same day as I was. And so sadly, he was called home to be with Jesus when he was only 43. I really haven’t got anything else to say about that. If you don’t know anything about the man, you can look it up on-line, but I admired him and know he would never throw a game. 

There were lots of displays of him at the Packer Hall of Fame, but I couldn’t get close enough to them to take any pictures. The other people around me would think I was nuts when I started blubbering.

Now you know a little bit more about me.