Monday Night Bachelor Party '04 - Green Bay

Yep that's us. We made it home from Wisconsin. In time for my wedding No hangover story, but almost...

     After going to Green Bay the previous year (Story told here), we were hooked. We were heading back to title town, with new purpose. This year I was tying the knot with my longtime girlfriend Amanda, Which meant I was going to have a Bachelor Party. Not your typical bachelor party this was SPECIAL. It was Monday Night Football in Green Bay!  I asked my groomsman if they would go.... Of course they all said YES those wonderful guys. We planned it 6 months in advance so we could get a good seat. We chose the Monday night Game of October 11 versus The Tennessee Titans. We booked the Gold Package with Packer Fan tours, which meant we would meet a couple of the Packers Players and were staying at the Tundra Lodge, which had a Water Park!!!

                                 Tip - Water Parks are AWESOME for Bachelor Parties

     My brother Sam, My good friends Mike and Sean and I were up at 2 am getting ready for our 12 hour road trip to Wisconsin. Having driven the route before we knew the drive was nice. Driving around Lake Michigan was more amazing with the fall foliage in full effect.

Sean doesn't like to snuggle :(

      When we arrived at the Hotel, we found ourselves feeling like kids again, with the Arcade and the Water Park. The room was a little small but we didn't really mind because we liked snuggling. (Except for Sean).

                                                 The three things I had on my must do list

                                                        1.Tour Lambeau Field

                                                        2. Brett Favre's Steakhouse

                                                        3. Witness A Packer win

     So we booked our tour and sniffed out Favre's Steakhouse which was delicious, we filled ourselves with delicious expensive meat. The Menu.

      After we picked up 36 cans of American beer and relaxed in the room, we could feel it. This was going to be the best Mancation EVER

      The Next morning we went to the water park when it opened. I didn't feel awkward being the only 22 year old "kids" there. My friend Sean he did though he promptly and awkwardly told every female life guard "We're not gay." Every girl had a different reaction but none of them believed him, it was very funny.
 What wasn't funny was the heckling I got from an 11 year old kid who was better at the "floating pads" part of the park or as I call it Sinkers and Floaters except when I went on it everyone was a sinker. The kid said "It’s so easy and you can't do it" I responded with my pride wounded "hey little kid I'm just trying to have fun, this takes a lot of agility and I drank a lot of beer last night so leave me alone". After i was done crying I had a great time.

Beautiful Fall Day at Lambeau

We arrived early for our tour of Lambeau Field, we played the Arcade games, to pass the time. We all wondered if the Pack would win On Monday night. "It sure would be nice. " I thought.

 When they came and got us for the tour they take u around the whole entire facility and tell you little stories or interesting facts about the different parts of the stadium.

In a Nutshell these are the most important parts of the tour.

The Player Tunnel was so cool.

1: Our tour guide made note that "The Vikings play in a dome so God can't watch them play. Because they suck so bad. (Note* Packers 1-4 at the time, finished season 10-6. Lost to the Vikings in the Wild Card Playoff Game)

2. The Boxed indoor seats are Amazing and expensive.

3. The Path that the Players take to the field is quite powerful and the field is amazing it gives me goose bumps just thinking of it.

Player meet and greet.

That evening we had the player meet and greet with running back Najeh Davenport and Packer Great William Henderson ! They were really nice guys . 

     The next day was the big day we slept in and got our party on early. I remember fondly waking up watching everyone else stretch and wake up. Sean sits up grabs a beer. The sound of the can opening grabbed every ones attention. Sam says walking out of the bathroom "Oh it’s this kind of a party is it?" and grabs a beer. a smile appeared on Sean’s face as he says "That's how we do it" as all four of us opened the beer. All of a sudden Mike like a flash of lightning runs out of the bathroom "It’s gonna overflow!!! I didn't do it!" talking about the toilet someone may or may not have plugged... (We know who it was....)

     We had a great time getting primed for the tailgate party, we knew there would be tonnes of food and beer and cookies!.

     When we arrived at the tailgate party it was beautiful weather and they had a DJ playing some good tunes. We met some people our age. We danced from the beer to food to the beer and then moon walked to the Porto potty (Mostly from the beer to the Porto potty, Damn American Beer).

     We had a great time before we knew it, we were en route to the stadium with a little bit of Stagger Swagger in us. The All of a sudden I'm shaking hands with the Governor of Wisconsin Jim Doyle as he is trying to get me to vote for him he gives me a sticker I put it on one sleeve. Then two seconds later I'm talking with his opponent as hey gives me the vote speech, I take a sticker from him slap it on the other sleeve. As I walk away shaking my head laughing to myself thinking "I am Canadian I can't vote for you." The Joke was on me though because those were some kind of super stickers and the glue is still stuck to my Favre jersey.

     That game started out as amazing, we had really great people around us they even bought me a beer because it was my bachelor party. The crowd was electric When Favre came out of the Tunnel I savoured that moment as i thought it maybe my last time seeing it live. Long Story Short they lost. My most triumphant moment came when I FINALLY got on the Jumbo Screen, "Hey camera guy I'm 13 rows away from you I know u can hear me, put me on the screen!!!" I yelled. "There I am! There we are!!" I squealed... So I took the bounty that I had off of the camera guy.

     After the game we stopped at the hotel bar for one more beer as we drank it this nice looking lady sits  beside Sean and starts chatting him up. Sean puts his country boy charm to work and has her laughing and I was like "Holy Shit, that's a cougar and she is on the PROWL!" Honestly enough she was probably just looking for conversation....  Us guys were tired and walked back to the room laughing about Sean getting picked up randomly.  The night ended well, sure we were mad about the loss, but we had a great time.

 

On the way home we were interrogated by the border patrol and I felt as if I wasn’t going to be coming home. But after paying a bit of duty we were on our way.

                                              Tip-  Always declare something at the border.

Looking back on that trip, I realize how lucky I was to have 3 people in my life that I was able to share that with. Even though they lost, Even though I love Purple now (Reason #1, Reason #2)  I still love Green Bay and think about going back often. Maybe if they retire #4 or #80....

Follow me everywhere on Twitter @RealManTravel

Enjoy your Super Bowl Weekend!


 

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Green Bay vs. Philadelphia November 2003

                                                      Monday Night Virgins

    In April 2003 I was visiting friends in Kitimat, British Columbia, I was on the phone getting the "ok" from Mike and Sam, for our first Trip to Green Bay. We were Packer fans and loved the toughness of The Pack's QB Brett Favre.

    An added bonus was Green Bay just did a 100 million dollar upgrade to their Stadium. Every Packers season we watched was filled with drama, and we loved it.

     The season schedule had just come out and I was on top of it. THE TRIP:We booked through Packer Fan Tours for the November Monday night game versus the Eagles. We had End-Zone seats and 2 nights at the Hilton Garden Inn.  THE GUYS: Myself a young man recently engaged hungry for good times and pizza, My brother Warren a "party animal " and Jack the bake to my shake..... (SHAKE N BAKE!! that just happened)
 
     By the time football season had rolled around, we had decided that it would be a road trip.(my favorite) We also added on a special little treat for ourselves a visit to The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio. (that's another story) We had no idea what kind of trip we were about to embark on. Title Town Here we come!!)

     The Packers were 1-4 going into the Monday night game. The last 5 weeks had been painful. Either way we were excited to get there and have a good time. We left on a crisp November morning with a dusting of snow on the ground. Headed down the 400 northbound to our first stop, Sault Ste. Marie.

    When we arrived at our hotel,The Sleep Inn and it began to snow. We checked in and decided to go to dinner and a movie. We watched the Matrix 2 and dined at a Italian Restaurant nearby "Joey Calzones" and the food was delicious. I remember only having one problem there they had "cute" bathroom signs that said Maria for girls and Guido for guys spelled out in cursive (hard to read cursive mind you), at the time I had read "Mario" on the "Maria" sign and walked right in to the girls bathroom and on the "To catch a predator" TV series.... Not really, but a 10 year old girl did not looked impressed and I felt like a bit of a perv and really embarrassed. Sam and Mike were very entertained by my story, when I got back to the table.

     The next day was cold and there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Bundled up we were off, First stop the border (woohoo). Which back then was like 3 phone booths across a road. With no problems we were in Michigan, hell bent on getting to Green Bay before night fall. The drive was a very nice one, as you drive through winding roads around Scenic Lake Michigan. 2 things that stuck out in my memory was a big Paul Bunyon at a restaurant and one town had a spaceship on every mailbox...  I remember the excitement that filled the truck that day as we came up the highway with Lambeau Field.

    When we had arrived at our hotel, it was in the later in the afternoon. We were tired but Mike had seen the Packer Store was open and strongly encouraged us to go there, we decided we would walk.

     On this short walk we took ridiculous pictures at the old packer hall of fame site and pictures of the stadium and surrounding monuments. We went into the very nice store and bought 3 "cheeseheads!" of course. I remember in that store hearing the song "Over an Over Again" by Tim McGraw and Nelly for the first time, and now when I hear it, I can put myself back in that store.(I love that) When we left the store we took some time to look over the stadium, It was awesome!

   When we were walking down the concrete stairs from the store to the huge parking lot, a rather large bus/RV pulled up and there was a couple people standing there with pens, footballs and cameras. At first I wasn't sure, then my brain put the puzzle together. I say to the guys "Holy Shit! That's the Madden Cruiser!".  "No way" Sam and Mike said slowly in disbelief. We were like little kids and we were in the right place at the right time. I remember it seemed like forever for them to exit the cruiser, we could make out Maddens silhouette almost like Alfred Hitchcock. The whole ABC Monday Night team got out of the bus doing the smile and wave routine.  Madden signed a kids football waved and was gone. Star Struck with smiles ear to ear, we walked back to the hotel.

     That night we decided to order pizza (shocker) I called the front desk and asked  "Where does the best pizza come from?" the friendly voice replied "that would be Green Bay Pizza Company, try the stuff crust!". Mission accepted! We ordered the stuff crust pizza. When it arrived we were starved and it smelled awesome. We opened the box and discovered their version of a stuff crust was quite different from the one I was used to.(Pizza Hut) What they do instead of putting cheese in the crust, they have an entire pizza crust with sauce with another pizza on top of it. Basically a pizza on top of a pizza... I know it blew our minds too.  We enjoyed some beers and pizza while we watched the Sunday Night Football Ravens vs Rams game. It was a good game and great pizza.


    The next morning we woke up and ate the leftover pizza, resulting in an almost unavoidable situation when men room together..... The dreaded but expected (when traveling with Sam) clogged toilet...

    After the embarrassing exchange of the plunger, we decided to explore Green Bay and Appleton area.  We seen amazing High School football fields, browsed in the local Best Buy and was pleasantly surprised  to hear some of the co-workers asking each other if they were going to the game. (small town, big stadium) We ended up stopping at the Hallmark store, we had a long conversation with the owner of the store a nice man with glasses, we ended up finding out he was going to the game and he was a former neighbor of Andy Reid's(Eagles Head Coach) and bought some ridiculous football helmet type toques, with chinstraps. Everywhere we went had a buzz in the air about the game.

     5:00 pm we left for the tailgate party, the weather was grim, cold rain was falling and it didn't look like it was going to stop. When we arrived it was Awesome! Delicious MGD draft all you can handle, shelter, good music and great food. It was there I fell in love with the bratwurst and chocolate chip cookies (not necessarily in that order). The weather had went from rain to a wet snow more than once. We were ready for whatever mother nature was going to throw at us.

      I remember an amazing ice sculpture of MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL on ABC as we walked up to the gate. We were so pumped entering that stadium!

     We were 30 rows up in the end zone and we actually seen the Hallmark store owner, as he was walking up to his seat. We gave him a drunken greeting, that broke the ice with the crowd around us we made "Game friends". I remember being completely jacked up when they announced the team, and especially Brett Favre who was playing with a broken thumb. 70 000 fans can't be wrong! We were loud.  Being in the stadium is nothing like watching on TV.

      It was a close hard fought game and really wet. The beer kept us warm and we were having fun. I had to be reminded the next day about standing up in the middle of the third quarter. When everyone else was sitting quietly, and yelling "LETS GO MINNESOTA" at the top of my lungs. Then was quickly pulled down by Sam and Mike. I still don't know why I said that, but when I look back on it, it was like second sight. (With Favre eventually ending up in Minnesota.)

     The Pack was Defeated 17-14 by a Mcnabb and Westbrook Eagles Offense. It was a tough loss. Heartbroken, voiceless with a smile on our face. (and very very thirsty) we headed back to our Hotel.

     When we got back to the hotel room it smelled like pizza, we cracked open some beers, warmed up and got some dry clothes on. We had the most glorious sleep.

     Looking back at these pictures I wish I had taken more. Back in the disposable camera day. It was a first for us and we had a great time. We had learned a lot about Green Bay and ways to improve our next trip and what to keep the same.  Green Bay is truly the holy grail of football.

   

 

   

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