Calling all "Cheeseheads"

Green Bay Wisconsin;  Home of the NFL Green Bay Packers---known for their cheese block headgear. Wisconsin is known as "American's Dairyland" because it is the country's leading dairy producers. Dairy farms produce milk, cheese and many other products. We found cheese factories, large and small scattered throughout the State. Since neither of us are fond of large cities, we decided to stay at an RV Resort on the shores of Lake Michigan, Village Inn at the Lake. While it wasn't much of a "resort", it did have many of the things to keep the grandchildren happy, pool, spa, basketball, video games etc. Our site was a little narrow for our four slide coach, but it faced Lake Michigan so I guess it evens out. We did a day trip to Green Bay to visit Lambeau Field and see the big city....

Green Bay is Wisconsin's third largest city and is located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, which of course, is one of the four Great Lakes. It is a city of over 110,000 people. It is mainly an industrial city with several meatpacking and paper plants, and a shipping port on Green Bay.

No trip to Green Bay is complete unless you visit Lambeau Field, home of the NFL Green Bay Packers football team. The stadium was named after Curly Lambeau who founded the team in 1919. He also served as the team's head coach for 31 years, leading them to six league championships. The name Packers came from the packing company, Indian Packing Company, that Lambeau worked for at the time. They provided the first uniforms for the team with the condition the team would be named for it's sponsor.

A peek inside the stadium. Tours are daily for $11/person but last about 2 hours. They take you behind the scenes and out onto the playing field. You're free to walk around the ground floor and visit the second level trophy room for free. There is also a pro/gift shop on site.

The Packers are an interesting football team. Besides holding the record for most championship victories, they are the only non-profit, community owned professional sports franchise in the United States.

They are also the only professional sports team that releases its financial balance sheet every year.

Lambeau Field holds the distinction of every home game since 1960 has been a sell out. Despite the Packers having by far the smallest local TV market, the Packers have developed one of the largest fan bases in the NFL. Currently there are over 86,000 names on their season ticket waiting list, meaning there are about 25,000 more people waiting for tickets than the stadium holds.

If you need a decorative post to hold the portico up, and you're a football town, guess what you use.....?

At the Titletown Brewery, stands this statue as a tribute to Donald Driver. He played his entire career, (14 years) for Green Bay as a wide receiver before retiring this year. He holds the Packer's all time receiving yardage record. The statue is lit at night. Originally is was located at a museum about a mile south of the brewery, but was moved here when Green Bay erected a monument honoring the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy of 9/11/01.

 

 

With Wisconsin leading the nation in dairy farming, it was difficult to choose which farm to visit for some cheese tasting. We finally picked this small factory in Kiel, Wisconsin. We spent quite an afternoon sampling many of the tasty cheeses they had to offer, including "curds".  Curds are known as "squeaky cheese" for the sound they make when you chew them. They are best eaten within hours of manufacture, as they rapidly lose their flavor. The squeaky sound is made when the curd is rubbed against the teeth while chewing due to the air trapped inside the porous material. They were quite good.

Henning's Cheese has been in business since 1914. It is a small farm and factory run as a family business. It has won many awards for the flavor of it's cheeses, winning the Gold this year for it's Chipolte Cheddar, and the Bronze for it's Aged Peppercorn Cheddar.

Yes, we left with several packages of different kinds of cheeses.

Green Bay is the County seat of Brown County and as such, is home to the Brown County Courthouse seen here. This building was built in 1908 and is still in use today.

I mentioned earlier we decided on camping on the shores of Lake Michigan. Here is a sampling of the view from our site. This photo was taken from our front door. As a disclaimer though, I used the zoom lens of the camera. There is a highway between our site and the Lake.

The days were warm and sunny, so we all got to get in some "swim" time. After running on the beach, playing in the waves and having a wonderful afternoon, we headed back across the street to the campground for some much needed relaxation in their jacuzzi.