Cheese and Football

Well, I haven’t forgotten that I promised you cheese and football. We left Lake Geneva and headed to Appleton, a city about 30 minutes outside of Green Bay. We were a little early for check in so we took the kids to Fritsch Park and let them play for a while.

The weather has been so wonderful!! Right as we were getting ready to leave, we heard thunder and drove through a quick little shower that was over by the time we made it 10 minutes down the road to our hotel.

First up, cheese. The next morning we got up bright and early for a tour of Union Star Cheese Factory.

They’re a small operation and it amazes me the amount of manual labor they still use given the machines they have. Since they’re small they make one batch at a time. The process starts at 4am. They open to the public at 7am. We got there a little before 8am. We watched them “mat” the cheese stretching it out, then cut, stir, and salt the cheese curds.

They test the acidity before proceeding. If it turns pink at a certain level, then they know it’s ready.

And we took a brief trip to their cooler to discuss the aging process.

We were able to sample the fresh cheese curds from the batch we watched them prepare. It was pretty neat and Mason was a big fan. Tuck didn’t want to try any. I feel like I don’t need to tell y’all which kid did and which kid didn’t like something anymore. I’m guessing you’re seeing the pattern by now.

Tuck pitched a fit about not getting a Mountain Dew at 9am. He was disciplined at the factory and then we had to pull over and discipline some more on the way back to the hotel. Poor kid. He’s so stubborn and wants things his way. I can’t for the life of me figure out where he gets it. I’m hoping you note the sarcasm there. It turned out great morning sour pretty quick.

Anyway, attitudes had recovered by the time we got back to the hotel and the boys decided to go for a swim. The pool had a little water slide, which I thought was cool and then we took a nap to get rested for our long night.

That’s right, now it’s time for the football.

You know I told you in an earlier post, we are trying to plan this trip so that everyone gets to do/see things that want. Well, it’s Trevor’s turn. He has always wanted to go to Lambeau Field and see the Packers play. More specifically, the dream was Lambeau, snow, no shirt, post season, and Favre quarterbacking. So the dream wasn’t 100% achieved but we’re getting to see them play at Lambeau, 75 degree weather, shirted, preseason, and Favre has long since retired but, nonetheless, Trev was geeking out a little bit….maybe a lot.

We met a sweet family from Michigan who gave us all kinds of good information about the UP; that’s the Upper Peninsula for those of you not in the know. Don’t worry, I didn’t know either.

It was a great sporting event experience. The stadium is in a cute little area and we didn’t mind walking a few blocks to park. The people in the surrounding neighborhoods are great about the fans. The stadium was good and clean. There’s really not a bad seat at the stadium. We had pretty great seats just 20 rows back. Lambeau is like Fenway Park; it’s all about the team and the sport. They have wonderful fans.

We had an amazing time. It was a much calmer, more respectful environment than many of the other sporting events I’ve been to.

My tip for the game – I would recommend the 1919 Kitchen verses one of the concession stands if you are eating dinner at the stadium. We almost spent as much on snacks as we did on our whole dinner.

The stadium seats are metal bleachers. My sweet boys surprised me with the $8 rental seat pad with a back. Awe, they do love their momma. Packers won 28-26! Go Pack Go!!

To add to a long evening, our tire pressure light came on on the way back to the hotel so we had to stop and check it out. It was midnight before the kids got to bed. But everyone had a fantastic time.