Yesterday Travalon had the day off of work, so I took the day off too. We had a leisurely morning and then headed to Horicon Marsh, stopping for lunch at Higher Grounds in Beaver Dam. It's a coffee place, and the lavender latte is delicious, but so is their simple grilled cheese sandwich. Travalon took a ton of photos, but I am too tired to download them from his camera tonight, so look for those tomorrow. We saw lots of egrets, a number of swans, hundreds of pelicans, and even four whooping cranes in flight. We also saw some sort of sandhill crane convention, and a black-necked stilt with a baby. Photos soon!
In the evening we went to the Monona Terrace rooftop for the final Dane Dance of the year. There was a mambo orchestra visiting from Chicago, and they were wonderful. They did a lot of salsa songs that I knew. To our surprise, we ran into Cali, so that was fun. She even got us to dance a little, which was quite a feat after we had walked for six miles at Horicon Marsh. Here is a photo of the Capitol from the rooftop.
And here is a pink cloud around sunset.
Today we had to get going as early as if it was a work day, and we still didn't quite get to Lambeau Field on time because of traffic. (I did see a whooping crane fly over us as we passed near Horicon Marsh.) We found parking for free in a nearby neighborhood, and as we were walking toward Lambeau, we could see kickoff on the jumbotron over the field, so Travalon said, "At least we didn't miss kickoff." We got to our seats (or actually other seats nobody was sitting in) midway through the first quarter, and as you can see, we had missed a Packer field goal.
Here we are!
I was wearing Niko, which you can't see in this photo, and nobody commented on him at all. However, a number of people said they loved our hats. I got mine some years ago at a shop on State Street, and Travalon ordered the same hat this past week, and it arrived in the mail yesterday.
This was a preseason game, so there was a bit of experimentation going on. Lots of going for it on fourth down, and the Packers kicker tried to make a field goal from more than halfway across the field (57 yards).... and HE MADE IT!!! We all watched the ball float through the uprights in disbelief. The weather was lovely and cool for most of the game, but midway through the fourth quarter the sun came out, and it got a bit hotter. The Packers scored and were up again, but with just twenty-two seconds left, Seattle was in the red zone and looked poised to score. If we could hold them to a field goal, we'd win by one point, but if they got a touchdown, then it was game over. I prayed for an interception - and we got one!... but it was ruled an incomplete pass. Then the Seattle quarterback launched one into the end zone... and our guy got it!! Game over!!! I was so excited in those last few minutes, jumping around and waving my arms, that my FitBit said I was biking for nineteen minutes. Maybe it just calls exercise "biking" when it isn't quite sure what I'm doing, since that was what it called it when I put it on my right hand during a gig, and it registered a workout.
Afterwards we went to the Packers Pro Shop, which was an experience. Every square inch of floor was packed with people, and we had trouble finding the checkout line, but at least it moved quickly. We bought this Packers unicorn, which Travalon said we should name Davante, after my favorite former receiver, Davante Adams.
I have read that the only NFL team that has to reveal its earnings is the Packers, because they are a nonprofit while the others are all for-profit teams. This means that when people try to figure out the NFL's revenues, they extrapolate from what the Packers earn. I think this must skew their data, because the Packers have an unusually loyal fanbase who buy Packer everything, and their games are always sold out. This is not at all true of other football teams. I remember growing up one state over, and now and then you'd see someone wearing a Vikings jacket, but it's not like here, where people have Packers pajamas and Packers car flags and Packers pillows and Packers jewelry and Packers unicorns and of course cheeseheads. Maybe it's that football-shaped G - it's just so aesthetically pleasing. Much more so than a disembodied Viking head.
On the way back the traffic was just as bad, so we took another route, Highway 55 which goes along Lake Winnebago. It was very scenic and went through little towns like Pipe and Stockbridge. When we got back to Sun Prairie, we went to dinner at a new African restaurant. We had jollof rice with chicken, and I had hibiscus and ginger juice. We also had "sweet" buns that weren't that sweet, so they were perfect, kind of like the fritters at the Dorf Haus. Just deep-fried balls of dough - yum! We'll definitely go there again.
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