Wisconsin

The DAIRY state. Thank the sweet Lord baby Jesus. Also known as the Breadbasket state, this state is full of probably some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet! I am still trying to figure out how they survive in such cold temperatures, though. We drove through the Narnia of Michigan and headed straight for GreenBay. Although neither myself or Daniel are huge Greenbay fans, we couldn’t resist heading to Lambeau Field. Plus it was a HUGE added bonus that their happened to be a home game this Sunday, so we headed towards the action in search of some cheap last minute tickets. The tickets were still $80 each about a half hour before the game so we hoped we could maybe find someone selling in the parking lot. Even if we didn’t get tickets, it was still worth joining all the tailgating and excitement.

Parking at the Stadium is almost as much as buying a ticket. But the sweethearts of Wisconsin that live near the stadium opened up their yards and offered cheap cheap parking in their front lawn. We parked in a really sweet man driveway. He was very hospitable, letting us use his bathroom and even giving us a beer for the walk to the stadium. Which was a pretty short walk just about 5 blocks away. 15 minutes before the game started the tickets dropped to 15 buck online and we snatched some pretty sweet seats! After sorting through the deal of not being able to bring my purse inside we finally made it inside.

The cheeseheads are probably the sweetest and most friendly fans known to the NFL (and that’s saying something, due to us being Colts and Seahawks fans). They welcomed us to the game and told us, “It’s the most Wisconsin thing to do!” This particular night the Greenbay Packers were playing the Miami Dolphins. Honestly, I was really surprised to see any of the dolphins fans risk the iceland of Wisconsin. The game ended up being a pretty awesome experience.

First off, the Packers won! So that ended everything on a good note. But the full experience was so nice because the fans were great, we stayed warm by drinking Wisconsin brews, we cuddled up under our blanket, and it started snowing right at the end of the game. It was a pretty magical experience.

The game ended pretty late, so we wrapped it up and called it a night. In the morning we drove down to Milwaukee and visited the town of Pabst. This is actually the town Miller and Pabst Blue Ribbon were both started. But Unfortunately once PBR got bought out they moved their location to Los Angeles . On the other hand, Miller is still open and brewing in Milwaukee so we headed to the brewery for a tour of the factory.

The tour was only $8 and they take you all over the grounds, give you plenty of free samples, give you souvenir glasses at the end, and even give you a token to get a free beer at local bars nearby. The tour is about two hours long and very informative.

They started out with a movie and then they take you to the Miller Caves. These caves were originally used to store the beer to keep it refridgerated, and are the oldest part of the Miller estate grounds. There are german murals on the wall and they describe the history of how Miller was started, and how they survived the prohibition.

After that, we toured were the beer is brewed and mixed before it gets packaged. These containers were gigantic and stored more beer than any one person could drink in a life time.

Following that, we visited the first Miller bar and were served beer in a private setting. The hall gets rented out to certain families, but other than that is only used for touring purposes. Huge steins are displayed throughout the whole bar.

Finally, we ended our tour in the packaging room. We watched the beer get bottled, the bottles travel on a conveyor belt, and watched them all get boxed and packaged. It was really interesting to watch all the different beers getting bottled and understand the background of such a huge company.

After touring the Brewery, we didn’t have too much of an exciting evening. We toured Pabst a bit driving past the huge Museum and Theater buildings, and admiring some of the local architecture. Then we did some laundry, and headed towards Minnesota.

All in all, we were very impressed with the hospitality and friendliness of the local Wisconsin people and the land of the Badger is pretty neat.

Try and stay warm. Cheers,

McKayla