Packer Practice and a Powwow of sorts…

Our last few days in Green Bay were enjoyable despite experiencing the hottest temperatures we have had in quite some time.  Daytime highs reached into the 90’s. One of those hot days we attended an Art Festival downtown and the main reason we went was to see a display of Native American cultural dances most often seen at a Powwow. The Oneida Indians are one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.

They performed for about an hour in the hot temperatures and it was a hoot to experience the dances. A fellow tribal elder explained much of what the dances symbolized and also went into some detail on what some od the clothing symbolized. For example, he said that the young warriors that wear two eagle feathers on the top of the head are letting others know they are Onieda Indians. What an enjoyable experience it is to listen to the sounds of the drums and watch these performances handed down from generation to generation.

Our last day in Green Bay we planned to stroll the Walk of Legends along Lombardi Avenue in the shadows of Lambeau Field. The Walk consists of 24 granite and steel sculptures that pay tribute to legends of Green Bay football. We didn’t see all the sculptures because we noticed something else going on at Lambeau. As we got closer we asked some locals what was going on and found out the Packers were having an open practice. Cool… we decided that it would be fun to watch a practice.

Then we saw Green Bay Packer players riding bicycles and wondered what was up. It turns out it is customary during training camp for the players to ride a kids bicycle from the locker room to the practice field. Even cooler for the kid is that they get to run alongside the player holding the player's helmet and chat with them during the ride. Fans line up to cheer the players and there were even some tailgates set up nearby. What a cool tradition! There was obvious excitement in each of the kids' eyes whether they were a 5 year old girl or a pre-teen boy…

I snapped several photos of these players and it turned out after talking with my daughter that she knew one of the players on the Packer squad.  Even neater was I had taken a photo of him on a bike. Katie contacted the player, Brandon Bostick #86, and he asked her if she would have us send him the picture. Small world this is isn’t it.. After all the players made it to the practice field we went over to the sidelines and sat with about 2500 other Packer fans watching practice.

Green Bay was a blast and we had a lot of fun in this small town but sadly it was time to leave…. The next morning we drove 140 miles south to the city of Madison, Wisconsin where we will stay until Friday. We have no clue where we will be staying for Labor Day weekend since we have no reservations and every place we have checked on is full. But we will head down around Chicago, Illinois and hope we can find a spot to hunker down for the weekend, wish us luck!