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Wheeler Lake, March 18th 2011

I Love Winter!!

I have many friends that live below the Rust Belt who think I am a bit of a nut because I like winter so much. They just don’t get it.  Winter, to me, is kind of like having visitors in your home.  You are really glad to see them arrive and, often, just as glad to see them go. I am at the “glad to see winter go” part of the year.  The days are getting warmer and the snow is quickly disappearing here in N.E. Wisconsin. This week we have seen temperatures in the mid to upper 50′s.  This begs the question, when will the ice clear on Wheeler Lake this year? As you can see from the image above, there is standing water on the lake.  If these warm temperatures continue, the ice will go quickly. Send me an email with your best estimate as to when the ice will clear.  The person with the closest estimate will get bragging rights and their name or initials (your choice) next to the Ice Cleared date on the Wheeler Lake Webcam page.

UPDATE: A few people have sent in their guesses on when the ice will go out on Wheeler Lake. Bob A. says April 22nd, Jerry D. is at April 10th, Patty R. guarantees April 19th, Patrick C. says April 17th, Dave S. has it pinned to April 12th at approx 3:00pm, Larry H. has April 8th, Wheeler L., says April 15th, Carrie S-M from CA guesses April 24th, Raoul S. has April 28th at 3:30pm , Cheryl D. picks April 9th, my wife sent me an email to pick April 30th at 2:51pm (you could have just walked into the living room!), Steve F. picks April 24th. Send me your best guess and win, win, win!

Today I called my 82 year old mother, who lives in Arizona, on her cell phone. She couldn’t talk to me because she was in the middle of a round of golf.   Later in the day I dutifully called her back to see how her game was.  She told me she shot a 92.  I haven’t shot a 92 in my entire life! Maybe I will get better when I get older.  Hope my kids find me doing the same thing at that age.

After the Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV it took us about 3 seconds to decide we were going to the celebration at Lambeau Field. Actually, we knew we were going the second the Packers won because our (football obsessed) oldest son started pressing us to go when the playoffs started. He was absolutely certain the Packers were going to win it all.

The traffic was busy even two and a half hours before the event.  No parking at Lambeau field but we did get a few nice pics as the traffic moved along at about two miles per hour.

It was a cold day, man was it cold.  It was all of about 10 degrees above zero that day. We were waiting in the massive Lambeau Field Atrium with all of our cold weather gear on when we spotted one of our dear friends who works for the Packers organization. We chatted for a few minutes and then she went on her way. About 10 minutes later she came back and said “Would you like to sit in the Box Seats?”  Yes!!!!

After riding the elevator to the top, we removed all of our cold weather gear and got all snuggled into the nice warm box seats. For some reason, we then had the incredibly bright idea of going outside to experience the event up close and personal. I still don’t know what we were thinking… We had great seats in Section 115, Row 8 so the view was good but man was it cold.  As you can imagine, our young kids were not too thrilled with us after we went outside but they lived through it.

All in all it was a great time and one the kids will remember for many years. Below, I’ve posted some pictures for your enjoyment.

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Everybody that likes football already knows the Packers are the NFL Super Bowl XLV champions. What a great day to be from Green Bay. It was a nail biter for me since I much prefer big point spreads.

We had most of the extended family on my wifes side over for the game. We brought in a couple of extra couches that we had in the garage so everyone could have a nice comfy seat.  Way too much food was consumed and the kids got to bed way too late but it was so worth it.  I hope you and your family had as much fun watching the game as we did.

There are many, many back stories about the Green Bay Packers journey to Super Bowl XLV and I have picked two of my favorites to share with you. The person in this story, I know quite well and the person in this story, I highly respect.

We were finally able to get all parties together for a weekend of snowmobiling and ice skating on Wheeler Lake in northern Oconto county. You see, we had planned for a nice long weekend over the New Years holiday with a brother and sister in-law on my wifes side but, it was warm and rained that weekend, bummer.  Finally toward the end of January the kids had Friday off of school so we packed everything in the truck and made our way north after school on Thursday.

We made a nice ice rink for the kids to skate on and they had a blast.  My brother in-law rented a snowmobile from the good folks over at Waubee Lodge which is just down the road a few miles from our cottage. (Snowmobile rentals aren’t cheap anywhere but the machines at Waubee Lodge are nearly brand new and in fantastic condition so we had no complaints.) It was our kids first time on snowmobiles and thankfully while we were there we had about 5 inches of new snow so the trail conditions were very good. All of the children really enjoyed riding on the lake and trails so we are off to a good start on snowmobiling.

Friday night we went to Waubee Lodge for dinner which is our habit on at least one night when we are at the cottage. My sweetheart really likes a good perch plate and I enjoy the prime rib.  We have yet to be disappointed with our food at Waubee Lodge.

Enjoy our pictures from the weekend!

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