I LOVE THIS SPIEL ! Seriously, it is my favorite spiel of the summer, and great ice is only part of the reason.
Green Bay is an official training facility for the US Olympic Teams. They scrapped down the ice, added all new markings and logo's and added the magnetic strips in the ice for the sensor handles used during Olympic games.
This was Olympic caliber curling ice, 5 feet of curl both directions, 24.5 to 25 second ice absolutely awesome. I'm not claiming it was Olympic Ice based on my experience, heck what would I know, but there were lots of people that did know with years and years of experience that were as excited as anyone to play on this kind of ice.
One of the other really great things about this spiel is the FOOD. Lots and lots of food, and it was continuous feeding time it seemed. Brats, burgers, fixins, sandwiches, fruit more fruit, snaks, pancakes, eggs, sausage, soup, 150lbs of beef out on the barbecue grill....every meal WAS a meal, and you could always make a small sandwich if needed. You were always fueled up and ready to go curl. If you went hungry it was your own fault and if you went out to eat.....WHY ?? Everything you needed was in the club.
I was talking to one of the Green Bay guys and commented on how great the food was and how much there was and all the volunteers and the round the clock cooking....he just looked at me and said "this is Green Bay, food is supposed to cover your plate."
On Saturday Steph, Tim and I went into downtown Green Bay for a little wine tasting. A place called The Captain's Walk Winery. For $3 you could taste up to 7 of their wines ! What a deal, so we did and found some excellent wine. I had 6 bottles shipped home, I ended up spending alot more than the $3 I thought I would spend....but it is soooo good. They don't grow grapes in Green Bay, this winery gets them from Oregon and then does their magic on them.
Great time, not sure how long we spent at this tasting, but it was a very fun time while waiting for our next game.
Had a few Canadians come down for this spiel, not from "Winterpeg", but from Ontario. Elliot Lake area and some folks from the Guelph Curling Club. They were a little surprised at how far people had come to curl in July in Green Bay with people they didn't know (California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Ohio to name a few that I remember) AND make an absolute grand party with perfect strangers. You weren't strangers for very long. I think they will be back next year, I know they had a great time and did I mention the GREAT ICE !
I am really lucky to get to curl in this spiel that's in the shadow of Lambeau Field. I get to curl with Stephanie and Tim from Madison and Shana from Dallas. Steph and Tim are long time curlers and in my case teachers. They are fine tuning my game and understanding, I learn so much and of course we have a grand time in the process.
We got into the 3rd Event Championship Round, a missed shot here and there made all the difference.....as it always does. We lost and got Runner up. But HEY we were playing on Sunday - TWICE - and got 5 games not just the 3 that alot of teams got.
In fact our 3rd game we came back from a deficit of 4 to win the game on the 8th rock in the 8th end.
I LOVE this spiel, Thanks to the Wilbergs for putting on such a great event, thanks to the volunteers in Green Bay and Thanks to my Team Mates.
LUUCY don't forget to sign us up again next year !
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