Press Conference

Wherever two or more reporters gather, it is a press conference. Either that or a reunion 20-plus years in the making.

I'm sure you recall that the early '90s were legendary years for newspaper coverage in Marinette and Menominee (Mich.) thanks to ace reporters Laura and Kristin at the Marinette Eagle Star and me at the Menominee Herald-Leader. Today those legends returned.

I brought my 1992 Menominee Waterfront Festival t-shirt out of the archives last night. This morning my long-time friends Laura and Kristin and I met up in Green Bay (where Kristin flew in last night from her home in Seattle) and trekked up to our old stomping grounds. We were all fresh college grads when we were worked there, becoming the best of friends and making a million memories before going our separate ways more than two decades ago. I last saw Kristin in person when Carter was 1. And saw Laura last month when her daughter was playing softball in nearby Plover. This trip down Memory Lane today was a long time in the making! And it was awesome, awesome, awesome.

Our first stop was the Pine Tree Mall, where we enjoyed shopping at the Gap and I can't remember where else. Sad that the sign only shows JCPenney, which is closing in 4 days. The rest of the mall is pretty empty, but locals tell us there is about to be a comeback there. Good luck.

Even more sad is that our two favorite watering holes are now a boutique and, you guessed it, a bridal shop. What the heck. As long as we looked like a bridal party, we might as well get our photo taken by some dresses! Not sure it is just a coincidence that we leave town and the bars go out of business.

Had lunch on the waterfront at a place called the Serving Spoon. Since we are celebrities, we held a meet and greet with fans there over the lunch hour. Our guests included our friend and fellow socialite Stacey...

And former PD dispatcher "Grandpa Joe." Awesome to see them!

This stained-glass piece of art was hanging in the restaurant. I really should have bought it since I love that lighthouse! And yes, we did see it.

Toured around the marina after lunch. Forgot how windy and wavy it is off of Green Bay.

Always an assortment of impressive boats.

My lighthouse!!

They now have a pathway to make it easier to the get to the breakwall and walk out to the lighthouse.

Had some young lady take our picture. I guess I should have made it clear I wanted the whole lighthouse in the frame. Should have used our selfie stick!

We stopped at each of our former residences, too. I used to live in the upstairs apartment of this house. Sad that there is now a handicap ramp AND a Packers logo in the front window. There goes the neighborhood.

Also swung into the fire department because, well, history.

This was my newspaper office building across from the Menominee marina. We occupied the bottom floor. At the time, we were separate newspapers but both owned by the same company and both printed at the Marinette facility. Less than a year after I left in 1994 (those two got out of town before me), the two newspapers merged to become the Eagle Herald.

Thanks to our investigative reporter skills (aka Google), we tracked down the former Marinette editor. Larry is 86 years old and as sharp as a tack. He not only remembered who we were but plenty of details, too. It was awesome to see him!

From there, we stopped at the newspaper office to see who was still there that we would remember from 25 years ago.

We found Dan (middle), who is the editor now and was the city reporter when I covered Marinette council meetings, and Tim, a county reporter. The sports editor we knew is still there but wasn't on duty for the evening yet.

Had to walk into the press room to smell the ink and pretend to yell "Stop the presses." For as much fun as we had off duty, we honestly loved being reporters, writing stories and scooping each other.

But mostly we just loved our time together – crafting art projects or crafting shenanigans. We were pretty good at both. But that will remain off the record.