Skipping California briefly to write about a great visit to Chicago.
You know you are traveling quite frequently when you cannot keep up with your travel blogging! So, I'm skipping briefly over the rest of my CA trip (coming soon!) to write about my trip of last weekend, in which I visited my near-hometown of Chicago.
I flew to Chicago Thursday afternoon, just in time to attend the first of four games in a Cubs/Cards series. The flight went by quickly; I worked nearly the entire time and was seated next to a friendly software salesman who was wholly undeterred by the fact that I was listening to my iPod. He reminisced about the grand old days that were SMU in the 70's while drinking furtively from small airline-sized liquor bottles he had brought along with him in a plastic baggie. He then scammed a free beer from the flight attendant, first claiming his cash was in his bag in the overhead compartment and then, after she was nice enough to hand him his bag, claiming that he had only a dollar on him. Sounded unlikely to me, especially given that he was on a business trip, but the flight attendant either bought it or didn't care, and he happily chased his airline whiskey with an Amstel light.
I zipped through the airport, happy that for once I was able to avoid checking a bag, and collected my nice dark red rental Hyundai. I wish I could say I zipped toward downtown, but "inched" would be a more apt description. However, the handy signs telling you how many minutes until downtown based on current traffic are awesome and made the trip downtown not bad at all.
My hotel was easy to locate. I darted in and out in order to head out to the game. A smiling security guard downstairs directed me to the exit nearest the L station, and I made my way to the train that would take me to Wrigley Field, walking in a light rain and feeling like Annie (Susan Sarandon's character) in Bull Durham. (If you don't know what this means, turn off your computer immediately, obtain a copy of this movie and watch it before you even think about returning--it is a great movie, and one of the best baseball movies ever).
The L train ride to Wrigley was lively, with both rush hour and game traffic packing the cars before they even left downtown. I sat next to an art student who gratefully grabbed an available seat after riding for several stops while clutching his portfolio, then spent the rest of the trip flexing his hand to get rid of the clutching-induced soreness. Many young Cubs fans were on the train; they began craning their necks to see Wrigley Park when the train emerged from the subway to the elevated tracks. Their reaction when they saw it was priceless; their eyes lit up and someone said to them, "It's the most wonderful place in the world." We all emerged at Addison and poured into the park just in time to hear the singing of the national anthem. I don't attend many night games, but the park and skyline sure do look nice with the lights (although I prefer a day game any time):
I made my way to my upper-deck seat, encountering along the way a shamelessly flirty beer salesman who could only have thought that he was charming enough to elicit a nice tip. The wind was blowing so strongly that it knocked half the head right off my beer before I even reached my seat. I found myself sitting next to a devoted Cubs fan and his grandson; the telltale sign was the man's radio earpiece, through which he was listening to the WGN game broadcast. I loved hearing the pearls of wisdom the man shared with his grandson during the game on topics ranging from how to play baseball to the importance of leaving time unscheduled to just be a kid. The one thing I know for sure if I ever have a child is that he/she will have memories of the ballpark and those kinds of conversations with me. The Cubs band (I'm not sure what their official name would be) came around between innings, delighting everyone with their musical stylings:
And the rain came down lightly through most of the game:
The seventh inning stretch was fun as always:
The grandfather and grandson enjoyed it, too:
In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Cubs down by 5 runs and 2 outs, the rain began coming down really hard:
This led to a 3 Stooges-like medley of errors by the Cards players due to the rain, which included a dropped pop foul ball (by the catcher) and a missed ground out opportunity by the Cards shortstop, resulting in the Cubs loading the bases. Soon the rain was coming down too hard and a rain delay was called, with the grounds crew rolling out the tarp:
Given the late hour, the fact that it was a weeknight and the 5-run difference in the score, many people left during the rain delay:
However, about 80 faithful fans (including myself) hung out, explored the park and chatted with each other while waiting for the rain delay to end. It felt like a huge slumber party and it was great having so much space and the ability to wander at will . . . the ushers didn't give anyone a hard time during the break--they were all chatting, too. In addition to talking to my row-mates (one of whom wore a Boston Red Sox cap) and others in the park, I amused myself by taking photos, none of which were very good:
After about an hour, the game was called, unfairly, in my view. This resulted in a Cards win, 6-1. At least the Cards did not get to celebrate their statistical "clinch" of the division tonight.
I returned to the hotel and found that a nice glass of pinot noir was just the thing to help me warm up my rain-soaked self. There was a nice guy sitting next to me at the bar . . . before long, I had learned much of his life story, although he initially did not seem like the chatty type. I was impressed by him because he had bounced back from the unexpected death of his wife (they were my same age) to raise their 3 kids on his own and recently married a woman he met in his sailing club.
As we talked, I also thought about how interesting the little microcosm of folks sitting around a hotel bar can be. This particular bar is a semi-circle, so you can see the others at it more easily than at a linear bar. There were the standard business people, but also a woman with a fake-sounding Southern accent who was there meeting her daughter, who is apparently in school in Chicago. I wondered if the daughter knows how much her mom likes to flirt at hotel bars.
After conducting some quick business on Friday morning, I was set to attend another Cubs game and was able to snag nice seats online at the last minute. The weather was significantly better than the day before, with beautiful blue skies alternating with dramatic ones:
Everyone at the game was happy to be there:
While the view from my seats was awesome,
the behind-home plate view did subject me to the most yuppified of the Cubs fans--those who inherit corporate seats and have enough money that they do not appreciate them at all. This meant I sat next to guys on each side who were only there for 3 innings each; on one side, the guy almost seemed to be attempting to caricature the Bad Cubs fan by wearing Gucci loafers, showing off a roll of cash and talking with his friends the entire time while sitting completely turned away from the field. Disgusting!
This kid in a row in front of me lived for the moment, analyzing his cotton candy carefully before devouring it:
I took some other pictures of him and his family that didn't turn out well . . . his Dad brought all three sons to the game and they looked very cute sitting all in a row. In addition to all of this cuteness in front of me, the Cubs won the game!
Which made sitting with the pretentious fair-weather fans worthwhile. After the game, I discovered a lovely alternative to the over-crowded, smoky Wrigleyville bar scene--the "reading the paper while drinking coffee scene":
More later . . . too tired to write anymore . . . . .
I'm back! I almost forgot to mention that, while kicking back and watching this game, I took a chance and sent a message inviting a guy I barely knew to meet me out whileI was in town. Now before you lecture me, please know that I knew enough about him to feel it was safe to meet out in a public place. Besides, he had piqued my curiosity and I could not resist the opportunity to find out more about him. So, that night we got together for music and later coffee, and we had a wonderful time.
The next day, I headed out to the suburbs to visit with family and friends. It was great to see them and catch up and laugh and relax and I loved goofing around with their kiddos and playing travel scrabble and driving through the farmlands in the dark in search of ice cream and everything else we did together. As if that was not enough, my friend Beth and I ended our time together with the discovery of a fabulous new store that resolves all that is bad about the clothes shopping experience, making it both pleasant and productive.
Tearing myself away from the mall like any good Midwestern girl would, I scrambled back to the city Sunday morning. I arrived at Wrigley Field just in time to retrieve the tickets from the will-call window, catch the third inning of the Cubs game and meet up with my Friday night friend, a Sox fan (yes--a gasp! is appropriate here) for the game. He survived the harrowing yuppie experience and the result for the Cubs was a good one--another win over the hated Cards:
After this euphoric experience, we headed for the dog beach at Montrose, where he coached me to better photo-taking via the closeup:
Much to my surprise, no one punched me for coming close and taking their picture, so I took more of them:
And then we took a few snaps of each other:
shortly before ending an interesting day, and a special weekend.
I flew to Chicago Thursday afternoon, just in time to attend the first of four games in a Cubs/Cards series. The flight went by quickly; I worked nearly the entire time and was seated next to a friendly software salesman who was wholly undeterred by the fact that I was listening to my iPod. He reminisced about the grand old days that were SMU in the 70's while drinking furtively from small airline-sized liquor bottles he had brought along with him in a plastic baggie. He then scammed a free beer from the flight attendant, first claiming his cash was in his bag in the overhead compartment and then, after she was nice enough to hand him his bag, claiming that he had only a dollar on him. Sounded unlikely to me, especially given that he was on a business trip, but the flight attendant either bought it or didn't care, and he happily chased his airline whiskey with an Amstel light.
I zipped through the airport, happy that for once I was able to avoid checking a bag, and collected my nice dark red rental Hyundai. I wish I could say I zipped toward downtown, but "inched" would be a more apt description. However, the handy signs telling you how many minutes until downtown based on current traffic are awesome and made the trip downtown not bad at all.
My hotel was easy to locate. I darted in and out in order to head out to the game. A smiling security guard downstairs directed me to the exit nearest the L station, and I made my way to the train that would take me to Wrigley Field, walking in a light rain and feeling like Annie (Susan Sarandon's character) in Bull Durham. (If you don't know what this means, turn off your computer immediately, obtain a copy of this movie and watch it before you even think about returning--it is a great movie, and one of the best baseball movies ever).
The L train ride to Wrigley was lively, with both rush hour and game traffic packing the cars before they even left downtown. I sat next to an art student who gratefully grabbed an available seat after riding for several stops while clutching his portfolio, then spent the rest of the trip flexing his hand to get rid of the clutching-induced soreness. Many young Cubs fans were on the train; they began craning their necks to see Wrigley Park when the train emerged from the subway to the elevated tracks. Their reaction when they saw it was priceless; their eyes lit up and someone said to them, "It's the most wonderful place in the world." We all emerged at Addison and poured into the park just in time to hear the singing of the national anthem. I don't attend many night games, but the park and skyline sure do look nice with the lights (although I prefer a day game any time):
I made my way to my upper-deck seat, encountering along the way a shamelessly flirty beer salesman who could only have thought that he was charming enough to elicit a nice tip. The wind was blowing so strongly that it knocked half the head right off my beer before I even reached my seat. I found myself sitting next to a devoted Cubs fan and his grandson; the telltale sign was the man's radio earpiece, through which he was listening to the WGN game broadcast. I loved hearing the pearls of wisdom the man shared with his grandson during the game on topics ranging from how to play baseball to the importance of leaving time unscheduled to just be a kid. The one thing I know for sure if I ever have a child is that he/she will have memories of the ballpark and those kinds of conversations with me. The Cubs band (I'm not sure what their official name would be) came around between innings, delighting everyone with their musical stylings:
And the rain came down lightly through most of the game:
The seventh inning stretch was fun as always:
The grandfather and grandson enjoyed it, too:
In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Cubs down by 5 runs and 2 outs, the rain began coming down really hard:
This led to a 3 Stooges-like medley of errors by the Cards players due to the rain, which included a dropped pop foul ball (by the catcher) and a missed ground out opportunity by the Cards shortstop, resulting in the Cubs loading the bases. Soon the rain was coming down too hard and a rain delay was called, with the grounds crew rolling out the tarp:
Given the late hour, the fact that it was a weeknight and the 5-run difference in the score, many people left during the rain delay:
However, about 80 faithful fans (including myself) hung out, explored the park and chatted with each other while waiting for the rain delay to end. It felt like a huge slumber party and it was great having so much space and the ability to wander at will . . . the ushers didn't give anyone a hard time during the break--they were all chatting, too. In addition to talking to my row-mates (one of whom wore a Boston Red Sox cap) and others in the park, I amused myself by taking photos, none of which were very good:
After about an hour, the game was called, unfairly, in my view. This resulted in a Cards win, 6-1. At least the Cards did not get to celebrate their statistical "clinch" of the division tonight.
I returned to the hotel and found that a nice glass of pinot noir was just the thing to help me warm up my rain-soaked self. There was a nice guy sitting next to me at the bar . . . before long, I had learned much of his life story, although he initially did not seem like the chatty type. I was impressed by him because he had bounced back from the unexpected death of his wife (they were my same age) to raise their 3 kids on his own and recently married a woman he met in his sailing club.
As we talked, I also thought about how interesting the little microcosm of folks sitting around a hotel bar can be. This particular bar is a semi-circle, so you can see the others at it more easily than at a linear bar. There were the standard business people, but also a woman with a fake-sounding Southern accent who was there meeting her daughter, who is apparently in school in Chicago. I wondered if the daughter knows how much her mom likes to flirt at hotel bars.
After conducting some quick business on Friday morning, I was set to attend another Cubs game and was able to snag nice seats online at the last minute. The weather was significantly better than the day before, with beautiful blue skies alternating with dramatic ones:
Everyone at the game was happy to be there:
While the view from my seats was awesome,
the behind-home plate view did subject me to the most yuppified of the Cubs fans--those who inherit corporate seats and have enough money that they do not appreciate them at all. This meant I sat next to guys on each side who were only there for 3 innings each; on one side, the guy almost seemed to be attempting to caricature the Bad Cubs fan by wearing Gucci loafers, showing off a roll of cash and talking with his friends the entire time while sitting completely turned away from the field. Disgusting!
This kid in a row in front of me lived for the moment, analyzing his cotton candy carefully before devouring it:
I took some other pictures of him and his family that didn't turn out well . . . his Dad brought all three sons to the game and they looked very cute sitting all in a row. In addition to all of this cuteness in front of me, the Cubs won the game!
Which made sitting with the pretentious fair-weather fans worthwhile. After the game, I discovered a lovely alternative to the over-crowded, smoky Wrigleyville bar scene--the "reading the paper while drinking coffee scene":
More later . . . too tired to write anymore . . . . .
I'm back! I almost forgot to mention that, while kicking back and watching this game, I took a chance and sent a message inviting a guy I barely knew to meet me out whileI was in town. Now before you lecture me, please know that I knew enough about him to feel it was safe to meet out in a public place. Besides, he had piqued my curiosity and I could not resist the opportunity to find out more about him. So, that night we got together for music and later coffee, and we had a wonderful time.
The next day, I headed out to the suburbs to visit with family and friends. It was great to see them and catch up and laugh and relax and I loved goofing around with their kiddos and playing travel scrabble and driving through the farmlands in the dark in search of ice cream and everything else we did together. As if that was not enough, my friend Beth and I ended our time together with the discovery of a fabulous new store that resolves all that is bad about the clothes shopping experience, making it both pleasant and productive.
Tearing myself away from the mall like any good Midwestern girl would, I scrambled back to the city Sunday morning. I arrived at Wrigley Field just in time to retrieve the tickets from the will-call window, catch the third inning of the Cubs game and meet up with my Friday night friend, a Sox fan (yes--a gasp! is appropriate here) for the game. He survived the harrowing yuppie experience and the result for the Cubs was a good one--another win over the hated Cards:
After this euphoric experience, we headed for the dog beach at Montrose, where he coached me to better photo-taking via the closeup:
Much to my surprise, no one punched me for coming close and taking their picture, so I took more of them:
And then we took a few snaps of each other:
shortly before ending an interesting day, and a special weekend.
posted by Lisa at 10:01 PM
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