Chicago Sightseeing, Day 2

Happy September, friends! Is it really September already? Wasn't it just New Year's? Sheesh.

Finally, let's wrap up those Chicago recaps! As you may recall, we spent our first day in Chicago doing some sightseeing, then caught a baseball game at U.S. Cellular Field, and then I told you about the game we saw at Wrigley Field. We did some more sightseeing before and after Wrigley, so let's talk about that now!

Friday morning we got ourselves up and moving (thanks to leftover doughnuts!), and started off another beautiful weather day with a morning stroll through Grant Park.

Grant Park

More Grant Park

Funny statue garden of...legs? I'm not sure. Legs, I think. No bodies or heads, though.

Handsome guy

Our first stop of the day was at the Field Museum.

The Field Museum

There, we admired Sue (the largest, most complete T-Rex skeleton in existence, I believe)...

Sue!

I'm a big ol' meanie, making fun of her tiny arms like that. It's okay, Sue, we've all been there.

...checked out lots of animal displays...

Poor bunny, about to be dinner for some giant bird babies.

There were babies in most of the displays. I'm a fan of animal babies.

Now we're talking.

...saw more skeletons...

Skulls of the Tsavo man-eating lions, responsible for the deaths of a whole bunch of construction workers who were working on a railway in Kenya in 1898

This snake is just cool. As far as I know, he didn't eat anybody.

...explored the Egyptian exhibit, which was rather cool...

Hieroglyphics on the walls of the "pyramid" that houses the exhibit

Hard to make out, but you look through this hole in the floor down at a mummy...

...this mummy, to be exact!

More mummies, sarcophagi, etc.

...and made a plastic model T-Rex friend to take home as a souvenir:

Mold-A-Rama! Now that just sounds fun.

There's our new T-Rex! He lives on one of our cabinets for now, but he will eventually move into Eric's office. Eric's office is cool like that.

We then said farewell to the Field Museum...

Parting view of the main hall

Auf Wiedersehen to you, too, Museum!

...and introduced our new friend to the great, wide world:

T-Rex says goodbye to his birthplace...

...and heads out into the world, looking somewhat Godzilla-like.

Our plan was to hit the Shedd Aquarium next, but there was quite a line out front by the time we made it over there. Since we only would have had an hour or so to spend inside anyway, we decided to scratch that plan and instead spent some time enjoying the nice weather and lovely view.

Shedd Aquarium

Pretty!

Enjoying Chicago

By that time we were getting hungry, so we stopped for lunch then hopped on the train to Wrigley Field, but we've already discussed Wrigley, so let's skip ahead to post-game!

After the game we went back to our hotel for a bit to relax. We had considered going to the Willis (Sears) Tower at that point, but decided against it - we were pretty worn out and just weren't feeling it. (Feel free to assume this decision was partly made because I didn't want to feel pressured to do the Skydeck.) So, we relaxed a bit and then went out to dinner. We went to Weber Grill, where we had a bit of seafood, steak, potatoes, and a delicious chocolate cake dessert.

Weber Grill

My handsome husband with our mound of cake

After dinner we spent some time just roaming the streets of Chicago, taking in the nighttime views.

Wrigley Building

Tribune Tower

Hanging out in front of the Wrigley Building

(FYI, no, I am not trying to do an edgy pose. I was just waiting for Eric to finish taking pictures and he caught me!)

View along the river

Happy tourists!

After taking in the city lights, we made our way back to our hotel where we packed up and called it a night. Our flight out of Chicago left at 8:00 the next morning, so we got a rather early start.

And that was our trip! We absolutely loved Chicago, and it was definitely a great way to spend our anniversary together. Thanks for a great weekend, Chicago!

Farewell, Windy City!

Cubs v. Cardinals at Wrigley Field

Last Friday, Eric and I went to our second Chicago baseball game. This post is slightly out of order, as we did do some sightseeing between the two games (and you know how I am bothered by things being out of order), but I thought it made sense to lump the baseball talk altogether. So let's do this!

We made our way out to Wrigley Field via train around noon on Friday, for the 1:00 Cubs v. Cardinals game. The train ride out there was insane - talk about crowded! But, we made it! 

Wrigley!

Eric was quite excited as we made our way around the stadium and saw that oh-so-familiar sign on the front!

This was definitely an important one on the list!

Eric holding our tickets in great excitement, and both of us ready for some baseball!

Cute little band playing out front

Wrigley Field was stadium #17 for Eric, and #12 for me. We really are plowing through that list, aren't we? And I have to say, Wrigley was one of my favorites. Of course, it's rather old compared to many of the stadiums we have visited, but I loved it. It didn't have all the bells and whistles of the newer stadiums, just a small concourse with crowded food stands, and seats right up along the field. There is barely even any advertising along the field, thanks to the ivy-covered walls of the outfield. Add to that the charm of one of only two hand-operated scoreboards remaining in Major League Baseball (the other is at Fenway), plus organ music instead of the usual modern walk-up songs, and it all just felt so authentic. This was how baseball was meant to be watched, if that makes sense. It was quite charming.

Inside Wrigley

The hand-operated scoreboard

The view from our seats (and look - there's that little band again!)

"Hey, Hey!" on the foul poles

Another thing that I found adorable was all the restaurants/rooftops surrounding Wrigley, on top of which the building owners built bleacher seats so that many fans can watch the game without even setting foot in the stadium. Cuteness.

See all the buildings in the outfield, with bleachers on the rooftops?

We snapped this pic of the rooftop buildings from outside the stadium as we were leaving!

As I mentioned in my first Chicago recap, we were also treated to a bit of an air show throughout the game as various jets zoomed overhead in all kinds of formations.

I guess they are kind of hard to make out, but do you see the cluster of planes to the right of the scoreboard?

Once again, it was a glorious day for baseball. Our seats were in the shade, and it was probably in the high 70s under that overhang, with a nice breeze. Does it get better than that? Oh, yes it does - let's add a hot dog and a delicious Lemon Chill, and then it's just heavenly.

The Cubs ended up beating the Cardinals in extra innings, although we didn't stay that long. We did make sure to stick around for the seventh inning stretch, though, when Larry King sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!"

Larry King is allegedly up in that press box somewhere, although we never caught sight of him.

Ah, another great afternoon at the ballpark, and yet another ballpark crossed off the list!

Yay, baseball!

Coming up tomorrow: our last bit of Chicago sightseeing!

White Sox v. Indians at U.S. Cellular Field

When I left off yesterday, we had enjoyed a full day of sightseeing in lovely Chicago. After taking some time to rest and refresh in our hotel, we headed back out to the train to catch a ride to U.S. Cellular Field.

I was excited about this game because the White Sox were playing my hometown Cleveland Indians, so I was actually interested in the outcome of the game. Sometimes I make a fuss about Eric dragging me to all these different baseball stadiums on his "Visit All 30 MLB Stadiums" quest, but really, I generally enjoy baseball, and I like going to games, even if I don't care about the teams playing. I like the atmosphere, the crowds, the hot dogs and the beer. It's good times. But really, we've been baseball-ing it up so much this summer, at so many different stadiums, watching so many different teams, that I'm getting a little tired. So, being invested in the game itself this time was a nice change of pace.

And, U.S. Cellular Field officially put Eric over the halfway point on his quest - it was Stadium #16 of 30! Woohoo!

The stadium itself was perfectly nice. I wouldn't say it was a favorite, because it was just a pretty standard new stadium, but we liked it just fine. It didn't hurt that it was also a perfect night for baseball!

View of U.S. Cellular Field as we walked in from the train

Outside the stadium

There were lots of statues inside, like this one of Frank Thomas

U.S. Cellular Field

We settled into our seats and watched some baseball. The Indians were very well-represented in the crowd, I must say. There was even an adorable little Indians family next to us, with several cute little boys all dressed in their jerseys and caps with gloves in hand. Fairly early on in the game, the White Sox hit a home run and the Indians dad caught it, so they were all excited. It was rather cute. (Of course, I fully admit that it was probably largely cute because they were Indians fans...if they had been Yankees fans, eh, not so cute! Ha.)

Enjoying some baseball!

(Side note: can you believe that in my rush to pack on Tuesday night I forgot to pack any Indians gear?! Shame! Cleveland shuns me. At least I wore a blue dress!)

Another highlight was Indian Matt LaPorta hitting a home run right to our section. As you may recall, we are BFFs with LaPorta after a meet and greet with him at Yankee Stadium thanks to the Gotham Gators. Go Tribe and Go Gators!

As the night wore on, we did a little stadium exploring.

Lovely night for baseball!

More statues

I liked this one - statues playing catch!

Of course, we also picked up a souvenir cup for Eric, and had some hot dogs and chips for dinner. Yup, our fourth anniversary dinner was hot dogs and chips. Ladies, if you are thinking of marrying a baseball fan, let this be a cautionary tale.

Oh! I almost forgot about the most awesome thing ever, which was this guy:

Margarita man!

That guy has a MARGARITA BACKPACK. So, you can be sitting in your seat all happy and rested, and then decide you feel like a margarita, so then you just flag this little guy and his backpack down, and he comes over to you and pours you a margarita right there on the spot. Where has this guy been all my life?! Or better yet, why do I not own this backpack for trips to the beach (or, you know, just carrying around the city)?!

All in all, it was a lovely night at the ballpark. The Tribe ended up winning 4-2 (yay!), and we had a great time. Plus, that's one more stadium crossed off the list!

U.S. Cellular Field at the end of the night - so friendly!

Are you sick of baseball talk yet? Well, I hope not, because tomorrow we're talking about Wrigley Field! Stay tuned!