A Trip to Chicago!

Andy and I joined a bunch of his college buddies in Chicago for a wedding and a Cubs game this past weekend. I had never been to Chicago before, so it was very exciting for me. Andy, being the weathered traveler he is, has been to Chicago, but didn't know his way around or anything.

We attended the wedding, which was in Orland Park, a suburb of Chicago, on Saturday night. Our flight (a direct flight) in was AWESOME. I think we need to just suck it up and always pay extra for direct flights whenever possible. No problems, no delays, no lost luggage, no missed flights. Ahhh.

The wedding was really pretty. The weather up there was perfect. Such a nice change from the heat box of Louisiana. We all had a fun time dancing to the early 90's music the DJ was playing, and goofing off in front of the photographer's background screen.

I didn't get any pictures of the wedding, which is why this is so far only text. I'll have to fill those in when I get some from other people.

Anyway, on Sunday, we all packed up our clothes and loaded up to drive into Chicago. Scott Farrell, one of Andy's college friends, picked out an awesome hotel in the middle of downtown Chicago for us all to stay at.

Driving into Chicago on Sunday

You may notice that we all have the same shirt on. This was not a coincidence. Dave and Melissa, the newlyweds, arranged for a whole bunch of their wedding guests to go to the Cubs vs. Astros game on Sunday at Wrigley Field. They also got shirts made for us! Their last name is Vanausdoll, hence the "V" on the front.

Re-grouping in the hotel lobby

Once we were all into the big city and had our blue shirts on, we headed off to catch the subway. I could go on and on about the wonders of a reliable and efficient public transportation system now, but I will spare you of that. Most of you have probably lived or do live in a city that HAS good public transportation already. We do not, which is why Andy and I were utterly amazed at being able to get wherever we needed to go by subway. I could definitely get used to that.

Jeff and Andy

Our fearless Leaders, Mary Ellen and Scott (to be married two months from today!)

We joined tons of other Cubs fans in the subway and took a nice ride over to Wrigley Field.

Jessie, Joey (Joessie) and Andy

Stepping out of the subway at Wrigley Field (the Addison stop), this is what we saw. The day was absolutely beautiful - not too hot and not a cloud in the sky!

The view before we went into the stadium

Being part of the special Vanausdoll wedding group, we were ushered into the private party room and served an all you can eat brunch! The bride and groom and all the others who stayed in Orland Park got there way later than we did. They took a school bus, went the scenic route, and didn't use public transportation like we did. Then, the bus driver wouldn't let them off the bus until he found a parking place! My favorite part of the brunch was the desert. I had some of the most delicious carrot cake ever. It tasted a lot like Mom's and wasn't as rich as the Ambrosia Bakery carrot cake. I have decided that I'm over the Ambrosia Bakery carrot cake because it's just entirely too rich.

So, we gorged ourselves on the brunch food in our post-wedding-hungover states and headed to our seats. Now, Andy had me convinced that we were in a box and that the brunch area was attached to said box. I don't know where he got that from, but I suspect that it was another one of his made-up things that he convinces himself of, much like the honeymoon place we were supposedly staying at that was very swank and had hot tubs but, in fact, was not swank at all and had very cold mountain water.

Mary Ellen and Scott

Despite the fact that our seats were indeed not in a box, they were seats in Wrigley Field none-the-less which is exciting in itself. We had a whole bunch of rows blocked off for our wedding crew. It was fun!

Our view from the bleachers

The houses next to the stadium all have bleachers on top of them

Some of our group

So, there was this guy with a molester mustache sitting in front of us who was there with his family and what I really really hope was his little girl. He got this massive hot dog and massive piece of pizza which I had to take a picture of. Very shortly after finishing off the massive pizza and hot dog, the dude got a massive hamburger AND nachos! The amount of food that man consumed was absolutely disgusting.

The game went on and my interest faded in and out. Andy gave me on and off descriptions of what was going on, or historical tidbits of the field, such as the fact that the Underarmor advertisements you can barely see in this picture out on the field wall were a big source of anger for fans because they were the first advertisement in the stadium ever (or something like that). Also, the games used to always be played in the daytime because they didn't have lights out there until recently. And I learned from Scott that you can rent floors of the house to the left of the red house in the top left of this picture and have bachelor parties in there with questionable women.

Andy took the next three pictures of whoever the pitcher is pitching. Pretty good! And also a good thing that after my frustrating time not getting pictures of the humpback whales diving on our honeymoon because the camera was set on some slow speed, I figured out how to set it to take pictures in quick succession.

So, the Cubs won with two home runs and something else spectacular, I think. We got to hear the Cubs victory song (I think that's what it is) which goes as follows:

OH! OH! OHHHH! (Or it might be GO! GO! GOOO!)

OH! OH! OHHHH!

Hey Chicago Waddya Say

The Cubs are Going to Win Today!

This was sung for at least an hour after the game was over. Any Cubs fans, please forgive me if I have not recited your victory song correctly.

After the game, a few of us, prompted by me because I wanted to go down to the field (you're all very welcome) went down to the field and took some pictures. It was a requirement, apparently, that the scoreboard be in the background of all the pictures.

Jane and Jeff

Said Scoreboard

Andy and Jeff

We then went and looked in the shops in the stadium and I took pictures of signs. I think the foul ball one is cute!

After fiddling around in and around the stadium for a little while, we joined the rest of our group at a very busy bar across the street called The Cubbybear. I think. Regardless of what it is called, that place was filled to the brim with rowdy loud Cubs fans. We stayed there for a beer or two, hanging out by the men's room the whole time because there was no where else to stand, watching the white people dance until it was finally (thankfully) decided that it was time to go back to the hotel.

Andy, me, Joey, Mary Ellen, Jessie, Scott, Melissa, Jane, Jeff

We took the subway back to downtown and shuffled back to the hotel. Andy and I swear that the floors in our bedroom were padded with some sort of really soft cushion. You could very comfortably sleep on the floor in there. The bed, of course, was much more comfy, and after showering and dressing for our next outing, I almost was unable to get out of it.

Our party of 11 went out for dinner and then people split up afterwards. Everyone was pretty exhausted. Before going back to the hotel to sleep, though, Andy and I joined Mary Ellen, Scott, and Mary Ellen's brother and his girlfriend on a walk to the John Hancock building. We took the extremely fast elevator to the 96th floor, and dizzily looked at the whole city from there. It was amazing!! I felt very unstable that far up, but it was still really awesome. I'm very glad that we did that before going back to the hotel, because it was a good end to a long fun day.

This morning, Labor Day, Andy and I got up early and went for a run on the lakefront. There were tons of people out and it was a great way to see the city. I didn't know that the lake has beaches! There was also a sort of "muscle beach" area along the beach, which I thought was funny. After our nice run, which Andy seems to think was longer than it was, we dumped the sand our of our shoes, showered and went out for a quick breakfast with Mary Ellen and Scott. We walked over to the river, which is a very un-natural looking blue, and saw a bit more of the city.

We said our goodbyes to Scott and Mary Ellen, checked out of our awesome hotel and went to the airport on the subway (the whole time marveling at the wonders of good public transportation and the fact that we payed $2 per person to get there as opposed to probably $45 or $50 in the cab). Our flight home was uneventful, much to our delight. Our dogs didn't want to come home with us from our friends Mike and Christy's house, where they stayed with their three dogs all weekend, and the cats were at the door waiting for us when we arrived. So, it was a good trip!

I want to go back to Chicago soon, eat a fancy dinner in the John Hancock building and do much more exploring and utilization of the fantastic public transportation system.