Chicago Day 2

It was a damn good day here in the city.

We headed to the Sears Tower this morning, and were among the first groups to go up when it opened at 10am. There we were, 103 stories up, checking out the view.

It was incredible, even on a slightly hazy day.



I was a bit surprised to find that the viewing platform is actually enclosed. Hood and I were both sort of hoping it would be open air.

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Then we caught the train to Wrigley. Hood was having some allergy issues, and at one point the medicine started to knock him out. So I took his photo and stole his wallet.



The last leg (after the transfer) was packed! Now, we were supposed to find a Stubhub office over there to pick up the tix we bought online last night. That's the kind of thing that lends itself to quite a bit of anxiety until one has the tix in hand. But we had almost no trouble finding the office, so our dispositions improved in a hurry.


See Hood's reflection in the subway glass?

It was a gorgeous, mild, sunny day without a cloud in the sky. Our seats were terrific, even better than we expected. We were a few dozen rows behind home plate. Wrigley Field isn't exactly huge, and the whole place feels downright intimate.



The Cubs were hosting the Cardinals. Card pitcher Braden Looper didn't give up a hit until the fourth inning, and Cubs pitcher Rich Hill was dealing too. Looper had particularly good offspeed stuff working.



When Albert Pujols came up to bat in the top of the sixth, I must admit that though I was pulling for the Cubs, I told Hood I wouldn't mind seeing Al give one a ride. Two pitches later he did just that, sending one about 375 feet into the left field bleachers. That made it 1-0.

But in the bottom of that same inning Jacques Jones knocked one out with a man on, making it 2-1 Cubs.

And that was the final score. It was a terrific, old-school NL-style game with good pitching and defense. Pujols came up again in the 8th to face Bobby Howry, and the crowd hummed with excitement. He flew out.

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Everything went just perfectly, gotta say. Our seats were in the shade. I had this fine hot dog for lunch, and the drunk beside me tried three times to spill his beers on my foot and missed each time.

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There was also an air show going on nearby, and we had a couple hours of jet fly-bys (how IS that spelled?) and such. A couple times the jets flew over and spelled a big letter "C" in smoke over the park. The crowd was electric, really lively and fun to be in.



Afterwards the pilots came to the game, and they were popular for sure. They didn't look old enough to DRIVE, let alone pilot those amazing machines.

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So after the game we really didn't feel like leaving. We just hung out for a while, soaking in the atmosphere, trying to remember as much as we could.



Do we look happy?

I'd been there about a decade ago, back when Sammy Sosa patrolled right field. That was a terrific experience, the best baseball day of my life.

This was better.

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Tomorrow we've got a few options we're exploring. Might to take a boat tour, or maybe head over to Beloit if the minor league team's in town. And we may go see Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater tomorrow night.

Damn good trip. Ya'll take care.

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And though this has nothing to do with Chicago, I just thought I had to post this video of Lonnie Mack and Stevie Ray Vaughan doing "Oreo Cookie Blues." I had no idea this footage existed. And SRV plays slide! Bitchin'.