Chicago Trip

Ethan, Jonah and I were lucky enough to spend a weekend in Chicago, IL with Alan, Heather and Erin. It was a fantastic, yet exhausting weekend. We made the most of our short time there, filling it full of baseball games and sightseeing...

Day One...

We first arrived Friday afternoon and rushed to the hotel to check in. Soon after, we high-stepped it to the nearest train station to rush over to Wrigley Field to catch the Cubs/Cardinals game. Yes, the field is as old and wonderful as imagined. Lucky me, the game went 11 innings. Right after, it was another hustle back to the train station to catch the Red Sox/White Sox game at White Sox Field. This was an evening game filled with hot dogs, lemonade and fireworks. The game finished in the evening... making our trek back to the train station and hotel an exhausting one...

Day Two...

On this day, Saturday, we had an open morning and afternoon before our evening ball game. With this in mind, our goal was to see as much of Chicago as possible. And boy, did we! We started off the day making our trek towards the Sears Tower. This consisted of standing in line for a total of 90+ minutes to enjoy a blissful 30 or so minutes up top. What a view, though! Our next stop was the famous Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse... named for the late Hall of Fame baseball announcer. Here, we were given the in-house treatment since Alan's wife, Heather, has a cousin that has worked here for 11 years. At this point, the boys wanted to head to the ball field early to catch warm-up/practice, in hopes to get autographs and pictures. Ethan's sister wanted to make a quick visit to the Art Institute of Chicago - and since I was fine with missing practice, I was more than happy to tag along. This was my first visit to an art institute, and with the reminders from security that flash photography is not allowed, it was quite obvious. It was an amazing experience...and I felt so cultured and sophisticated! But this wasn't going to last long since it was time for the trek to the ball field. Another evening game, once again filled with ball field fodder...

Day Three...

We had a small window of time in the morning to do some more sightseeing before our afternoon ball game so our last tourist stop was the famous Field Museum. We were able to meet 'Sue, the T-Rex' and many of her osteal friends. After a couple of hours, it was time to head back to the ball field for game 3 of the Red Sox/White Sox series.

Needless to say, it was an exhilirating and exhausting vacation! Jonah had a wonderful time and, as usual, was quite the trooper. We would love to go back to Chicago to see more of the city and, of course, maybe catch an Oprah taping! But if I never eat another bag of peanuts, nachos, hot dogs or cheeseburgers all in the same day it'll still be too soon! =)