Friday night downtown Chicago

Walked 4.5 miles to downtown Chicago on a beautiful Friday night, after a very much needed low key day. We decided to postpone Milwaukee by one day, so we will see them play tomorrow night instead. Thanks again to Chas McFadden for sharing his place with us.

Chicago - Boat Tour

We took a boat tour along the Chicago River to see all the different skyscrapers.  Not something we would have thought of doing on our own but when hanging out with Chas and his buddies the night before they collectively said it would be one of the coolest things to do.  And it was.  Speaking of the night before; we got to meet some of Chas' friends and we had a great time.  We met Amy, Enzy (sp?), Paulie, and Jack.  Paulie and Jack are straight from Ireland.  I don't think I've heard more cursing ever.  Paulie used all kinds of great words as part of his normal conversation.  Fun time.  We also met Ann the next night.

The boat tour offered a persective not possible from the street side.  The tour guide fed us so much good information that it is hard to remember everything now.  She credited the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 with wiping out the area and providing a blank slate for architects to build a city.  Becasue of advancements structurally, the architects were able to start building taller buildings with steel.  The city went on a building tear for the 1893 World Fair.  Dan Burnham was instrumental in getting the city ready for the fair so he was given the reins on developing a master plan for the city called the Plan of 1909 (?).  Much of the city is still in line with this plan.

The boat tour also provided a great view of the numerous moveable bridges. There are 38 active moveable bridges and they had over 50 originally. Beautiful structures.

Chicago - Smith Stained Glass Museum

Aileen and I had done a boat tour on the Chicago River earlier and it must have been 100 degrees out. One of the last things the tour guide said was if we wanted to cool down we should check out the stained glass museum.   Something about needing to keep the temp down for the glass. So we probably went to the museum on the wrong pretext but we are glad we did. What an amazing collection of stained glass. Different types and styles. Supposedly this museum is the largest private collection of stained glass.   Enjoy because we did!

Game 2 - Wrigley in the Day

Wrigley in the day. Mets spending all their runs in one game. Btw Chicago fans are great but also very sarcastic. They give fake cheers for all kinds of things. They also have a song for when they win. Of course I would rather the Mets win but cool to hear the song.

Game 1 - Wrigley Night Game

Here are some pics from the first game.  We didn't expect to attend this game but my cousin Chas picked up some tickets.  Good to see Wrigley at night and during the day.  There was a lot of hype for the Cubs becasue the next great player, Anthony Rizzo, was coming up and starting his first game.

We sat out in the bleachers with the "bleacher bums".  Open seating in center field so you just find a spot and sit down.  The field and stadium are beautiful but definitely old.  First thing that jumped out to us is the lack of electronic score boards and the lack of fan participation stunts like shooting t-shirts into the stands.  I like having the electronic info to keep track of the game but the old manually operated board at Wrigley stands as a monument to a differnet time.  A simpler time (waxing poetic...).  Check out this video of the famous Take Me Out to the Ballgame song.  Don't listen to OUR voices becasue they are horrible.  Fun time though.

More intro..

Still trying to figure out how this all works.  Testing photo uploads.