Fourth game, Cubs vs. Reds

Chris and I at Wrigley, this place rules
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Fourth game, Cubs vs. Reds

All I can say is that Wrigley is awesome!!! Everything about this place totally rules.  We got into Chicago about 4 and drove right to Chris's friend Chayla's house.  We then went and hopped on the L train and headed downtown.  We walked around Wrigleytown a bit, and grabbed some dinner at this place called Goose Island.  Very tasty food and also tasty beer.  We then headed over to the stadium which as I said before was amazing.  It's got such a great old time feel to it, and it's completely different than any other stadium we have seen.  Even though everything is a bit broken down and looks bad, that actually makes the stadium better.  I only saw one bathroom, and there is no jumbotron.  There also are no distractions between innings.  No T-shirts shot into the upper decks, no mid-inning games or other distractions, just baseball.  As the Cubs are in the middle of a pennant pace the fans were very excited.  It's impossible to sit there surrounded by Cubs fans and not get excited.  Alfonso Soriano hit a home run on the first pitch of the game, and the fans were excited the whole rest of the way.  The game was very good, as the Cubs pulled out a win the bottom of the eighth, winning 3-2.

View from our seats, again this place rules
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All of the little things about Wrigley are great.  The seventh inning stretch was great as everyone in the stadium sings along.  Everyone does the 1-2-3 strikes your out thing too!!  And, after the cubs win they play this great song and all the fans sing along again.

I do have to say that perhaps the reason people have such a good time is the massive amounts of Old Style that are consumed.  People back here drink a lot.  The guys next to us slammed down two Old Style's each in the first two innings, pretty impressive.

Ted Lilly pitched a great game, I love detail on my camera, check out the ball in mid-flight
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After the game we went to this bar called Slugger's for about 15 minutes.  It was packed with happy Cubs fans, but was a bit loud for our liking.  We left and went and met Chayla who we are staying with at this place called the Hidden Shamrock.  Very cool place.  It was open mic night, and a bunch of people played.  Very fun night, Chicago is my favorite city so far for sure.

Chris here. Just adding a little to what has happened in Chicago. Wrigley was awesome as Gabe stated. We stayed out late on Wednesday after the game and had an awesome time. I was able to experience the fullness of city life here in Chicago by emptying my bladder in an alley behind a dumpster along w/ Meghan around 2 am after the bars had closed. Also, Meghan has gained my respect for life by parallel parking not once but twice in INSANELY small spots that everyone in the car doubted she could fit in to.

Best stop of the trip so far
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Today Chris and I hopped on the L and made our way downtown.  We ate some deep dish pizza and then went to the top of the John Hancock Observatory.  The views were pretty amazing, but we were both pretty exhausted from last night.  So we are now back at the apartment relaxing.  It actually feels really good since we have been on the move for a few days straight. We are going to a concert tonight, and then headed to Cleveland tomorrow.  Get to see the A's in Cleveland which should be fun, hopefully they can get us a win.

From the John Hancock observatory, pretty amazing, that Lake is huge
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Chris again. We just got back from going to a sweet show at the Abbey Pub. We went over there to have dinner before the show with my friend Sally. After dinner we crossed the hallway to see Rocky Votolato. It was a pretty amazing show. Even Sally enjoyed it and she had no idea who he was or what his style was.

Here are some things I have noted driving across the country. I have been too lazy to keep this updated (unlike Gabe who is slightly anal about keeping it updated) so I'm gonna throw these things in here. It is amazing the things that you see in random places across the US. These things are amusing, interesting, or annoying depending on how long you've been driving. We both really enjoyed the "No Smoking" room that we had in Kansas that enforced it's no smoking policy by turning an ashtray upside down and placing a No Smoking sign on it.  Also, it's interesting how the different states treat their road workers. In Missouri, it is a $10,000 fine and 6 MONTHS in prison for hitting a worker whereas in Illinois it is a $10,000 fine and 14 YEARS in prison for the same offense. Also, starting in Denver, there have been many Cracker Barrel restaurants that I note whenever we pass, much to Gabe's dismay. However, the Cracker Barrel symbol appears to be somewhat racist since it seems to be a man (a Cracker) sitting next to a giant Barrel...

However, the best thing that I thing we saw would have to be the 2 random "Adult" shops, 1 in Wyoming and 1 in Kansas. What made these so funny were the giant signs directly in front of the shops that read "JESUS SAVES AND HEALS. PORNOGRAPHY DESTROYS."

It's also somewhat dismaying to see house prices across the midwest which have ranged from $40,000 to $200,000 for enormous houses...ridiculous.