Chicago Cubs - July 14, 2011

 CHICAGO CUBS VS. FLORIDA MARLINS - July 14, 2011

Taking the kids to a Chicago Cubs game was a home away from home experience.  Because Lee and I lived in Chicago for years during college, we had been to many Cubs and White Sox games.  And Wrigley Field has that magical quality of old time stadiums - where you can feel the history shimmering in the air.

We took an Amtrak train from Ann Arbor to Chicago and went without a car the entire weekend.  Tickets on Amtrak were dirt cheap and the train has SO MUCH room!  Owen was still young enough to love trains and we walked many times from our car to the snack car, just because he thought it was cool.  The first few hours of the train were magical.  We had TONS of leg room (think first class on an airline and add a few inches) and lots of storage space for our gear.   But the train had to stop or slow to a crawl every time a freight train passed by.  The drive to Chicago would have taken a little under five hours.  The train took seven hours.  The last two hours were brutal.  But we made it!  And the kids loved pulling their suitcases down the sidewalks of Chicago to our hotel.  They felt like real urbanites.

 

We spend our entire trip walking around Chicago and hitting some of the highlights (including the Willis Tower, Millennium Park, the Aquarium, Gino's East, Water Tower, a boat taxi and Lake Shore Drive).  We wanted to continue our Chicago vibe with the el.  We boarded the most crowded el car I have ever ridden.  We were completely packed and the kids were squeezed between us so that we could absorb the jostling for them.  They still talk about it.


The Chicago Cubs was the first time that we learned that you could get a certificate if it was your first game.  There was a huge sign announcing this and a long line of people there to collect their certificates.  This became a tradition at every ball park we visited and most ballparks had a certificate.  You just had to ask.

This game was also a bobblehead giveaway game.  Both kids receiving a bobblehead.  Between the bobbleheads and the certificates, we didn't have to spend anything on souvenirs. 

Chicago fans didn't disappoint.  They had incredibly rabid and involved fans and there was a collective gasp when things went well and a collective sigh (or shout) when things didn't.  This culminated in the 7th inning stretch.  Literally, the entire stadium sings (shouts).  It's so much fun.  We rate the Cubs as the best place in Major League Baseball (so far) to do the 7th inning stretch.


All of the excitement and walking in Chicago took its toll on Owen, who fell asleep halfway through the game.  He was so exhausted.  Lee carried him as we boarded the much less crowded el on the way home.  The trip was amazing and if you ask Aliyah about her favorite ball parks, Wrigley Field ALWAYS makes the top three.