Root, Root, Root for the Cubbies...

I like to get up to see a Cubs game somewhere around my birthday. Though I haven't made it every year since living in Indy, I have a majority of the time. This weekend was that trip for me. Yes, a little more than 2 weeks from my birthday, but it still counts.

Since it was a late afternoon game, Eric and I were able to take our time getting out the door to head to Chicago. In fact, we didn't leave until about 10:am, which is was late for a roadtrip to Chicago, normally. But we were in no rush. Even with some holiday traffic on the road already, it still wasn't too bad of a drive - really no longer than usual.

We get into Chicago and decide to try to check into our hotel, but it was early, and our room wasn't ready yet, so they kept our bags and we headed for the Red Line. Well, first we had to buy day passes... so we went to what we thought was just a Walgreens. No... this Walgreens has a sushi chef right when you walked in the door. Right next to their FroYo station. Hmmm... not your typical Walgreens. But they still had CTA day passes, so we were happy. Off the to game!

We got there with plenty of time, especially since we were in the stands this year - no fighting for the good seats like we do in the bleachers. We had time to stroll the stadium a bit and grab a hot dog. The Cubs were playing the Astros and after 9 kind of slow innings, they won! Yay!

After the game, we hoped back on the 'L' and headed back downtown. We got checked into our room (finally) at the Wit and were glad we didn't force the issue on getting into a room before the game - they gave us a sweet room, thanks to Eric's status! It was on the SW corner on the 20th floor, with SPECTACULAR 270 degree view, including straight down State St. and over Millennium Park to Lake Michigan! It was absolutely amazing! Great place to wind down before going to dinner (and wake up to in the morning!).

Dinner. Yes, we love to try new places and food. This time it was a tapas place recommended by a friend who lives in the area, Cafe Iberico. Very authentic, regional specialties from Spain - it was really good! There was some fun people watching, too... always fun.

We both crashed pretty hard when we got back to the hotel - Cubs games always make for long days when you drive up the day of the game. But at the same time, it was a relaxing day for us - very low key compared to our 'working weekends' lately.

This morning we woke up with the sole intention of going to Ikea and heading home. This was after sleeping in. We headed to the Ikea in Schaumburg and got there before the rush, thankfully. we still walked most of the store, but since we were there for a reason (a new light fixture), we didn't linger anywhere. Good thing, too, because when we came out of the store, it looked like the world was about to end. The pitch black storm was about to engulf the area! We figured we'd outrun the storm. Well, not so much. I think we go south of the worst of it, but it was still pretty bad. But at the end, it was nothing more than a typical sumer storm you'd get in FL. So it didn't impact us, really... we just meandered on our way home.