Cubs Game #1

So I think I'm driving Eric nuts with my annual Cubs games. He grew up a White Sox fan, and calls Wrigley a Museum. I've told him if he wants to do White Sox games, I'm open for them. But if I didn't book what I do, we'd never get out of town!

This trip might of gotten him to warm up to Wrigley a bit more, at least. Phase one of the renovation happened in the off season, and this first phase included two big screens in the outfield. (And these will come into play later.) He said the men's bathroom was better, too (I know the women's was upgraded!). So it wasn't much, but he wasn't complaining about the deteriorating stadium the whole time. In my opinion, the upgrades so far look like they are going well. They seem to be following the Fenway model pretty well - keeping the history and making the 'new' blend in as well as one can (rather than detracting from it - like Soldier Field did so many years ago). They even try to 'blend' the large LED screens by using 'historic' coloring.

We knew the weather was going to be iffy for the game. This was a night game, too, so we knew that time was limited t how long we could be there. We got there, and play was able to get underway on time. The Cubs even managed to pull into the lead over the Reds before a rain delay was called. It just seemed like it was going to go one for awhile. But, something they could never do before was able to entertain the crowd - they pulled up the Blackhawks playoff game on the big screens! So we had a spontaneous Blackhawks watch party, which for this crowd, was perfect! They probably kept a lot more people around when the game resumed much later, thanks to that.

We, however, were not two of them. We stuck it out through the end of the 2nd Period of the Blackhawks game before deciding to dodge the raindrops back to the car. But we were okay with that. We just went to the hotel and crashed - it was after 10pm by the time we go there.

This morning, we decided to go by Eataly for breakfast (Italian pastries and coffee), since they were open early enough (and the weather was still miserable and rainy). The weather didn't bode well for any other exploration of the City - just too nasty. After a quick breakfast, we wandered through Eataly and picked up a few items to cook up an awesome belated anniversary dinner tonight. Nothing like a little authentic Italian food to make for a mouth watering dinner, no matter the occasion. This, alone, almost made the trip completely worth it!

And we did go by Ikea before leaving town - I didn't think that was on the table this trip, but Eric wanted to grab a few items. And I can always do Ikea. But we still got home with plenty of time to cook up an amazing dinner, as planned! It turned out to be quite nice trip, for as short as it was. Always good to get away, even if it is quick.