From Chicago to Michigan!

Catching Up!

Hello!

Well, I did what I try never to do, which is skip a blogging day – it means remembering back, without hopefully forgetting anything important … at any rate, when last we met, we were heading out for a Cubs game, so here we go!

Wrigley Field

In front of Billy Williams!

Front of Wrigley Field

First of all, Cubs Win! Cubs Win!, which meant that when the game finally ended (Cubs 7, St. Louis 6) we got to sing the Cubs song.  Basically it’s “Go Cubs Go, Go Cubs Go, Hey, Chicago, what do you say?  Cubs are gonna win today” and repeat, with different verses in the middle. 

Old scoreboard and ivy on the walls!

Baseball Tonight folks on the field behind me!

38,000 fans!

We drove to the park and ride for the Skokie Swift.  R let me out to get tickets, and he went to park the car.  I turned into the station, and w-h-o-a – a veritable SEA of Cubbie Blue!  Obviously, we weren’t the first to go this route to the stadium!  However, as we were at the very start of the line, we were able to get seats on the two-car train and away we went!  Got to Howard Street and again, we were at the start of the line, so more seats … which was good, as we picked up people all the way to the stadium and the car was full.

Off at Addison, which is literally 200 feet from Wrigley Field.  We did stop at a Cubs store on the way … I got a Baez T-shirt (I wanted a Rizzo shirt, but they were out in my size) and R got a Cubs hat.  We walked around to the front of the stadium so that R could take pictures.  Lots and lots of people milling about, and bars filled with people everywhere! 

Inside the stadium.  Well … we had heard so much about the renovations on Wrigley … a huge new clubhouse for the team, moving the bullpens behind the outfield walls, an indoor batting cage.  As far as we could make out, nothing was done for the fans as far as food or facilities.  I can say that I do love the Cubs, and especially their manager, Joe Maddon – but everything else pretty much is awful.  Very little food choice – it’s pathetic when compared to any other stadium we have been to (other than Yankee Stadium), and huge lines for the bathrooms (mens and womens!) and food service.  Definitely don’t need to go back, especially considering how much we spent for tickets.

We were behind the Cubs dugout on the third base side, in the second area up from the field boxes.  The seats were great as far as seeing the ball game, but between the people getting up and down and the vendors constantly coming by, it wasn’t all that easy to see continuing action!  Also, Wrigley Field has apparently decided that standing is fine – so at difficult moments, everybody up (because once the row in front of you stands up, you have to stand too, or you can’t see anything!) and cheering.

As we got there early, we were able to watch the ESPN crew go through Baseball Tonight, with Tim and Mark and David Ross and Buster Olney on the field.  Fun!  In the 7^th inning stretch,  David Ross (of recent Dancing with the Stars fame) and Aaron Boone sang “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” and did a really nice job! 

Game itself wasn’t great – at 7-6, it certainly wasn’t a pitcher’s duel, but the Cubs won, so that was great!  Then, the struggle to get home …

Fans on the rooftops of adjacent buildings!

As Robert pointed out, at every other stadium we have ever visited, once the game ends (or before, in Los Angeles!) people start leaving.  Not at Wrigley Field!  It was incredible!  No one seemed to want to leave!  Filed out finally, and were caught in the 38,000 person crowd.  Made our way to the L line, and talk about a crush of people…finally made our way to the top of the stairs and the train platform.  Had to wait something like 15+ minutes for the train to come!  (Our assumption – wrongly - had been that they must put extra trains or cars on … hmmm…)  We were able to get seats and got to Howard … the end of the line.  Then, where was the Skokie Swift?! 

Various trains in and out – more Howard line, then the Purple line to Linden – but no Skokie swift!  We probably had to wait half an hour for one to arrive (but only two cars!) – so many people and only two cars.  It’s not like they haven’t done this before … but somebody really needs to organize the CTA, as there were a lot of not-so-happy people.  Finally back to Skokie, and then back to the hotel – somewhere around 11:30 pm.  So, from start to finish, it took somewhere over 7 hours to go to the ball game!  Can’t even imagine what would have happened had the game gone extra innings!  So…

As we were up so late, we were really moving fairly slowly yesterday morning.  Down to breakfast about 7:30 am and out the door closer to 8:30 than 8 am.  In order to avoid traffic, we decided to head west to the I-290, which is the tollway that goes to the far west of the city and then circles around the bottom and out below Gary, Indiana.  This worked really well, as we were able to avoid any traffic problems!!  However, once we got to Indiana, we got off the toll way to avoid road construction.

We had been sent a map of I-94 road construction (and other highways) in Michigan by our friend Sandy, which looked really daunting.  So, we decided to miss the expressway and took instead Highway US-12, which we picked up about 4 miles after we entered Michigan.  Well, it took a really long time to drive across the state, but the route was really beautiful!  Lots of grass and trees and farm fields and small towns.  I had never realized the amount of wonderful old brick and Victorian style homes along the way!  Very enjoyable!

Lots of rivers and lakes!

Very much small town America!

However, as all good things have to end … we needed to head to Detroit’s northern suburbs and of course ran into rush-hour traffic!  Miserable!  We headed northeast of Ann Arbor and then tried to cut straight east.  Stop and Go.  Finally got off on 7 Mile Road, and worked our way up to 9 Mile.  At one point – somewhere around Ferndale – we got to see an amazing episode of road rage!  UGH!

Pick-up truck driven by guy suddenly jerks into the center lane, zooms up past another car, and then literally cuts the car off as he got back into line.  Hmmm…strange move!  Girl in cut-off-car then goes right and tries to cut guy back off.  Truck guns the engine and literally tries to run her off.  Girl is forced to go back behind truck.  Now we’re all stopped at a stop light, and guy is yelling.  Girl starts yelling and gets out of car and goes up to truck.  Yelling continues.  Girl turns around and gets back into car, and we notice (we’re immediately behind this mess, but have given the participants a LOT of room, just in case we needed to get out of there if the shooting starts.)  she’s got a knife with an 8” blade in her hand!  She has punctured the guy’s tire!  Whew!  Girl then makes an illegal U-turn in front of us, and then pulls up against the far curb.  Guy in truck turns right, and heads off.  Now whether he made another turn and came back to the scene of the action, we’ll hopefully never know!  What an experience that was!  Hope never to repeat!

Finally got to our Hampton Inn on Gratiot in Clinton Township.  It’s oddly situated behind an Aldi supermarket, but is fine.  Nice room on 3^rd floor, 301, at the end.  Took everything upstairs and then headed out for dinner.  Went back to St. Clair Shores and Waves, which we have known for years.  Drove by our old house, and it is obviously deserted.  The front yard and the side yard need to be cut, but everything looked peaceful.  Little Red Barn still there! Excellent dinner at Waves, and an even better Sauvignon Blanc!  I had fillet with potato and wonderful salad.  R had fried perch with carrots and salad.  By this time, I was exhausted, so Robert got us back to the hotel and I crashed somewhere around 8 pm … whew!  Up around 7 am.  Needed that!

Greatly looking forward to seeing brother Tom and sister-in-law Marie today, after they have a doctor’s appointment.  And Toby, their wonderful Pomeranian!  The weather has gotten colder; not supposed to be over 65 degrees today, and very, very windy.  Maybe we’ll do my traditional Roots Trip this morning after posting!

Lots of love,

m

xxx