Chicago North Side

(Matt's friend Marty got us right down next to the Wrigley Field surface, where I posed next to the Cardinals' on-deck circle.)

Ryan here.
It's Saturday morning and we are supposed to go to Milwaukee for an evening game today. It's probably a good thing our schedule worked out this way for a couple reasons. There was a big thunderstorm last night that created flash floods around the Chicago area, shutting down some of the mass transit lines in the city and generally causing havoc. So getting around Chicago would have been really tough today.
Of course, some roads were closed, so hopefully we get to Milwaukee without a problem. The other good thing is that Miller Park has a retractable roof so we don't have to worry about whether or not there will be more rain tonight.
Yesterday was really cool, as Chicago usually is. We went to the Cardinals-Cubs game at Wrigley Field. That's a big rivalry for those who aren't big baseball fans. Unfortunately the Cubs won, which makes me quite annoyed, but we had some really awesome luck.
First off, we were able to buy some pretty good seats for a relatively good price in the morning before the game. We had been waiting for the price online to drop and got first row seats in the upper deck, which are really quite good.
Then when we got to the game and were trying to get close to the field to autograph hunt, we were given a really fortunate break. At Wrigley they only let people with tickets in that area go around home plate and the dugouts before the game. But, Matt happened to spot somebody he knows working on the field. Marty Pugliese, a Xavier High alum, was responsible for guarding around the Cardinals dugout, and he let us stand there for several minutes while the players took BP. So we were really close to the field and I managed to get my first autograph of the trip: Cardinals rookie pitcher Jaime Garcia.
He also told us where to stand after the game to catch some of the players coming out of the locker room. Even after a loss Cardinals infielder Aaron Miles and a few others were nice enough to stop and sign for fans. So that was really exciting.
In our upper deck seats we were surrounded by two different worlds. On Matt's left were a pair of obnoxious fans, one of whom lost his lunch and rather than trying to get to a garbage, or clean it up afterwards, simply covered it with a box and sat over it the rest of the game. That was the bad.
On my right were a group of four really friendly people from Canberra, Australia. It was a pleasure talking to them throughout the game. Me and the woman immediately next to me chatted about the differences between baseball and cricket as well as American and Aussie sports in general.
She was rooting for the Cubs (cause that's what you do if you have no allegiances) so we were joking around with each other as the game was going on.
I hope that group has a great time as they enjoy the hot weather here while it's freezing temperatures in Australia.
(In sequence: The rooftop views from across Sheffield Ave. were pretty packed for Friday's game; Fans in both blue and red pour out of the stadium after the game; The statue of Cubs - and formerly Cardinals - radio announcer Harry Caray is a popular site; Aaron Miles, taking batting practice here, was nice enough to sign autographs for fans after the loss; A pair of street performers play some rhythms on their buckets. The kid looked like he was about four or five years old.)

Wrigley is the same as ever. The atmosphere of the park is pretty cool in my opinion. The ivy and the look of the stadium, both inside and out, is very cool. The place is packed for games, especially Cubs-Cardinals, and there were actually a very large number of Cardinals fans who made the trip, adding to the environment.
The negatives are that the fans can occasionally be rude and boorish and that after a while the lack of modern technology - Wrigley has refused to enter the next century and barely the latter half of the last one - can become tedious. There's no video scoreboard, the lineups aren't displayed anywhere, etc.
And for some reasons the Cubs win every time I show up. Go figure.

After the game we headed downtown for a while. We crossed Michigan Ave. and headed to the six-year old Millenium Park with its famous "Bean". After that we took what ended up being a long and circuitous walk to Navy Pier, a tourist trap on the water, where we had dinner and walked around. We even got to walk through the randomly-placed stained glass museum for free.
After that we came back to the apartment and rested for the rest of the night. Now we're getting ready to head to Milwaukee, a place neither of us has ever been. I may not get to post for a couple days with a busy schedule, but hopefully by Monday.

("The Bean" just looks cool. That's really it's only purpose.)