Chicago South Side

(A view of downtown taken from the Museum Campus)

One last day in Chicago before we head off to Cleveland and we spent it in the other half. Economically that's the poorer part of the city, or the "baddest part of town" according to Jim Croce.
At least we didn't have to see many Cubs fans.
We spent the early part of the afternoon going to the Adler Planetarium, then went to dinner at a recommended spot and finally hit up the White Sox game at 35th street.
I've never gone to the planetarium in my two prior trips to Chicago, and I'm not much of a space guy, but I have to say it was pretty cool. First off, several of the museums are grouped together in the same location on Lake Michigan and it's beautiful just to walk around there. Furthermore, the museum parts of the planetarium, including many different kinds of telescopes, were very interesting. And I had Matt to explain a lot of the stuff I didn't understand.
We watched a 3-D movie on the universe and other stuff which I couldn't explain to you if I tried, but it was very fascinating and visually stimulating anyways.

(Above: A statue of Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell.)

After that we walked through Grant Park and back to the subway to head a few blocks north of downtown for dinner. Alison recommended we eat at Ed Debevic's, a 60's style diner she remembered eating at when she was a kid. It was well worth the trip.
The general idea of the place is good greasy food, served quickly, with a twist. The waiters are trained, and encouraged, to treat you with a bit of a sarcastic side. Wisecracks and off-hand comments are part of the entertainment, and quite amusing as well.

(The decor at Ed Debevic's retro diner, including the restaurants motto and the wait staff dancing on the counter.)

Plus at one point the waiters all got on the counter and gave an unenthusiastic dance performance which was great.
The food was delicious too, burgers, fries and milkshakes. So even though we had to take an extra subway ride out of the way it was not a problem and we headed to the game stuffed.
The interesting thing about baseball in Chicago is that the Cubs and White Sox fans are so completely different. The Cubs are known as the team of the upper and middle classes while the Sox are the working class team. That's all about the neighborhoods the stadiums are in. Nonetheless the stadiums are at opposite ends of the same subway line.
35th street is right around where the city starts to become, for lack of a better term, sketchy. U.S. Cellular Field (which should still be called Comiskey Park if you ask me and most of the fans) is just south of Chicago's Chinatown and right off I-94. Despite being several decades old, the park is in better shape than I imagined, mostly because of a more recent renovation. The original "exploding scoreboard" with spinning pinwheels and fireworks was replaced with an electronic one although the fireworks are still there.


(Top left: Matt with the scoreboard behind him; Top right: The scoreboard when it lights up; Middle left: Bernie Bull, the Chicago Bulls mascot, threw the first pitch over the catcher's head; Middle right: Our view; Bottom: Downtown Chicago viewed at night from the stadium.)

The problem with the park, though, is in the execution. We purchased upper deck tickets, which we've done at several stadiums. The difference was this time they wouldn't even let us into the other parts of the park. We were restricted to the upper level, unable to take a walk around and look at anything else. I understand that's part of the effort to make sure people are in the right seats, but it is very unwelcoming.
We also had to contend throughout the game with a particularly interesting fan in front of us (in our seats in the last row for the second straight game). He was nice to us during the game, and was actually pretty funny a lot of the time. But he decided to start making fun of an unfortunate looking pair of people next to us, who overheard what he was saying about them and got upset. He then became more beligerent to them as they complained throughout the game, as if it was their fault he was making fun of them and they called him on it.
He did the same thing to a group of girls further down the row who complained when he started smoking, against park rules. I think he was close to having somebody complain to security and having him thrown out, but it never happened.
The game was pretty good. The White Sox won, bringing our record up to 7-2 for the home team. It was also a good day for three Sox players on my fantasy team, so I had plenty to cheer about.
And we got to see plenty of fireworks from the exploding scoreboard.

(This obnoxious fan was almost thrown out of the park for heckling other fans and smoking. He was actually quite amusing at times, though, when he wasn't being mean to others.)

All in all it was a great end to our time in Chicago, and we make a five-plus hour drive to Cleveland tomorrow. With that in mind I'm watching Major League to get amped up. We will be driving through the night to stay with my brother in Alexandria, VA, after that, and I'll check in from there, probably after getting some sleep.