Day 3 - La Porte to Chicago - 150 miles

  Chicago, Illinois, United States
Monday, June 23, 2008

Good morning everyone! I is Monday morning around 8 - CST.  The kids are still sleeping after our big night in Chicago.   Yesterday was a great day.  We got going and left the Holiday Inn Express in La Porte, IN

Our hotel

around 10 or so.  The views right outside our hotel were pretty nice as you can see.

View from our Hotel in La Porte

We backed tracked a bit as we were so close to the University of Notre Dame.

Welcome to ND

It had been getting dark on Saturday night as we went thru so we decided to go drive thru.  With all the national attention for football the school gets I forgot that the school isn't actually that big.  It is a nice campus,

Our hotel

but I had built it

Baseball Stadium

up to be a lot more in my head.  I made sure to see the Business school

School of Business

that boasts such a proud accounting program and we drove by the

More of stadium

football stadium

A peak inside the staduim

and of course Touchdown Jesus.

Kids and Touchdown Jesus

There were lacrosse camps going on so we couldn't get too close to the basillica

More dome

but we did get a nice view from the road. 

From there we headed back west towards Chicago.  The gas prices rose quite a bit closer to Chicago.  As you can see our day 3 price was $4.19.

Gas in South Bend

Getting close to CT prices.  Chicago is about 1.5 hours from South Bend. We arrived pretty timely, as the skyline appeared

Sears Tower

and we entered the Chicago Skyway.

Almost there

Then we hit 

CNA building - Deloitte Client

our first significant traffic of

US Cellular Field

the trip

US Cellular Field

with weekend construction.

We arrived at Superdawg around 2:30.

Morrie & Florie

It is a famous hot dog

The box

drive in that is always featured on TV.  I

Hannah enjoying

t was really fun with the Superdawgs "Morrie and Florrie" looking down from atop the building.  They have car hops that come and deliver to you.

The Superdawg packed away

The dogs were excellent, with all the traditional Chicago toppings, onions, neon green relish, green tomato,

Freed from its French Fry nest

hot peppers and of course mustard.

The kids and the dogs

If you want ketchup you have put it on yourself.  They won't do it.  The fries were excellent too.

From there we headed to check into our hotel the Days Inn Lincoln Park - the area is beautiful with walkups and shops.  The hotel was rated the best in the chain in 2004. It dosent look much from outside but the inside is beautiful.  We all rested for a while and then took a cab to Wrigley.

Wrigley crowd

We waited in line for about 45 minutes

In line for bleachers

with the rest of the general admision bleacher bums.  I am so glad we got bleacher tickets.

With Harry Carey's statue

It was quite an experience.

Wrigley rooftops

Wrigley rooftops

The Wrigley rooftops were right there as we waited.  These amazing builldings right behind the stadium feature bleacher seats that the

Murphy's Bleachers

owners rent out for games. They are so close to the field that I imagine you seem right in the game. 

We got in and sat pretty much straight away

From our seats

center field under the scoreboard.

Scoreboard

Once you were in your seats it was hard to move.

Left field bleachers

With the White Sox playing,

In our seats

there was lots of intercity rivalries and some very interesting teeshirts and signs.

Bleacher creatures

It reminded me a little of the Yanks/Red Sox games. 

Raining on the tarp

It rained for a while before the game started but it blew over pretty quickly and the game started on time.  

Tarp coming off

 

Cubbies warming up

The Cubs won handily.  

Pitching

Fukodome is by far the fan favorite.  Everyone had on his jersey and various references to his culture (samari headbands, rice hats and very interesting tee shirts with different references to his name and the Sox fans).  

Fukudome

One White Sox fan, a rowdy girl in the bleachers, was entertaining the Cubs fans 

Some more of crazy girl

with many had gestures and fake flashings. She eventually got tossed as she flipped off the security guard. 

Fun times!! The kids loved it.  Wrigely is beautiful and I am not sure any other park will be able to top it.  We finished the night with some Chicago pizza.  Today we are going to see some sites around Chicago before we head to Kalamazoo for the night on the road again!