Current Location: Sturgis, MI, N 41 47.143', W 085 25.737', elev. 902 ft.

Sunday, I drove into the city of Chicago and cruised around the south side. Chicago is a huge sprawling city with an interesting mix of modern buildings and areas and old, crumbling, rusted facades, architecture reminiscent of 100 years ago. Elevated train platforms and their pillars have grown thick with layers upon layers of paint, and it seems likely that in some places, the paint is holding them up. Because a lot of the infrastructure is above ground, Chicago just has a feel of a city built upon recently discarded ruins, as opposed to say Manhattan, where you feel discarded ruins are removed completely before the area is built upon.

Sunday was the four year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. I have very specific memories of a lot of days from that summer, graduating college, post college vacation, and my first day of work. But it was the day, September 11th, barely a month after my first day of work, and 3 days after buying my first new car, (the car I'm sitting in now with 90+ thousand miles) that I remember more vividly than any other day that year, or any day in the past 10 years for that matter. That is all a story for another time, but the details are something I'll never be able to forget, as long as I live, even though I may forget the details of my graduation, my first day of work and other days. Never forget.

I drove through the neighborhoods of the south side of Chicago, and wound up parking in a lot for US Cellular Field (formerly new Commiskey Park). After waiting in lines of traffic, waiting to pull into parking, I see a sign that tells me parking costs $17! I had no way of turning around or leaving the parking lot, I was forced to pay the $17 and felt completely raped. Walking from my car to the ballpark, I noticed more tailgaters, a phenomenon I didn't realize was so prevalent at baseball games. The south siders seem to have a real chip on their shoulders about the Cubs. I saw easily double anti-Cubs jerseys being sold and worn outside the ballpark as I did pro-White Sox jerseys. The Sox played the Angels, and lost the game 6-1. Not a lot to mention about the game, other than they shot off some fireworks before the game, and inside the stadium they seemed extremely loud and very unnecessary. Towards the end of the game, I went for my usual walk around the stadium, only to be foiled in my attempt, as you can't reach different levels of the stadium unless you have a ticket for those levels. So the photos I have are all from my seat pretty much. Here are the photos.

After the game I just drove all over the city, up along the coast of Lake Michigan, over on Michigan Avenue, and up into the northern suburbs like Evanston. I drove through the beautiful campus of Northwestern University, and eventually back to the motel I was staying at over near O'Hare airport.

Monday I had intended to explore the city some, but instead ended up driving around some more after writing and preparing photos. Later in the evening, I found my way over to Wrigley Field to see the Cubbies. It was actually tough to find the stadium, since my atlas only shows the heart of the city in great detail, and there were signs off of the highway, but they only told you what exit to take, not how to get to the stadium off of the exit. I found some parking which would have been free, and I could have taken a shuttle bus over to the stadium, but I was unsure of this since I am not familiar with the city, I would be wary of finding the correct bus after the game, and I was even unsure if I'd be able to find my car if I had to walk back to it. So I eventually happened to cruise by the park, I only just happened to notice it out of the corner of my eye a few streets over so I started looking for parking. Parking here was even worse than US Cellular, the closest I could find was about 3/4 of a mile from the stadium and still cost $20! Incredible.

My ticket cost $14, for an upper deck seat with a very good view of the whole field. I was lucky though only a few seats to my left, my view would have been severely obstructed by a pole. The fans in Wrigley were incredible. First off, there was no mention of the White Sox in any capacity, neither White Sox fans, nor anti-White Sox shirts. Secondly, I would estimate about 50% of the fans in Wrigley were sporting some type of Cubs gear, whether a hat, a top or something else. Of those 50%, at least a third were wearing at least two items of Cubs gear. The stadium was a sea of blue, an incredible sight. Wrigley is not a bad stadium, the second oldest in baseball, it doesn't feel as cramped as Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium, the other two old-timey stadiums. As an extra large guy, not feeling stuck in my seat is very important. It's amazing, this stadium has been in use for 90 odd years and has never been home to a World Series champion. I had a hot dog, and it was delicious, easily the best ballpark hot dog I've ever had. Aside from the completely awesome game atmosphere, there were two highlights of the game. The first was the three Reds homeruns being thrown back onto the field (1 only after much razzing of the fan who caught it), a tradition at Wrigley. The second was the seventh inning stretch, where they have a guest come and lead the fans in the singing of Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Greg Maddux pitched, but wound up losing 5-2. You can view the photos here.

Tuesday, I slept in real late, even later than usual, and it took me a while to start my routine. I eventually drove into the city and just drove around some more. I was kind of hoping to get out and do some touristy things such as the Navy Pier and the Sears Tower, but I was only halfheartedly looking for parking. I decided any parking I did find would be too expensive, so I ended up just cruising out of the city east on I-90 / I-94. I really loved the city of Chicago (N 41 52.467', W 087 37.443', elev. 757 ft.), and need to go back, but next time I'll stay within the city and do city things. I drove east and I-90 eventually met up with I-80 somewhere in Indiana. I kept on driving east until into the eastern part of Indiana. When I got off the highway, the only town was slightly to the north, Sturgis, Michigan, so I crossed from Eastern Standard Time in Indiana to Eastern Daylight Time in Michigan, my first time back in the Eastern time zone in nearly three months.