So we spend the gameday evening in South Bend, since apparently the hotels in the area...being total capitalists, have made it REQUIRED that when booking your reservations that you stay TWO nights for homegame weekends. Hmmm......
The next morning we got up and made a quick stop by the ND bookstore, as the kids had decided that they wanted to get the Notre Dame band's DVD that was sold there, and I had a jacket to exchange. We had planned on spending the majority of the day in Chicago, since our flight didn't leave until about 6pm, so we drove back and got a chance to see the countryside from South Bend to Chicago. I have to say, its really quite beautiful. Then you suddenly come upon Gary, Indiana....and the beauty ends.
Gary may be one of the most aestically DISPLEASING cities that you can ever drive through, and half of it might be the fact that the area you were in only 20 miles before is so beautiful. Still, its a dump--bottom line.
Well we got into Chicago a little before noon and I got to live one of my other childhood dreams. We got off the interstate (where, by the way, the wind was practically pushing my rented SUV off of the road--the "Windy City" indeed) and headed for the area surrounding Addison, Sheffield & Waveland. After 34 years as a fan I finally got to see Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, up close and in person. Its amazing to think that its been sitting there, right in the middle of this residential neighborhood, for the better part of 85 years or so. Walking around the stadium, fighting the breezes allowed me to understand what the announcers have always talked about when they say "the wind is blowing out". Indeed.
Kim had opened up her little travel book and found an interesting place to have lunch, which was called "Potbellies". It was a little sandwich shop that had been there for years...pipes running through the middle of the restaurant, etc...and we had a nice lunch.
Afterwards we walked around just to get a feel for the neighborhood. It just seemed like it would be such a nice place to live. When we visited New York, I came away thinking how much fun NYC was to visit, but that I never would want to live there in a million years. Here I was, in the middle of the northside of Chicago, and I could easily see myself living there. After lunch we drove around the downtown area, and made our way back to the Navy Pier to let the kids do some activites that we had promised them they could do when we were there before. This time when we went in we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had really missed the boat. Inside were all sort of restaurants and shops that we didn't realize were even there when we were walking around outside. Honestly, we felt sort of stupid that we had missed out on all of this.
We were ready to finally head out and begin to make our way towards the airport when Kim spotted an ice cream shop (her biggest weakness). While she was getting a cone, I wandered over to a window of a bar that was showing some of the NFL games that day. I had heard a few of the scores on the radio while we driving, so I was a little surprised to look up on the t.v. screen and see that my Vikings had been tied up by the NY Giants 21-21 and there was only a minute left in the game. Kim came over to me and said that she was ready to go.
Uh, honey....I don't think so.
So we all stood there and watched the Vikings drive down the field and steal the game away from the Giants and win 24-21 on a field goal with about 10 seconds left in the game. Not a bad way to end a vacation.
We got to the airport and discovered....here's a huge shocker, that the winds had caused quite a few flights to have been delayed. Uh, including ours. So while we were standing around, I made my way to the restroom. As I was walking out, I was passed by a rather tall guy who looked very familar. I did sort of doubletake and realized that the man was none other than...
Bill Bradley. Former NY Knick....former NY Senator. Former presidential candidate.
Geez, first Jimmy Carter at a book signing, now Bill Bradley. It was my father's worst nightmare. The place was crawling with Democrats.
We finally got home that night about 1am. I told Kim that if she wanted to just let the kids sleep in and skip school the next day it was okay. I'm sure they would've been exhausted.
The next day around 9am, Andy & Kellie came into our room and asked Kim why she hadn't woke them up. She told them that she knew they were tired and decided to just let them take the day off. They explained to her that they WANTED to go to school and proceeded to go and get dressed and had Kim drive them, getting there around 11am.
Maybe that tour of Notre Dame was a good idea.
Later,
Jeff
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