Finally getting to this! We had a blast this last weekend in Chicago. Sarah and I went with a few other couples (Seth/Traci, Greg/Sara, Justin/Kim) up to Chicago for the weekend. We left bright and early Friday morning to pick up the Quin’s in Princeville. We then met Sara and Greg in Schaumburg (got lost on the way) and all piled in our van for the trip into downtown. A couple of my buddies (Scott and Brad) live in Wrigleyville so we just parked on their street (man I love parallel parking) for free – and walked down to Wrigley field, which was just a 15 minute walk. It was a very nice day out so the walk was fine. Greg and Sara split for the bleachers and the rest of us climbed up to the top of the dump (Wrigley) to our seats. We actually had decent seats directly behind homeplate up next to the press box. The only problem was – it was chilly! There is like ZERO sun at Wrigley Field. If you aren’t in the bleachers, you are in the shade.

The game was pretty uneventful, but good! The Cubs jumped out to an early first inning 1-0 lead. That score stayed still until the 7th inning when Preston Wilson jacked a homerun to deep left field making it 2-1 Cardinals. This ended up being the final score!!!! The Cardinals took the first game of the 3 game series. There were a couple crazy plays that made the game a little entertaining.

1. There were men on 1st and 2nd with no outs for the Cubs. Blanco was at the plate and attempted a bunt. He bunted the ball in the air and Molina jumped out to catch it. But Blanco did not move and Molina kinda wrapped himself around Blanco attempting the catch. We couldn’t quite see if he caught it – but either way – Molina tagged Blanco and threw to second, they then threw it to 3rd and back to first completing the TRIPLE PLAY!!!! The Cardinals ran off the field and the Cubs stared in confusion. But WAIT… The umps converged and decided that Blanco was out due to ‘interference’ which stopped the play dead. So the runners went back to first and second and the Cardinals had to come back out on the field. Crazy.
2. In the bottom of the 9th inning there was another strange play. There was one outs and Cedeno was on 1st base. 3-2 count on the batter. The runner took off for 2nd as the pitch was delivered – but Izzy walked the batter. The runner, not noticing it was a walk, still ran hard for 2nd base on the steal attempt. Molina threw down like a good catcher should to get the runner in case of a strikeout. As the runner slid into second he went slightly past the base and Eckstein tagged him out. The runner and the Cubs insisted he was still safe because it was a walk. But Eck and the other Cardinals pleaded there case to the umps. Larussa came out and explained. The umps converged and decided that the runner was indeed, OUT! Piniella then came storming the field and argued with the umps. I was hoping for something a little more animated but it was still exciting. The classy Cub fans decided it was a great idea to throw all of their trash out onto the field in disgust. Welcome to Chicago I guess! The Cardinals got the last out and won the game!

After the game we decided to head downtown for the night and grab some dinner. We got parked without a problem and started walking in search of a place to eat. Hard Rock Cafe jumped out right away but after some discussion we decided on Ed Debevics. BAD CHOICE! We put out name in and they told us 20-25 minutes was the wait. Great! Well, little did we know that every highschooler in america was there that night. Bus after bus of kids piled into the restaurant. A few buses came, got seated, ate, and left while we still were standing there. Finally after nearly an hour we asked about our seat. They said it would still be a little bit and that our group of 8 would have to be split into two tables of 4. NOT HAPPY! We decided that it was a wasted hour and we should just leave. So we started down the road again and agreed to just grab something at Portillos/Barnellis (i think that was what it was called). The food was great and there was NO wait to order food. Good choice! After we ate it was time to just head back to the hotel and crash for night.

On Sunday it was soooo nice to sleep in. No kids to wake up for. No work to get up for. Perfect! Sarah and I got up and worked out for a while just to wake up a bit. Then we ate the free Belgian Waffle breakfast at our Holiday Inn. Yummm! We met up with the other couples at 11:00 and headed to Woodfield Mall. The girls ran into the first store and started their shopping. The guys started their journey around the mall. We walked around all 3 levels of the mall and went into a handful of stores in about an hour. Now we were ready to go do something fun So we called up the girls to see where they were. Where were they??? They were still in the SAME STORE AS THEY STARTED IN! Wow! We grabbed the keys and headed to Dave and Busters for the day to watch games and play video games. We had a blast at Dave & Busters, mainly with the Trivia Game and watching Greg create, Baby Horse, and get demolished in the horse racing game. We stayed here until 4:00 then went back to get the ladies and head home. Everyone was super exhausted from the big weekend. We had so much fun and hope to do this sort of thing more often.

We did miss our kids though It was sure nice to get home and sleep in our own bed and play with the kiddos!

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