Game 21

This post is two weeks late, but Derby activities seemed to get in the way and I am just now getting around to writing about a recent trip, nonetheless, here it is.  The weekend of April 30th, Deb went to Virginia for her grandmother's 98th birthday party.  Sure I could have hung out at the house all weekend with the kids, but I decided to brave a road trip with them to Chicago for some "kid-friendly activities" and a White Sox game.

Out of bed early on Saturday morning, we drove the 4 1/2 hours and arrived at the Chicago Children's Museum for the afternoon.  I highly recommend the museum if you get the chance as there were tons of fun activities for them to participate in.  After the museum, we went to our hotel - a little hidden gem I found online - called the The Hotel at the Buckingham Athletic Club.  The entire hotel has only 22 rooms located on the 40th floor of an office building a few blocks from the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).  An hour or so of swimming at the hotel pool and then it was time to get ready for the baseball game.



View from our seats.


We took the subway to US Cellular field to watch the White Sox take on the Baltimore Orioles.  Despite lower level seats and feeding the kids hot dogs and cotton candy, they were still a bit restless.  We took a great deal of time to explore the entire ballpark. 

In the outfield, there is a monument park of many former White Sox greats.  The kids loved posing for pictures with each and every statue.  There is also a very nice standing-room only area in the outfield in which to watch the game.  More pictures are available on Facebook.  We also spent some time visiting all of the team stores for the perfect gift for Uncle Jeremy. 

I've now been to both the Cubs and White Sox games and when comparing the two, it felt as if the Cubs fans were a bit more passionate about their team.  Of course a lot of that could be the fact that we went to a Friday afternoon game at Wrigley and perhaps the fans were just so excited that they were drinking beer and watching a game as opposed to being in the office.

Unfortunately the Whitesox lost to the Orioles 6-2, but it was a great night at the ballpark. 

Official Boxscore.

My current record of the home teams I have seen play is 12-9.  Nothing scheduled for the near future.  I may be taking the summer off because I am significantly ahead of schedule for baseball games (9 completed so far in less than a year).  I'm working on some plans for the fall to catch a football game and double-up with another game (NBA, MLB or NHL) on the same trip.  I am always open to suggestions.

Our trip to Chicago was not yet complete.  We woke up early on Sunday morning to get breakfast and walk over to the Willis Tower.  The weather was perfect and the views from the top of the city and lake were incredible.  The kids even braved the little glass box that hangs over the edge at 103 floors above the street.  Once again, more photos of this are available on Facebook.












After the Willis Tower we went over to Navy Pier to visit the Shedd Aquarium.  We briefly stopped in the Field Museum as well, but did not have enough time to complete both.  The kids chose the aquarium and we had a great time there.  I will be back in the area at some point because Soldier Field (home of the Chicago Bears) is located near Navy Pier as well.

A great trip...sorry Deb missed out on all the fun, but when your grandmother turns 98, you've got to be there to celebrate.

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