Chi-Town Day 3

by Anne


So Chicago Day 3 started out with a little less gusto than Chicago Day 2. Mainly because Chicago Day 2 took a lot out of me. Walking around in flip flops is just a terrible idea and I should know better.

Anyway.

I decided to head to Navy Pier without really knowing exactly what it was all about. Anyway, I decided to forgo the bus and just walk the distance from the train to Navy Pier. What I did not realize is that it was about 10 degrees warmer today than yesterday and there was less breeze. Grrrrrreat. Therefore I wasn't as motivated to take pictures, so there aren't as many as yesterday.

I started out walking AAAAAALLL the way down Grand St. to get to the Pier. But that crosses the River, which I didn't get near yesterday. Some woman actually asked me for directions. I guess I blended in well. Perhaps it was the lack of fanny pack and large unfolded map. My map was far more discreet.

So you know how they dye the Chicago River green on St. Patty's Day? It's kind of always green:

This picture makes the water look slightly duller than it really is. It's pretty green.

Anyway, I went to Navy Pier which is basically just touristy stuff. However, they were having some IMAX premiere for the Dark Knight and the whole cast was there. Not when I was there, but they were setting up the red carpet while I was there. It was way too hot to give crap about Michael Caine. Don't get me wrong, I love Michael Caine, but about 1/2 way down Grand I wondered what would happen if I passed out from the heat and lay all willynilly in a gutter in Chicago. Would Dr. Mark Green or Dr. Doug Ross come rescue me?

Red Carpet. Fo' reals.

Also at Navy Pier I finally purchased some Blackhawks stuff that wasn't a t-shirt or a pint glass. Here's something to note: There are very few people in Chicago who give a crap about hockey. Baseball and Football alternate Kingship.

Sweet. In Buffalo you are completely inundated at all times with Sabres and Bills paraphernalia. It's unescapable.

There was also this wacky kids show featuring dancing pirates with some not so awesome stage combat, but whatevs, these people probably drink heavily to cope with the fact that they're a dancing pirate all day.

The guy blue with his arms crossed was super tall and wearing a crazy curly wig. Like totally ridiculous.

Then I rode around on this free trolley for a while. He took us by the foundation for the Chicago Spire. It's going to be wicked tall and apparently when completed it's going to block the new Trump Towers (not yet completed) from the skyline, whoops. When it's finished, The Spire will look like this:

I choose not to comment on the appearance of this structure.

As we zoomed by on the free trolley I snapped a picture of what The Spire looks like now:

Weeeell, they did say they'd be finished in 2012.

So I walked around for a bit and went into a few different stores. I bought a really cute trench coat and then ate some random food for lunch. Then, rejuvinated, I decided to attempt to find Wrigley Field. This is not as easy as it sounds. Wrigley Field is not at all in downtown Chicago. So I sat there and tried to compare 2 maps to figure out where exactly it was in relation to where I was at that moment. It took a solid 10 minutes of staring at the maps before I noticed that the description said that its at the corner of like W. Clark and N. Addison. So I hopped on the train heading in that direction and decided that I'd get off at Addison because it was way further away than the station that said "Clark", and just seemed more right. I was really trusting my gut here. So after a good 20 minutes on the train, I was like one stop away from Addison when I was like "Er, this doesn't seem right." So I decided to just get off at Addison and see if I could figure out how far I'd have to walk to find Wrigley Field. Here's exactly how far:

The view from the train platform. That's Wrigley Field. I am SO GOOD at this game.

For the record, if you're in Chicago and you need to get to Wrigley Field, the answer is "Take the Red Line to Addison."

So I snapped some photos. The only major league baseball game I've ever been to was a Cubbies game in 1998. I don't know who they played but I do know that they lost.

For the record, I didn't notice what the display said when I snapped this picture:


Wrigley Field: You WILL have your identity stolen.

This was only like 4:30. I wanted to find the White Sox field but I had to be back to go to some poster thing with MK so I headed back and didn't take any more pictures. Whoops. Tomorrow I'll regale you all with the details of my travels back home! Yay! Buffalo!!!!

I take off at 1:30 Central. Chicago is pretty sweet.