Thursday, August 4th A Day/Night trip to Chicago and the Sox

Brandon and I left for Chicago yesterday at about 11 or so, with the notion that we would "do" some of the city before the game, which was to start at 7. 

We got to town easy enough, but were immediately stymied by road closures and construction downtown, none of which our GPS knew about.  We managed to find a parking space (10 plus a 2 dollar tip) within a few blocks of our goal which was the Willis Tower (the old Sears Tower). 

On our way over, we noticed that we were at the Union Station- the Amtrak building, so we stopped in there for a visit..

Then, we made it to the Willis Tower, and bought our tickets for the observation deck, (17 each), and it took us about an hour and a half to go through the maze of lines and elevators, but the top was pretty wow.  They added the "skyboxes recently, and you can stand outside and look and its included in the price..

The tower as seen from the street

Yes, those are people 103 stories up in Chicago!

A view of the city towards the north from the tower- It was a bit overcast today- Lots of ships out in the harbor...

Brandon took this looking down from one of the sky boxes  Yikes!

From there, we walked back to our car, and found the credit card that I was sure I had lost- it had fallen out of my pocket and was wedged between the seat and the car door... whew!  and made our way after several detours over to street side parking for the Millenium Park.  Turns out Lallapalooza is playing in Chicago this weekend, and they are expecting a million or so folks in Grant Park for the event...  Ugh. We wandered around the park for a while,

From there, we wandered through the blocked off streets and got to the Navy Pier, which I had not been to before, man was it jammed!  We had dinner at Bubba Gumps, and then made our way to US Cellular Field.... 

and then made our way to US Cellular Field....had a bit of an issue getting to parking, but we solved it, actually getting right next to the field... (23 cash only.)

We had seats on the upper deck, 5th row.

The Yankees absolutely smashed the Sox, 18-7.  Think Jeter had 4 hits, maybe more, we left at 7.5 innings.  Got a ball and pin, and an additional special commemorative  ball as we were heading out, since tonight was "Mayor Daly night" 

Today, fortunately, when I was downloading the tickets for the Cubs game, I noticed they were for the wrong date!  Thank goodness a call to Stub Hub got the problem fixed, and we actually got better seats.  So tomorrow, we have seats for the Cubs and Cincinnati. 

Also downloaded Brandons ticket for his flight home on Saturday.  We'll wake up, do breakfast somewhere, then take him to O'Hare for his flight, which leaves at 1210.