Holy Cow!

July 20, 2011



Trevor & Nadene



Holy Cow!

We were up early and on the road from Grand Haven to Chicago to begin the second portion of our vacation. The drive was easy and took just a little over three hours, which was awesome for us as we were able to gain some time and have plenty of time to drop our bags off at the Embassy Suites and return our rental car. We had time to spare before we were scheduled to meet with a group from the wedding party to attend the afternoon game between the Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field.

Michael



Since we had plenty of time, we stopped at Lincoln Park and visited the Lincoln Park Zoo on our way to the game. The Lincoln Park Zoo is a small zoo that has been in existence since 1868, one of the oldest zoos in the country. The zoo is free and has really been well maintained and continually updated so that the animals have decent living conditions.





Mindy & Craig

We caught a CTA bus down Clark Street to Addison where we exited in front of the famed home of the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field. A group of about 15 of us had tickets for the game and had arranged to meet at the famous Murphy’s Bleachers Bar, located across the street (Sheffield and Waveland) from Wrigley. This was the final unofficial wedding activity as Trevor had made all the arrangements. It worked like a charm as we walked right in and pretty much found our group despite the packed crowd.

Melissa, Kathy, Craig & Rhett





There are really not many sporting events that are comparable to a game at Wrigley, the famous stadium is located in the center of a residential neighborhood surrounded by friendly sports bars that host an atmosphere like no other before and after the game. The ambiance and good time feel of the crowd is a unique and wonderful experience.









It was great fun to get to experience the Cubs game experience with so many friends from Key West, the game itself was really pretty good in addition to the general ambiance. The hometown fans were disappointed as the Marlins defeated the Cubs 7-5. It was an exciting game that went down to the final out before being decided. The weather was smoking hot as the city was in the midst of a wicked summer heat wave, but thankfully our seats were under cover and we enjoyed the comfortable shade.











After the game, we continued the fun at another bar located across from the ball park, Vines on Clark where we got some food and drank yet more Old Style beer. It was a great day and a lot of fun. We eventually made it back to the hotel and opted to head out to dinner at a restaurant near the hotel.





We picked Carson’s, a famous Chicago steak and barbecue joint was just a few blocks from the hotel, so we walked over and enjoyed a great meal. Kathy had their famous ribs and I had a delicious filet and we capped off a great first day in Chicago.



Lincoln Park Zoo

Murphy's Bleachers

Carson's Ribs