eggwards | Chicago VII: From the Wrigley Building to Wrigley Field

Update: I'm at Chris' place right now, after a trip to see the doc (regular check-up, I'm fine, lost weight!) and spending 35 minutes to try to figure out how to turn on the television, I'm back to writing. Now back to our story...

Wednesday found John (

blithwulf) and I back in the city after dropping off Roger. John had said that this would be the day we would lake the Chicago River boat tour, and I wanted to do a architectural walking tour of downtown as outlined in my Lonely Planet guidebook (they are the best!). We parked at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel and went in to see the huge lobby. It's ornate, not so much in a guilded age style, but in a just before art deco look of details and opulence. It's kind of dark, too, not sure why. We went downstairs to have a look at Trader Vic's, but they weren't open yet.

Out to the streets, we got back to the river and Michigan Ave, where the boats were docked. We decided on Mercury Tours, due to good press...gay owned and friendly, one of the boats features a tour guide who plays it up. Of course, we got the other boat, but no big deal. The tour lasts 90 minutes and you see several of the influential buildings that make up Chicago. It's also notable to say how many warehouses are being turned into lofts. Especially since warehouses are becoming more and more obsolete. Sure Montgomery Wards is long gone, but even so, the amount of warehouse space they have would certainly be wasteful today. Logistics has really gotten rid of the need for so much space.

One difference between Southwestern cities that were built with cars in mind and older towns like Chicago and New York is the fact that more people live in much smaller space. the number of residential highrises is huge, even in Chicago. Houston and Dallas are more spread out, with low rise apartments going on for acres and more single-family homes. Chicago has plenty of homes, too, and the suburbs go on for miles, but there's just much more residential density in the city's core that our towns down here. Of course the skyscrapers seem to be more concentrated in just the city core where Houston has concentrations of highrises in about 6 different areas, and then others scattered around town. Chicago's skyline is very impressive, especially from the lake, topped by the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building.

After the boat tour we went walking through the theater district where James (

moved) is working for the summer. John has been getting calls on his cell phone all the time during my stay, but I got one this time. It was my great-aunt Oujida (say Wee-dah) calling from Dallas. Apparently she had gotten numbers mixed up with that of my sister, and dialed. She asked what was happening and I said I was in Chicago, and with that she was surprised. Just such an odd call coming out of nowhere.

We kept walking past the Picasso at the Dailey Building (from Blues Brothers, I immediately started humming the Muzak version of "Girl From Impanema"), and the very ugly Miro statue across the street. We got to another plaza and there it was, another Caulder. Modern art has never gone over to big with me, but here I was being subjected to yet another of Calder's works after seeing a larger on in Grand Rapids. This one, "Flamingo" was still in the original red. I have no reason it's called "Flamingo". A couple of buildings down is a Frank Stella installation called "Moby Dick", what it looked like was the effect of Moby Dick swallowing a garbage scow and then barfing it back up. Art. Whatever.

I asked John if he was enjoying this, just being led around town by me. He replied that it was interesting seeing parts of town he'd never been to, or never explored. That plus looking at the buildings in a totally new way with the help of the guidebook. We snuck into one building after -hours because they had let a tour in, and we just pretended that we were with them. What we found was the hidden atrium of The Rookery, that had been re-designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a beautiful collection of windows, lattice work and small lamps that defines the elegant space. Certainly unexpected. I have a picture, but I can't upload it just yet..

We moved on to the big destination for the day, The Sears Tower. John's afraid of heights, so I was asking a lot of him, and trying to comfort him about the trip up to the top. We still joked about the safety of an elevator that takes you up 103 floors in 1 minute and the spectacular fall one could achieve from that hight. We were forced to see some dumb movie about Chicago that starts on some farm stating that Chicago started here...yadda, yadda, yadda. What's the point of such a thing? It's just pointless waiting. in fact, the whole experience makes you wait in no less than three lines just to get to the elevator. i f someone's nervous about the height of the building, unnecessary waits aren't going to help.

The view from the building was great. Late evening summer sun streamed across the city. I could see Wrigley Field's lights now on for the start of the night game. Over there, Lake Michigan and it's wide expanse. Still seems more of a sea than a lake The Gold Coast, The Loop, the entire skyline of Chicago lay below us. They say on a clear day like this you can see four states, but without lines of demarcation, it's hard to tell. Still, it was spectacular, and even John seemed to be enjoying the view, albeit queasily.

Back down to ground level and the a quick drink at Trader Vic's. Trader Vics is definitely touristy, and a little expensive, but the signature Mai-Tai's are good. There used to be Trader Vic's bars/ restaurants in Hilton Hotels all across the country, but now they seem to only be international, with only a Chicago location in the US. This surprised me. I had recommended the place to Randy (

lostncove) for research for his production of 12th Night earlier this year as he wanted that kitchy 50's Polynesian look. Trader Vics is the beginning and I guess now end of the look, and certainly a good recommendation from me. While in Grand Rapids Randy had worn a T-shirt from his visit to Trader Vics.

We left the parking garage to go back home. John turned on to clark street, and after a couple of moments, I suddenly realized something..."Why are all of the cars ahead heading towards us?" John didn't realize it was a one way street down here and pulled off to the side, then turned around. We had a good laugh. Night had descended and we went for a bite to eat and closed out the night.

The next day was to be baseball day. A plan to go to Wednesday's night game had fallen trough, but that was fine. A day game at Wrigley was much more traditional. The temperature was 75 degrees and beautiful. It was a great day for baseball..."Let's play Two!" After securing our tickets, we made our way down to Wrigleyville, actually parking down in Boystown and walking over. The Addison El stop was pouring out people for the sold out game. The Cub's Kerry Wood was pitching, and he's a hottie. Shania Twain threw out the first pitch, and would sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" as well. Sammy Sosa knocked out a homer to Waveland Ave just like I've seen so many time on WGN, but never in person. The cubs ended up losing the game 14-6 with a spectacular meltdown by Wood in the 6th inning. Most of the crowd stayed to the end, a surprise to this Astros fan who's used to seeing the pampered Houston crowds leave early in anticipation of a loss. John and I kept commenting on Philadelphia first baseman Jim Thome's huge package, that we could both see unaided from some 40 rows back.

John could tell that I was very excited to be here. Again, I was giddy with excitement. This was one of the primary destinations for this trip.

Wrigley Field was exactly like I thought it would be. The brick and ivy, the small size, the fans, including the South sider next to me who would root for any team but the Cubs (so why are you here?). There was the manual scoreboard and the houses across the street with their bleachers added to their rooftops. I called my sister, and also my friend Hans. Hans was very envious as I described the scene in front of me and he could actually see what i was looking at since he can see WGN at work. I told him it was nice and cool today, he told me that it was 95 in Houston that day (By contrast, it's 100 today in Dallas). John and I were even on WGN at one point as were were caught behind a father and his sleeping daughter in the next row. Hmm, did they see that we were sitting a little closer to each other than two men normally are? I wonder.

The game ended and we went out into the streets. We headed over to the Cubbybear bar across from the stadium. There were lots of already-drunk fans there. Several of them were young women that seemed out of place for a sports bar. john said he earned several straight points by going in there. I was unfazed, but i wanted to buy some shirts, because Cubby-bear written across a shirt is too cute. It may not mean anything in Chicago but a Wrigleyville bar, but outside there it will be fun for bear events. I bought one for me, one for John and one for Chris, who I'll be giving it to today! Go Cubbybears!

John had left the cell phone off during the game, and turned it on as we were headed back to the car. apparently his mother couldn't get a hold of him and all hell broke loose. His mom had called his brothers and sister and even Shawn looking for him. Apparently John isn't allowed to have a few moments away form the phone. It wasn't important, but she was worried about him. I was a bit surprised by his mother's reaction. I can go for weeks and my mother won't call me, which is just fine for me. it just struck me as odd. john gets a lot of calls, and a lot of people bend his ear. he's nice to listen, in fact, he's a saint, but I know it's raising his stress level and will affect his health if he's not careful. He may have to tell people no just for his own good. i know that I was being a bother being around all week, but I tried to do my best to not make too many demands and be a good house-guest.

Dinner with Shawn and then we'd be going out again...more to come.