August 23, 2010 - Alarm set 7:55am, girls actually up by 8:20am. We had to get a jump on things this morning because we were headed back to Wrigley Field. On non-game days at Wrigley there are tours available of the facility. You do have to plan ahead and order tickets, so we ordered ours to pick up at will call when we got to town on Friday. We were out of the hotel and onto the subway before 9:00, record time for us. A quick nine stops later found us back at Addison and we were right back at the ballpark. We took a couple of photos outside that we didn't get on game day because there were too many people about and grabbed our tickets. We had plenty of time before the tour started so we walked across the street to the golden arches and got ourselves some breakfast. Who knew you could feed three people in Chicago for under $20. It was the first time we had done so since arriving. The McDonalds was actually kind of cool because there it had Cubs and Wrigley memorabilia all over the place. On more than one occasion I caught myself forgetting my meal and staring at something on the wall.
We made it back across the street and met up with the tour group at the front gate. They led us back into a bar that had a bunch of television sets mounted on the wall and we watched a 10 minute movie about the park. They then proceeded to take us up to the bleachers to relate some of the park's history (and more importantly the rules of the tour). From the bleachers, we made our way back down to the ground level and they took us out into right field. As long as we stayed on the crushed red brick of the warning track we were in good shape, but woe be to he that actually set foot on the grass. (Friendly confines my a$$...) We got to take a bunch of pictures by the brick outfield wall and Wrigley Fields legendary ivy. Interesting historical note. That ivy was installed over the course of a weekend and the ivy that is there are the original ivy that were planted back in 1937. After being on the field, we were walked up to the press box and the luxury suites. We were unable to go to the visitors clubhouse that day because the field had been rented by a private company for an event and there were actually people using it and playing on the field. The tour concluded with a visit to the Cubs clubhouse. Our tour guide had warned us how small it was several times through the tour. We finally we led down into it and boy, was he right. It is a tiny tiny facility for 25 players plus coaches (never mind the additional 15 players who are called up to the bigs in September). We snapped a few photographs and were on our way.
We boarded the subway to take it back into the city. Our plan was to go to the Field Museum next. Laela wanted to go back to the hotel and then grab a cab to go to the museum, but I figured there had to be a subway stop near it and I found one. So I convinced everyone to take the L all the way to the museum. We got off of the train and we didn't really know where we were, so I got out my GPS and punched in the Field Museum's address. We started walking in the direction it told us to. I must've done something wrong because we ended up walking about a mile in the EXACT opposite direction of the museum. We stopped and asked a meter maid where it was and she said that it was about two miles back the other way. Well, I'd had us walking around in the sun for too long at this point to we went ahead and hailed a cab who then dropped us off at the museum.
We got there and went inside and were greeted by Dinosaur Sue. Sue is the most complete, best preserved, Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered. I believe she is the unofficial mascot of the Field Museum and is quite an impressive specimen. The rest of the Field Museum (aside from being in an amazing building) is just like any other natural history museum that you've ever been to. Lot's of dioramas and taxidermied animals. One exhibit that we went into that was rather cool was "Robosue: The T. rex Experience" Robotics and facial recognition technology combined to make animatronic velociraptors, triceratops, and of course a T. rex. Although it is a small exhibit, the technology behind it is pretty amazing. After we went through that we went and had lunch in the basement. It was getting to be mid-afternoon at this point and I was starting to get tuckered out. After lunch we all went to go explore the third floor and I just needed to sit for a while. There were some very comfortable living room style chairs upstairs and I just plopped myself down in one while the girls checked out the rest of the museum. We left at about 4:00PM so we could get back to the hotel, pick up our bags, and then take the subway back to the airport.
We arrived at O'Hare, got checked in, had a quick dinner at the airport Chili's and went to our gate. We were there an hour and a half early, no thanks to the TSA. Since I had finished the book I was reading the day before and Laela had a dead tree edition of what she was reading, she graciously let me borrow her Nook and purchased for me "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" So I was able to wile away my time at the terminal reading (although CNN blaring in my ear made it a tad difficult to concentrate). We finally boarded our flight back to Columbus which was very uneventful.
Once on the ground, we grabbed the shuttle back to the red lot and made our way home. Indy was very pleased to see us this time and didn't "cool guy" us at all like she did when we came home from our vacation in July. Vacation time is now all wrapped up. Miranda started back to school last Wednesday and I start round two of my treatment. Looks like it's time to settle back into a normal life.
