PaulThology

Tues. afternoon, 9/16/08, Atlanta

“Hmmm, my calendar is empty Friday.  My Cubs ticket auction ends tonight, and no one is even close to the reserve price.  I wonder if my high school buddy could get us a deal at his hotel?  Fares…not too bad..$233 a piece, and with AirTran’s double credits deal, this would mean Miles and I would have a free flights to take come holiday time…”

That’s how it started.  Actually it started back in March, when my friend Matt and I lucked out, getting side by side singles (”that makes a pair!”) in the 2nd row at Wrigley behind home plate against the Cards in late Sept, the last homestand of the season.

“Just close your eyes and click ‘Buy,’ he reassured me.

Yes, we thought at that time we’d either use them ourselves, or sell them for a pretty profit.  I’m glad neither happened.  I got to spend two glorious days in the Second City (one of them a weekday) in Chicago last weekend.

Some bullets re: the itinerary
Fri. am - An early morning MARTA trip to Atlanta airport and ensuing flight
Arrived at Chicago Midway airport, on CTA orange line by 10:30 am
Arrived Fairmont hotel, where checking in early is obviously not a problem when the executive chef is your high school friend.

Off to Wrigley via CTA Red Line, arrived about noon.  Fought desire to sell tickets and spend the afternoon in Goose Island Brewery.

Game time was 1:20, got to greet Ryne Sandberg, who was the day’s guest of honor, doing first pitch and 7th inning stretch singing duties.

Score was 8-0 Cards by 2nd inning, my hex on Zambrano is no longer a theory…I’m watching his 2nd home loss of the season in 16 starts, having seen his first Aug. 9.
After the game, back to Millennium Park via train, went to Cloud Gate (that big chrome Bean that is the four year old “must see” for every tourist).  Miles found it rather boring after having seen it 6 weeks earlier.

Upon approaching, Miles claims another piece of silvery architecture is a roller coaster from back when the dinosaurs lived, and they used to ride it before humans were here.  Grooved for a few minutes at the World Music Festival in the Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion, specifically Richard Hagopian’s Kef Time Ensemble, described only as “traditional Armenian” music (I knew after a few measures that the 3-4 timing was clearly not “modern Armenian,” or “classic Armenian”…yeah right.)

But we had glove, bat, and ball, none of which work among blanket-bound tipsy folk and tippy wine glasses…so we walked to Butler Park to play baseball.

Then we went to the park’s playground, where darkness f-i-n-a-l-l-y fell. We walked back to the Fairmont, where Miles was dumbfounded by the many levels of streets of Randolph Drive.  We relaxed for about 45 minutes trying to catch the Ryder Cup highlights, where I thought Miles would certainly be done for the day.  Nope…he’s FOUR!  “Dad, can we go see that fireworks show?” I don’t recall having mentioned it, but I must have.

So we walked…to really wear him out.  It’s probably over a mile with the winding along the Chicago riverwalk and traversing the many leveled S. Wacker Dr.  And Navy Pier is long…maybe 3/4 of a mile?

We caught the fireworks celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, which looked a lot like the Fourth of July fireworks we’re all used to…only that the boom sounds had rolling r’s…
We got ice cream, Miles announcing after his first taste of Mint Chocolate Chip that it wasn’t minty enough, and that he’d prefer to switch and have my Cookies ‘N Cream.  Whatever you want Mr. Miles.  We ended up at the Beer Garden at the end of the pier, and enjoyed almost half an hour of Los Vicios De Papa (’The Pope’s Vices’ in English), a Chicago-based Mexican Ska band.  They rocked the house, and we must have looked quite out of place dancing along the fringe of a clearly twentysomething Latino crowd after 10 pm on a Friday night, even if we couldn’t make out the lyrics.

We caught the last free trolley of the night, the last one of the year in fact, from Navy Pier back within a few blocks of the hotel.  Then we crashed like a couple of drunken fratboys.
We awoke fairly early and headed down to Aria, the hotel’s restaurant, where my high school buddy, the executive chef, joined us, and we did our best to catch up on the latest while being interrupted by dropped silverware and rhetorical questions from Sir Miles.

Then off to the Lincoln Park Zoo via the 151 bus, and spend time among animals Miles has never seen, or hasn’t since he was very little (Polar Bears, Jaguar, Hippo, Crocodile, Ostrich, etc.).  We decided to skip a second attraction back in Grant Park, and just play baseball outside the Lincoln Park Conservatory, where I am quite thankful that Miles did not hit into one of the sunbathers, who were probably surprised to see a late Sept. 80 degree day, but probably more surprised to find themselves in the basepath of a 4 year old baseball prodigy.

We departed at Randolph & Wabash from the 151 back in the loop, to our only problem of the whole weekend.  Station closed, walk 7 blocks to Washington & Wells.  Luckily there was a Dunkin’ Donuts, or I’m sure we might have perished…Thompsons lying right there in front of the Thompson Center.

The Sears Tower remained visible for most of our orange line trip back to Midway, and even after takeoff.  When Miles asked me before dozing off whether or not we would be able to see the Sears Tower from our house, I said “I wish we could see the Sears Tower from our house.”

A fitting close to a couple of days he might not remember, but I’ll never forget.  Pics (unretouched) are here, in the “Chicago Sept 08″ album.