Baseball and Hot Dogs and Cheese Curds, Oh My!

We have been leisurely making our way to various ballparks and checking them off our list. It feels like we've been doing this a while and that we should be a lot further along than we are. So, I decided we should be a little more aggressive this year. 

So, we hopped on a plane and flew to Sweet Home, Chicago! What a town. Two baseball teams, amazing architecture, interesting history and delicious food. What more could you want?

From our hotel, we took the train to Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. This was at the top of my list as it's the second oldest ballpark in the MLB. It opened in 1914 and I was afraid it would be torn down before I could have the pleasure of seeing it. 

This is a view from our seats in the upper decks. We were sitting with long time season ticket holders and they were lovely. We were welcomed several times and even chatted with fellow "stadium chasers". The Cubs were hosting their rivals the St. Louis Cardinals and there were lots of Cards fans in the house. Unfortunately, the Cards won but it was a beautiful day for a ballgame.

You can't go to Chicago and not get a hot dog at Wrigley Field. This is a Polish dog with grilled onions and peppers. The dog had some kind of spice that burned a little when I stopped eating it. Holy Cow that was a good hot dog. Even the bread was good. 

On the Southside, you have the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. John had the pleasure of seeing a Sox game at old Comiskey Field right before they tore it down. We took the train here as well. It's all part of the experience!

This was a night game and the weather couldn't have been better. While it was 109 in Dallas, it was gorgeous 75 degrees in Chicago. Unfortunately, White Sox were playing our Rangers. The Rangers had shellacked the Sox the night before and we were hopeful. Dressed in our Rangers gear we were representing along with a few other Ranger fans. We were not alone. One of the ushers stopped us and said, "Please let us win. You guys won last night." Well, Jacob deGrom granted their wish by giving up six runs in the first inning and it just went on from there.

Meanwhile, a person has to eat. It was $5 Polish dog night. This dog was different than the one at Wrigley but just as tasty. It only had the grilled onions and it didn't have that spicy kick but this was better than your average dog and, only $5. I could have had another.

In the upper deck they have this fantastic view of the city. We went up around the third inning just as the sun was setting and got this beautiful picture of the Chicago skyline.

Chicago is more than just baseball. The first thing we did when we got there was head straight to Lou Malnati's Pizza. It's deep dish Chicago style pizza that takes about 45 minutes to get but so worth the wait. The crust is thin but hearty enough to hold the tons of cheese, sauce and toppings, in our case Italian Sausage. I could only eat one piece.

Chicago is also known for it's gangster lore. Al Capone ran the mafia from Chicago. And this is the famed Biograph Theater. It's where the "lady in red" betrayed the infamous bank robber, John Dillinger. The FBI gunned him down and crossed Public Enemy No 1 off their list.

Chicago sits right on Lake Michigan. This is the concrete beach. It was 75 degrees and there were people in the water as I was wearing a sweater. The sand is imported.

The Chicago River is also the location of their riverwalk. It's awesome. The river traffic is usually pretty busy with tour boats and such. They have restaurants and bars as well. It's a great place to stroll after eating a huge piece of pizza.

In Millennium Park there's "the bean". That's not it's official name. I think it's called Cloudcroft. It's cool because it reflects all the stuff around you,

We took an amazing boat tour. We went through the lock out to Lake Michigan where our guide told us all about the cool buildings along the shoreline. The big tall black one used to be called Sears Tower. Remember that kids? Now it's called Willis Tower. It's the tallest building in Chicago and that doesn't include the antennas on top.

There's the Navy Pier with the Ferris Wheel, which was invented in 1893 for the World's Fair that was held here in Chicago. It's okay. This isn't the original Ferris Wheel so it safe to ride. The pier was packed! 

And the newest, coolest place in the city...the Obama Presidential Center. We walked by but couldn't go in. The line to take photos with the statue of the Obamas was crazy long. But we'll be back.

Chicago is a great town. A few of the restaurants have lost their way. We ate at Pippins (no relation to Scotty) and they only take credit cards. No cash. Then they charge you 4% credit card charge on top of your bill. What? At least the food was decent. Then we went to another sports bar and they charged us a "platform fee" whatever that is, on top of the 3% service fee. That was a little disappointing but I assume it's left over from the pandemic. Hopefully these places will stop that. 

But this is a baseball tour. So we rented a car and drove up to...Wisconsin! 

On the way we stopped in Kenosha. You might remember that town from the movie, A League of their Own. It featured the Kenosha Comets. It was a cute little town right on Lake Michigan. They had a really interesting Civil War Museum. 

Greetings from Kenosha!

Then it was on another baseball town...Milwaukee. I was here for work a few times. I liked the vibe of this town. It wasn't until I visited here that I realized where the Milwaukee Brewers got their name. Insert eyeroll here.

This is American Family Field previously known as Miller Field. I liked the old name better. As we were driving to the stadium, you could see the top of the ballpark and I thought it was a bridge. It was very odd. The roof is retractable but not on this night. Do you see those clouds?

We had amazing seats in this park. Even though the name is a little dopey, it's appropriate. Outside the stadium they had putt putt golf, live music and a playground. Inside they had batting cages and pitching cages along with another playground. Lots of kids here tonight.

This was called a Tipsy Polish Dog. It has sweet peppers, brown mustard, grilled onions and 

French fries. Unfortunately, this one had been sitting under a heat lamp so the fries were a little stale but the dog was good. You might see a bit of a theme here. They like the Polish Dogs in this part of the country and rightly so!

These Wisconsin fans are crazy. In Green Bay, the Packers fans wear cheese heads. Here, they wear bottle caps. I love it!

Remember that cloud I pointed out? Well it turned into this! In the second inning everyone's phones went off at the same time with the tornado warning. There really wasn't much anyone could do so the game went on. Luckily, we were all safe. I know it hit elsewhere and did some damage. I was grateful for the dome though it leaked in outfield. When we left in the 7th inning, Milwaukee was beating Seattle 11 - 0. By the time we got home, the final score was 22 - 0. I actually felt bad for Seattle.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee is another cool town. We stayed downtown. They, too, have a bit of a riverwalk. It's not quite as extensive as Chicago but look who we ran into? It's the Bronze Fonz from Happy Days. Look it up, kids!

This was a really cool tour. It's the Pabst Mansion owned by Captain Frederick Pabst. You know this guy. He brewed Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. The blue ribbon was just decoration that he put on the bottle when he sold the beer at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair but the name and decoration stuck. The house was built in 1892 and is on the campus of Marquette University. If you're in the area, definitely do the tour.

Milwaukee has a lot of cool stuff as well. This is the rooftop sculpture garden of the Grohmann Museum. All the artwork in this museum features man at work. Lots of cool stuff. It's on the campus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, which seems appropriate. This town has lots of universities.

We took another impressive boat tour in Milwaukee that started on the Milwaukee River and took us out onto Lake Michigan. That cool boat looking structure is the Milwaukee Art Museum. It seemed like there were all old people on this tour. Hmm...

Another cool view from the boat. This is the Daniel Hoan Bridge that took forever to build. This is the unfinished bridge that the Blues Brothers drove over in the car chase scene. This is looking out onto Lake Michigan from the Milwaukee River. It was the perfect day for a boat tour. The weather was gorgeous. I think the temperature was in the upper 70s and in Dallas it was over 100. 

This is the Milwaukee Breakwater Light. It's a lighthouse that was built in 1926 to mark the entrance of the harbor. Not your traditional looking lighthouse. There used to be people that manned this lighthouse. Back in the day, August Schlitz (his name might sound familiar) gave them a TV so they could watch the Brewers games. It was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 2011. Someone bought it and is trying to raise money to turn it into a museum. 

This is inside the Milwaukee Art Museum overlooking the lake. I'm not sure who the crazy woman is.

Milwaukee is definitely a sports town. In addition to the Brewers, it's home to the Milwaukee Bucks who, sadly, just lost Giannis. He was traded to Miami. I wonder what kind of hat the Bucks fans wear...

You can't go to Wisconsin without trying cheese curds. What exactly is a cheese curd? Fried tasty goodness! I asked our waiter and his response was, "You must not be from around here." He tried to explain it but all I got out of it was that everyone makes them differently and we should try more.

From Milwaukee we drove to Madison, which is the capital of Wisconsin. That was probably our second worse day of weather, the first being the tornado during the Brewers game. It didn't really affect us because we were inside. It rained a good part of the way to Madison. But along the way, we saw a lot of this: Rural Wisconsin with the dairy farms. Just beautiful.

Madison itself is on an isthmus. On one side is beautiful Lake Monona. This is the Monona Terrace where you can go and sit and enjoy the beautiful weather. 

A view of Monona Terrace from the top of the capitol building. We got to tour the Capitol which was pretty cool. You can go in and roam around but on the tour you can go into the Senate chambers and the Assembly Chambers as well. And, of course, you can go to the observation deck and see the amazing views of the city.

The University of Wisconsin's main campus is here in Madison. I had a couple of gigs here back when I actually did work and I really liked the vibe of the city. It's like Austin used to be before it was gentrified. I stand by that initial assessment. The town still has a pretty cool college town vibe.

This is the Arboretum which is run by the University. It's just acres and acres of trails and parks. 

As I mentioned, Madison is an isthmus. On the other side is beautiful Lake Mendota. The first time I came to Madison was in February. My client's office was right on the lake and I asked about it because I couldn't see it. That's because it was covered in snow and frozen solid. This is a view of Lake Mendota from the Washburn Observatory on the U of W campus.

Walking around town at night, the Capitol looks gorgeous.

We had a great time on this trip. We left Dallas just in time to miss the worst of the summer heat. The whole time we were up here we were thinking...summer home? Certainly not full time because it gets seriously cold here in the winter. As in the lake freezes solid. In a couple of weeks we'll continue our aggressive chasing of stadiums. Until then...

Seriously, what's a cheese curd?