Pennsylvania's Greatest Hits (and Cleveland)

Our baseball odyssey continues through the state of Pennsylvania. Our first stop? The City of Brotherly Love aka Philadelphia!

Philadelphia is one of my favorite cities. There's so much history and so many cool things to do.  But first, baseball. Stadium #15, Citizens Bank Park. Back in the day, you may remember that the Phillies and the Eagles played at Veteran's Stadium. That place was torn down in 2004 and replaced with individual stadiums for the various Philadelphia teams.

Home of the Philadelphia Phillies. We took the train out here. We were surprised that there wasn't much out here except the other sporting venues and the Live! restaurant/bar that is by most ballparks these days. I thought there would be tailgating, partying, etc., but no. Still, it's a cool ballpark.

Just like at the White Sox stadium, PNC Park has an amazing view of the city of Philadelphia.

When the Phillies hit a home run, this bell rings. Boy did it ring when Kyle Schwarber hit a grand slam! It was a beautiful night for some baseball. And much to our delight, the Phillies beat the Astros 11 - 6.

The rest of our time here was spent on history and we barely scratched the surface! We toured Independence Hall and got to see where the Declaration of Independence was signed. We also toured Congress Hall where Congress met until the capital moved to Washington DC.

Liberty Bell up close and personal. We practically walked right in - no line!

For the ultimate history geek...Betsy Ross House. That's right! We did the Betsy Ross House tour and...it's really more for kids. "Betsy" was sitting there in the room that she used as her shop and she was working on a bonnet for her niece, "not her usual thing". When asked she told us, "Mr. Washington had a design in mind" when he asked her to make the flag. Who knew?

The steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art...where Rocky famously ran all the way to the top. I did not run to the top. That stunt was inspired by boxer Joe Frazier who really did run up all those stairs as part of his training.

Look who came to hang out with us on our last day in Philly! Emily! We met for lunch at Angelo's for an amazing cheesesteak. We had a great time wandering around Philly and catching up.

After Philly, we rented a car and drove to Lancaster. Why Lancaster you ask? Because in addition to ballparks, we also would like to visit all the presidential libraries. While not all presidents have libraries, some do have historic homes. 

Welcome to Wheatland, home of President James Buchanan. He was the unfortunate guy that was president before Abraham Lincoln. He was a great diplomat and the hope was he could diplomatically resolve the issues simmering between Northern and Southern States during the lead up to the Civil War. Sadly, he was unsuccessful. After his presidency ended, he retired here to his home in Lancaster.

Tim, our guide, did a great job giving us the skinny on James Buchanan and the history of the man and the house. He clearly got into the spirit of things. The drive out here was beautiful! I love this part of the country. Our nav app took us through Amish country. It was very cool.

Our next stop was Harrisburg. Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As if visiting ballparks and presidential libraries isn't enough, we also want to visit all the state capitals. And, we knocked another one off the list! Harrisburg wasn't the original capital of Pennsylvania. The first location was Chester, PA. Where? It's a town about 20 miles south of Philly. William Penn had big plans but the landowners objected so he left in 1682, taking his plans to Philadelphia. The town of Chester messed up. 

The capital was in Philly until 1799. That was a bad decade for yellow fever in Philly. In 1793, an outbreak wiped out 10% of the population. When there were two more outbreaks in 1797 and 1798, the legislators threw in the towel and moved to Lancaster. Lancaster was really only temporary. In 1812, the final move to Harrisburg was made. Sitting on the banks of the lovely Susquehanna River, it made a much better location.

This wasn't the first capitol building here. The first one was built in 1822 and was destroyed by fire in 1897. This building was erected in 1906. Theodore Roosevelt declared it the "handsomest building I ever saw". This dome is 52 million pounds and 272 feet and was inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

This is a view of the first floor from up above. The photo doesn't do it justice because it was really pretty. That staircase was modeled after the Paris Opera House. We were there on a Sunday and we signed up for a guided tour. I thought we'd have the place to ourselves. But no! Other old people were there with us! 

Harrisburg had some really cool old houses along front street like this one. This is the J. Donald Cameron mansion. This guy was the Secretary of War under US Grant and later a Senator from Pennsylvania. His house was built in 1870. Sadly, now it's office space. Too bad I couldn't go in and look because you know I wanted to.

Sunset over the Susquehanna River was just beautiful. 

The Capitol at night. Harrisburg was cool. We didn't have time to see everything but we got to visit the National Civil War Museum which was very interesting.

Our next stop was Pittsburgh, the Steel City. Having never been here before, we were both pretty excited. It's a cool town that sits on the convergence of three rivers: The Ohio, the Allegheny and the Monongahela.

This is PNC Park from across the Allegheny River. Once again, back in the day, you might remember that the Pirates and the Steelers used to play at Three Rivers Stadium. That, too, was demolished in 2001.

There it is. Ballpark #16, PNC Park. That's the statue of Honus Wagner. It stood outside all three ballparks that the Pirates played in. He played for the Pirates from 1900 to 1917 and was one of the first five players inducted into the Hall of Fame along with Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.

Our hotel was across the Allegheny River and we were able to walk across the Roberto Clemente Bridge to get to the ballpark. The bridge is named for "The Great One" Roberto Clemente who played for the Pirates from 1955 to 1972. Sadly, he was killed in a plane crash while delivering aide to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

This place was awesome. What a great backdrop for watching a ballgame. You have this amazing view of the city of Pittsburgh. It was another beautiful night for some baseball. Unfortunately, the Pirates were eliminated from the playoffs. But, their opponents, the Milwaukee Brewers were not. There were so many Brewers fans there, they outshouted the Pirates fans. The couple in front of us was on a similar baseball journey. They were from Wisconsin and their quest was to see the Brewers at all of the ballparks. The Brewers beat the Pirates 5 - 4.

There were tons of other things to do and see in Pittsburgh. We didn't do all of them but we hit some highlights. This is the Fort Pitt Museum. Sitting on the point of land where all three rivers meet was Fort Duquesne which was established by the French in 1754. The British ran them off in 1759 and replaced Duquesne with Fort Pitt during the French Indian War. Cool little museum.

That whole section of land where the forts sat is now Point State Park. The Point State Park Fountain is at the very tip of the park where all three rivers converge. It's quite lovely especially at sunset.

There's also the Heinz History Center which might sound boring but it's not. It's several museums in one building. They have the history of the Heinz company which made tons of food products. The history of Pittsburgh through the years was a really cool exhibit...in more ways than one. They had the AC on super high and it was freezing in there!

They also had the Franco Harris Sports Museum which documents the history of sports in Pittsburgh which includes the Negro League Baseball as well as the Steelers, the Penguins and the Pirates. I definitely recommend it.

On our last day we walked across the Seventh Street Bridge (aka the Andy Warhol Bridge) to the Andy Warhol Museum. Did you know that he was from Pittsburgh? I didn't. The museum is in the Frick and Lindsay Warehouse building that was erected in 1911. It was used to store milling equipment back when that was a thing.

In 1989, the building was renovated. In 1994, the Andy Warhol Museum was opened to the public. It's six floors of Andy Warhol's life and work. This is called Three Coke Bottles and was done in 1962. It's ink on silkscreen. They had videos of Andy showing how he made these cool works of art.

Another example of an Andy Warhol work of art. It's a self-portrait done in 1978 using three different Polaroid pictures. The way he did it makes it look like he's moving. I liked this one a lot.

We tried something new while we were there and we liked it! Pierogis! They are dumplings filled with mashed potatoes and, potentially, cheese. They were pan fried and topped with delicious sauerkraut and grilled Kielbasa. Delish! 

Sunset on the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. What an amazing trip through Pennsylvania. Driving through the state was beautiful. It was certainly a lot different than Texas. While things were boiling at 100 degrees at home, we enjoyed temperatures in the 70's.

But wait! There's more. We were so close to Cleveland that we decided to drive up and see one more ballpark.

Ballpark #17, Progressive Field. We got super lucky with the weather. It was supposed to rain off and on all day but it cleared up by the time the game started. Cleveland was in a festive mood. The Guardians are fighting with the White Sox for the top spot in their division and Rush is in town!

A view from our seats. To the left of the jumbotron is Rocket Arena where Rush was entertaining their many fans. The tall building off to the right of the jumbotron was our hotel. It was a fun game. It was fan appreciation night so there were dollar hot dogs, free crackerjacks, and a fireworks show after the game. We stayed to the bitter end and enjoyed it all. The Guardians beat the Oakland A's 12-6.

We also went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For an institution that shunned Rush for so long, they were making up for lost time. There were tons of old white guys in Rush t-shirts milling around not only the city but the Hall of Fame. There were Rush events all weekend. It was cool.

The building that houses the Hall of Fame was designed by I.M. Pei. It's a quirky building but I like it.

I had no idea what to expect but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was pretty cool. On the lower floor they have tons of exhibits. This one for the Beatles was cool. There was a video with interviews about various projects plus photos and artifacts.

There was a section on Women in Rock that was pretty cool. There were sections on the various decades and places of music like San Francisco in the 60's and Seattle in the 90's. There was a section on the beginnings of Rock with Chuck Berry, Elvis and Johnny Cash. They also had a cool exhibit about the musical guests and skits on Saturday Night Live.

And of course, the various Rush exhibits. It's six floors, one of which is the cafe and the gift shop. At first I thought it was kind of small but then I realized we had been there for four hours. We'd have stayed longer but it was crowded. It's definitely worth a visit.

The actual Hall of Fame is on one floor. There's one section for each year. All the inductees for that year have a little plaque with the names and signatures. This is for 2013 where Rush was inducted along with Heart, Quincy Jones, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Randy Newman, Lou Adler and Albert King.

We did a boat cruise on Lake Erie. This is a view of the city from the lake. That big stadium to the right is Huntington Bank Stadium where the Browns play. There was so much more to see and do that I hope we make it back to Cleveland. As they say here, Cleveland Rocks!

Sunset on the Cuyahoga River.

What an amazing time. If you have the opportunity, Pennsylvania is a beautiful state to drive around in. It was so fun visiting all these cool cities. And now, only 13 more ballparks to go.

Stay tuned...

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?