Chicago - Just the Two of Us

Last December, Maddie gave me a Cubs game for my birthday. Yes, there was a bit of an ulterior motive...it was the Cubs/Yankees Game, ie Anthony Rizzo would finally be back at Wrigley. I was excited to be at Wrigley with Maddie for his return! 

Fast forward to July, Maddie made a last minute decision to head back to Guatemala. While she would miss us and being home, her heart was in Guatemala. She was very bummed to miss Rizzo's return though. 

September came and Matt & I headed to Chicago for a weekend getaway. We were looking forward to the Cubs game as well as the other things we had planned for the weekend.

On the shuttle, heading to Wrigley.

Love Wrigley!!! Even if surrounded by Yankee fans.

Rizzo's first at bat (this was the 2nd game of the series though). I loved that they honored him with his walk-up song. Brought back some wonderful memories!

Sadly, the Yankees won the game 2-0. It was a very quiet game, with minimal activity on the bases. I was thrilled to meet Captain Cubbo (a Wrigley fixture, Cubbie Superfan) after the game. 

I was excited to see the newly unveiled Ryno (Ryne Sandberg) statue. We walked around Gallagher Way after the game to see the statue.

We finished our day with a yummy dinner of sidewalk fries at The Silo. 

The next morning we hit the road for downtown, making a few quick stops for letterboxing. Matt always laments about his "luck" when it comes to letterboxing. Case in point for this stop. He's hidden in the brush, stamping in...while a loved one has set up camp at a gravesite a short distance away. We were gracious and walked around the outer edge of the cemetery - we are fairly certain that he didn't even notice us. 

After finding some boxes, we drove to our reserved parking spot downtown and set out on foot for a bit of exploring. 

We were amazed at the beauty of this building and upon learning it was the Chicago Public Library, we headed inside! 

This art piece is called "Above & Beyond". It hangs from the ceiling, above the escalator. Consisting of over 58,000 dog tags (all American fatalities from Vietnam), the tags are arranged in order of death and each tag includes the vet's name, date of death and military branch. It was humbling to look at.

We left the library and continued our walk, seeing the El, some more artwork (Calder's Flamingo), many impressive buildings and the Chicago River!

We headed to the Tours & Boats dock to board the boat for an architecture river cruise. This has been on our Chicago "must do" list for a few years now and we decided to make it happen during this trip. What a beautiful day to experience this cruise! Our tour guide was so excited for this particular cruise because the day was "one of the most beautiful days of the whole year" - 70°, minimal breeze, golden sun starting to set (and glowing on the buildings!) It was truly a wonderful experience! We highly recommend this cruise to see the city via boat/Chicago River. 

We visited Chicago as a family in 2019 and saw this fountain (Centennial Fountain at River Esplanade Park). Later in the cruise, we witnessed the fountain spray across the river. Very cool!

We left the boat and walked back to Sears Tower. We were able to purchase tickets and head up to the observation deck without wait.

The Bears played their first home game for the season and won (a comeback win!). 

Matt was super excited to step out on to the Willis Tower Skydeck, The Ledge. Me, not so much. There was a long line, but it seemed to move along. It was our turn - I took a few pictures of Matt as he stepped out, standing 1,353 feet above Wacker.

I, VERY Reluctantly, stepped out to join Matt for a selfie. I made the mistake of looking down. I'm glad that I did because WOW!!! But, also NOT glad that I did because WOW! We were a very long way up!

Matt & I headed back down to ground level and grabbed a late dinner at The Shake Shack, walked the mile back to our van and hit the road for home - arriving close to 1am. We were exhausted but really enjoyed our Chicago weekend! Cubs game, seeing Rizzo back at Wrigley, great food, IKEA, letterboxing, lots of walking, beautiful weather, a great river cruise, and Sears Tower. What a great getaway! 

Thank you for the wonderful birthday gift, Mads! I'm so bummed that we didn't get to see Rizzo's return together. Maybe you would've been the lucky charm, resulting in a win for our Cubbies. But I'm thankful that Dad & I were able to get away and use the tickets and experience a few new things in Chicago!