Rock, Flag and Eagle: Day Thirty-Four

GET READY FOR THE MOST PICTURES OF ANY DAY ON THE BLOG. BY A LOT.

Big day planned today! Our first stop was at Obama's former house. It feels like I'm back on the Hollywood tour because all you can see is a tiny corner of his house from like one angle on the street. It's set back behind dividers and a fence and trees and there are Secret Service agents guarding the entrances and exits. But look! Obama's chimney!

The next stop (the first real stop) was Wrigley Field, where my friend Kay and I had an 11:00 tour. For $25, there's a 90 minute tour that takes you into both teams' clubhouses, the press box, the Cubs' dugout, onto the field, into the bleachers, and everywhere in between. It's really, really great. I wish I could have seen a Cubs game on this trip, but their schedule just didn't line up with mine.

Similar to other parks, there were a bunch of statues outside.

These are some views of the rooftop seats across the way on Sheffield and Waverly.

What's with all the noodles?!

The first stop is the right field side's lower deck.

Some dudes working on the ivy and digging out entrenched baseballs.

Hey hey! Foul pole, the 355 marker, and then the 460 marker on the building across the street.

BARTMAN SEATS. Well, not his, cause his was removed along with others when they re-did the stands to curve the more.

Next real stop was the bleacher bum seats.

Visiting clubhouse! The locker all the way to the right is where the big name players are stationed, because there's more room there for press to interview. So that's the locker where Michael Jordan changed during his one game at Wrigley, that's where Pujols changes, Prince Fielder, etc. Babe Ruth also got changed in this room, who knows where. I guess wherever he wanted, because he's Babe Ruth. The tour guide also said that this is where the Bears' opponents would get ready for their games when the Bears played at Wrigley. But, she said, the locker room was so small that they had to get dressed at the hotel and get bussed over in uniform. Funny.

Bathroom area. Tiny!

Laundry area.

View from the Smirnoff Deck.

Views from the press box.

Cubs' locker room!

Then you walk out of their clubhouse, down a hallway, and into their dugout. BUT FIRST, their in-game bathroom!

Seriously.

Into the dugout…

…and onto the field.

After the tour, we stopped at Wrigleyfield Dogs for a Chicago-style hot dog, which has a pickle, tomatoes, onion, some kind of relish, celery salt and hot peppers all on a beef dog in a poppy seed bun.

Pretty good. Not as good as it could have been, but still good.

Then we went to a brewery nearby where I had Cubby Blue beer, which was sort of blueberry and just sort of okay. But it was Cubby Blue and I was in Wrigleyville, so how was I NOT going to order it?

They had Conan on the wall.

But they didn't carry that beer.

OH THE COOLEST HAND DRYERS IN AMERICA. They were also in the bathrooms of one of the stadiums I was in.

We then took an elevator to the top of the John Hancock building, which boasts some of the best sites in the city (along with the Willis aka Sears Tower). You're supposed to buy a drink up there, but everything is crazy overpriced and they didn't even have any beers, so we sat at a table that hadn't been bussed yet, took some pictures, and hit the road. Free!

(These are from 95 stories up.)

We then went to Giordano's for lunch, "world famous" for their stuffed pizza. It's not deep dish -- it's stuffed -- and sort of tastes like a calzone without a top. Pretty good, but not "pizza." Whatever, it was good.

Onto Millennium Park we went. This is the stop of the concert venue where a bunch of big artists play during the summer.

I know "top" is a weird description there, but deal with it.

Then we got to THE BEAN.

From underneath the Bean, looking upward.

Down a little ways are fountains.

Down some more ways are the Buckinham fountains, that have a "show" supposedly that happens every hour on the hour. What the "show" is is just the center fountain shooting straight up in the air.

The "show."

Rainbow!

Literally across the street from that fountain is Lake Michigan. There are beaches on part of the coastline, but not here. The street just sort of ends right next to it, with a little room in between to sit.

Then, for the second time in two days, it was off to US Cellular Field. Before I even got in, though, I saw one of the funniest and meanest jerseys. Poor Bartman.

When we got to our seats, we saw a huge crowd of people, and in the middle was Snoop Dogg! So I took a ton of pictures of him, because of course I did. Last night they had dogs, tonight they had Snoop Dogg. Good progress!

Then he went out to the mound to throw out the first pitch.

White Sox' starter Philip Humber, Mr. Perfection, who had one win coming into this game (his perfect game). What a weird stat.

Twins' starter Cole DeVries. His family was sitting in the row directly behind us, so we had to root for him to do well because they were so nice and so excited for him. Mom and Dad and Grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins. Awesome. (The poor guy didn't do super well, early on because his defense let him down and later because he gave up some long balls. Oh well.)

I took SO MANY pictures of him pitching because I heard one of them behind me say "I wish my phone had a better zoom" so I offered to e-mail them pictures of him pitching. I'm glad they turned out okay or else I would have looked like a fool.