Chicago Recap

Chicago Blog:

We knew that St. Louis and Busch Stadium would be a tough place to beat... luckily, we followed up St. Louie with Chicago and Wrigley Field.  Needless to say, it topped Busch Stadium (sorry Cardinals fans).  This is the first blog that I (Collin) have gotten to write and I’m pumped to share some Chi-town stories with yall.  We woke up at about 7am on Saturday and went downstairs to the lobby of our hotel to eat a free buffet breakfast.  After we ate, we loaded up the Sentra (don’t hate) and headed north on I-55 to the windy city.  Since Josh and Nathan had already driven a lot during the trip, it was my turn to get behind the wheel.  The drive took about 5 hours as we cut through Illinois, which, by the way, may be the most boring state ever to drive through.  All we saw was corn. Lots of corn. I felt like I was on an episode of American Pickers.  But we did get to see some huge wind turbine generator things scattered along the countryside.  Whoop for green energy. 

As we approached Chicago, I called my friend Sallie who I know from high school to ask her what the easiest way to get to her house was.  She warned us not to take this one particular highway and turns out that’s the one we were on and we were stuck in standstill traffic.  I made a slight detour off the highway and, to my passenger’s dismay, went to go use the restroom at a random Walgreens.  They weren’t the happiest campers because it was making us late but at this point I had no regard for anything else except for my bladder.  We got on the right track (passed the Sears tower, Soldier’s Field) and were travelling right alongside the lake.  It was beautiful – there was even a beach.  We thought we were lost at first.  It’s definitely weird when you travel over a thousand miles north and seagulls surround you.  We get to my friend Sallie’s place where we were staying for the day and we were graciously received by Sallie, her roommate and their two dogs: Jack and Dexter.  This lab and Siberian husky were awesome.  They were more hyper than Josh when he walks into a casino filled with beautiful women and free beer.  

We had to make a quick trip to Kinkos so that we could print out our 4^th ticket (Sallie came with us to the game), but after that we were off to the game. The coolest part is that we could walk.  Sallie lives literally less than four blocks from Wrigley.  We were just walking through the suburbs and then boom: Wrigley Field.  It felt like a scene out of Rookie of the Year. This was the historic Wrigley… and the best part is that they were playing the ‘Stros.  Being from Houston, Sallie, Nathan and I were rocking our Houston gear and rooting for the Astros, as Josh, being a Rangers fan, rooted for the Cubbies.  Wrigley is a little bit different in that the outfield stands are not connected to the grandstands behind home plate.  Our seats were in the outfield bleachers (which proved to be the best seats in the house), so we entered in the outfield.  We get down to our seats and were absolutely blown away.  This ballpark is definitely worthy of all of its glory.  It is a ballpark, not an air-conditioned monstrosity of a building with distractions.  There are no big screens, no replays, no automated scoreboards… it’s baseball.  Just baseball.  It is definitely a stadium for the baseball purist.  Absolutely beautiful.  We had a ton of fun at the game, making a few friends and even meeting a fellow Aggie who greeted me with “Gig ‘Em Astros”.  After it was all said and done, the Stros ended up losing 3-2, so we felt right at home. At the end of the game, the Cubs fans sang this song called “Go Cubs Go”, and I must admit that it is pretty dang catchy.  

We started walking back to the house and came across the “Bucket Boys”.  These dudes were crazy… beating on the big paint buckets with drumsticks and putting on a show in the street for everyone.  It was really neat, and they were definitely crowd pleasers.  After that, we headed to our first event with an Aggie club in a different city.  Josh set it up with the president of the Chicago Aggie club, Mike, who was so gracious in hanging out with us and getting a good group of Ags out there.  We got to Sheffield’s beer and wine garden (yes, it was as cool as it sounds) and were greeted by about 15 people.  We had a great time talking to everyone, discussing the upcoming football season (S-E-C! S-E-C!) and just having fun in good company.  They were all so nice and interested in our trip and told us that the Chicago Aggie club was going to make a contribution to BTHOP! The event was so much fun, and we hung out for over 3 hours. We want to take a second to thank Mike and Marissa for investing so much time and effort in making this event a great success. Its really awesome to see how the Aggie Network works in all cities and states.  Aggies like Mike and Marissa and everyone that came out to the event is the reason why all Aggies truly feel we have the best University in the world. We paid for our meals and drinks and then headed back to Sallie’s place.  

Sallie and her roommate and friends decided to show us a good time in Chicago.  We hung out at the house for a while (pre-gamming for those of you who know what that means… don’t mean to be exclusive older crowd, we still love you) and played a little beer pong.  I want to preface this next part of the blog with saying that Josh may be the best/luckiest BP player ever.  And he is also the cockiest.  HOlD up this is Josh now and I am not the cockiest with everyone just Collin, and Nathan beat me so I am clearly not that good. Back to you worst beer pong player ever Collin.  But really, he’s freakishly good and if any of you know me, I am terrible, but I wanted to play him anyways.  Long story short, by a couple of fluke shots by Josh (not really), I ended up losing the slapbet (what up HIMYM fans) to Josh.  This followed with my reception of the slap in front of the group, but I took it like a man.  

After we hung out at the house a little while, we headed to a bar a few blocks away.  Here, we met up with one of Nathan’s best friends Preston, who lives in Nashville and just so happened to be in Chicago the same week we were.  At the bar we hung out, had a few drinks, played darts and pool and soaked up the Chi-town atmosphere.  We had a blast.  We then headed back to Sallies and fell asleep within seconds… we were all ridiculously tired.  All in all, Chicago was phenomenal, Wrigley was crazy, and the people (especially Chicago Ags) were fantastic.  

Our first view of Wrigley Field

One of the best ballparks in the country

All repping something Aggie or Houston related

Our view from the left field bleacher seats. Such a tremendous view. Though northerners have a thing about going to games with no shirts on, which isn't always a pleasant sight to see.

The best scoreboard in baseball. No games at the park, no video boards. Just baseball.

Nodding Donkey Wrigley Field

Poor JD Martinez was getting made fun of out in left field

Getting a view of the ivy, the most unique thing in the MLB.

The Bucket Boys were absolutely beastly. Such a tight and entertaining group to watch.

These dudes BANK on these events. Apparently, they go to all the big events and make some cash

With the Chicago Aggie Club as well as a few Minnesotans we met at the bar

Our first view of Chicago. Sears Tower was absolutely humongous

View of Sheffields Beer and Wine Garden, where we did our event with the Chicago Aggie Club

Collin and his (now our) friend Sallie, who graciously hosted us for a night

Kind of ironic coming from the worst team in the National League, but wouldn't you know the Cubs beat the Stros on a home run

Ulysses (Guy in red/maroon was kind of a douche)

108 years of NOT WINNING!

Chicago had it's weird moments for sure

The mileage after the Chicago portion of the trip