Halfway Home

Some more highlights from the trip:

Scott Baker shoving it up the Brewers' butts in his first start of the year, and another homer from Torii.
The roof was closed for the second game in Milwaukee, and Miller isn't nearly as cool when it's a dome.

We also hit up the Miller Brewery (semi-boring, but you get free beer), and the Milwaukee Zoo.

Then to Chicago, where we caught the "Crosstown Classic", as the Cubs-White Sox rivalry has now been officially dubbed (Brienne took the photo at right).
Wrigleyville was a zoo by 10 AM. We went into the Cubby Bear and had four Leinie's for $25. At 11:30 we headed to the park to take our $125 outfield bleacher seats.
The bad news is Chicago was, according to the weather channel, the coldest major city in the US on Sunday. It was about 45 degrees for the Cubs-Sox game, with a windchill of 32.
That makes it hard to give Wrigley a real evaluation. I will say the surrounding Wrigleyville area was really cool, and just being in the building can give any baseball fan shivers. I had a Chicago dog, and it rocked. It also gave me the shits.

We left in the bottom of the 7th with the Sox leading 10-2, after actor Tim Robbins led the crowd in 'Take me out to the ball game'. AJ hit a grand slam, and I have to admit I enjoyed seeing that. You think they boo AJ at the Dome, you should hear it at Wrigley.

Monday we spent the day on the pier off Lake Michigan, and visited Soldier Field (I didn't really get to see the field, but I did get to pee there), the Chicago Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium.
Then we saw A's-White Sox at US Cellular.
Really liked the Cell. Spacious, fan-friendly, relatively affordable beer and concessions, and a nice modern feel and look without being boring.
Unfortunately it's in the middle of the slums, so we were sure to get the hell out of there.

But that was nothing on Detroit.
We're staying in a 19th century mansion in midtown, about 2 miles from Comerica.
We walked all the way to the stadium and met my old buddy Solari at the Hockeytown bar (think Hubert's only bigger). We had to walk through some fairly scary parts of midtown to get there.
The game was fun, and Comerica was a cool place, too. I like all the Tiger sculptures all over the place.
Another place with a lot of wide concourses, and we were able to walk around and watch the game from several different vantage points.
Plus our seats were great, 20 rows up from first base.
Afterwards we went to Cheli's Chili Bar (as in Chris Chelios, the Red Wings defenseman), and watched the Wings season come to an end.

Solari offered to drive us back to our hotel, and when we arrived at his car, found that the window had been smashed and a bunch of CDs and tapes were stolen from his car.
Solari is the unluckiest guy I know. This kind of shit happens to him all the time.
Luckily they did not steal his Sioux Falls Storm mini-football, or his clove cigarettes.
I'm sure it was a fun drive back to Lansing with a busted out window at 2 in the morning.

By that point, we were glad that we only had one night in Detroit.
Now it's off to Cincinnati.