Baseball Roadtrip - Day 7

So today's game was the Indians vs the White Sox.

Last night we got back to the hotel really late from Milwaukee; and we didn't get to bed until 3am; however, everyone was up by 8am. Mike finished up his work and we left the hotel by 9:30. Stop #1 was Garrett Popcorn, which was in downtown Chicago. I got lost again in downtown Chicago, this time was an all-time low. I was actually sitting at stop light and Cindy told me to turn left, yet I still went straight. I blame the long traffic light.

After Garrett's we were headed to the WF Chocolate outlet which was near US Cellular Field. Before getting out of downtown, I managed to almost run over a Chinaman. We were both stopped at a traffic light and the light turned green and he started pedaling but instead of straight his bike started going right. In fairness there is some controversy as to whether he was in fact a Chinaman, I say he was, Cindy says he was just an aged white man, and Michael says he has no idea because it happened before 10am. What Michael is sure of is that I hit a curb trying to avoid the Chinaman and it threw Michael across the back seat of the car.

So we get to the WF Chocolate outlet. First consider how smart we are....we are going to a CHOCOLATE store to buy CHOCOLATE before heading straight to a day baseball game....meaning the CHOCOLATE is going to be left in the car during the game. Those thoughts crossed our mind after I basically bought out the entire store. As we were finalizing our acquisition of the entire outlet store, Mike decided he wanted breakfast, so he managed to find the only real Mexican hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Chicago. Of course he goes in there looking all Mexican and so they spoke to him in Spanish, and he had to break it to them that he and his sister never learned Spanish because they didnt need it where they live. So 3 chorizo y huevo tacos later; Mike was ready to go, and Cindy was hungry. So she orders a potato and egg taco and the people stare at her; finally after Michael couldnt stand the silence any longer, he jumped in to help bridge the language barrier. The lady called him out on it saying I thought you didnt speak Spanish. Then the lady asked Cindy if she wanted a drink, she said no (hey look Cindy does speak Spanish, she said "no.") The lady then did what Diana would have done, she said you need a water, for the baby, here it is free. As we left the restaurant I had a genius idea, let's go across the street to Target and get a cooler for the chocolate. We also needed a place to park the car and upload Mike's work files because the air card was not working so well while traveling 70 mph. So we head to Target, I go in to get the cooler, Mike and Cindy upload his files. I return with the cooler, but Target has no ice. Cindy tells me we are 2 minutes from being done uploading file 2 of 4 and we have 10 minutes left to be totally finished. Mike offers to walk over to a nearby Market to buy ice while the uploads finish. In a truly Jack & the Beanstalk moment, Mike leaves to buy us ice and returns with Mexican chicle and Pistachios....I guess he thought those would keep the CHOCOLATE from melting. While he was gone the upload worked slow, so Cindy's 10 minutes turned in to 20 minutes, and as I let her know her calculation was way off she yelled at me. I wanted to say "Why are you yelling you are a foot from me?" But instead I documented it like Ray from Rain Man would have done. My iPhone notes say Cindy yelled at me at 11:47am.

Ok enough about that, let's get to the game. We parked in an apartment complex near the stadium and decided to walk to the right to get to the stadium which was right there (later we discovered the entrance was 50 yards to our left). Cindy had to go to the bathroom very bad and here we are walking around the stadium. And we walked and walked and walked. We had to circle the stadium before we found the entrance. The first thing I did when I got there was grab a Comiskey Dog (see pic below).

Mike and I each got some elote; Mike then proceeded to eat a pretzel, a hot dog, and some dippin dots. Apparently he wants to leave some souveniers in Detroit as well.

The game was fairly boring, mainly because both teams SUCK. I think the Sox walked 8 batters in the first 3 innings, so the thing was dragging on. To make matters worse we are sitting there baking in the sun in the left field bleachers. So we look up and see the upperdeck section behind the right field foul pole is totally shaded and empty; so we made the executive decision to move up there. From down below it was a wonderful idea; however, once getting up there I realized how high that really was. I'm not gonna lie, I was scared, I pretty much sat there leaning backwards in row 2 holding on to the chair next to me. Meanwhile I look to my left and this little 4 year old comes walking up the aisle at the bottom of the section and climbs up on the concrete holding on to the railing looking out over the field. He was literally one foot from plunging 150' to his death and he was not scared at all. His dad realized what he was doing and snuck up behind him and grabbed him by the shirt, but I was freaking out even more. The rest of the game I kept yelling at Cindy to sit down and be careful any time she was within 3' of the railing. I couldnt wait for this game to be over. It ended 10-8 and if I had to rate US Cellular Field it would rank last of the 8 stadiums we are seeing on this trip. It is a boring place, with rude fans.

We left the game and drove the 4 hours to Ann Arbor, Michigan. On the way we stopped in Paw Paw, MI (or as Mike and I said repetitively POW POW) at Wendy's and I decided to join the "Bobby Studer Dipping Chicken Nuggets in Frosties is OK Fan Club." See pick below. As I stated yesterday, there is nothing wrong with it.

We arrived in Ann Arbor at 9pm and stopped at Meijer. I bought so much Tigers stuff that was 75% off, Cindy of course found clothes for Brooklyn that were neither Michigan related nor on sale. Why do I have a feeling a daughter is going to cost me lot more than a son? We arrived to our hotel here in Detroit and are getting ready for our final game of the trip tomorrow.

Random Thoughts

- Does Bobby's family own Studer's Bar on Division in Arlington?

- Is Ya Wall the greatest Ticket drop ever?

- The Zac Brown Band is the cheesiest country/reggae/bluegrass/rock act since Garth Brooks

-Michael stocked up on candy from his childhood (Wax Bottles, Fruit Stripe Gum, Strawberry Mentos, Bazooka, and Orange Tic Tacs)

-Arnold Palmer Arizona Tea/Lemonade is awesome

-Punk'd may be the worst show ever on tv

-Michael is trying to convince me Matchbox 20 is not gay

-And in case you are wondering, we did not get a bag of ice for the CHOCOLATE and Michael and Cindy tried convincing me the CHOCOLATE wouldnt melt because it wasnt that hot out.....as you might imagine, they were wrong!!!!!!!!!!

I am really tired because I have driven every second of this trip so far; so I am wrapping this up and going to bed!