Take Me Out to Wrigley Field

When I found out my friend Alison was getting married in Winfield, Illinois, on the last Friday in June, I told Jordan that I was going to check and see if the Cubs had a home game on Saturday. And I told him that if they did, we were going no matter what. 


You can, therefore, imagine my intense level of excitement when I found out that my dear Cubs were going to be playing at home on Saturday, June 30, against the Houston Astros. This all happened back in March, and I stalked the MLB website for weeks waiting for regular season tickets to go on sale. Then we hit up Stubhub and bought two seats that we hoped were going to be in the shade. 


June finally arrived, the wedding went off without a hitch, and on Saturday we caught the Metra from Winfield. I showed Jordan how us Chicago suburbians roll, and he was impressed by the public transportation system. Once we arrived downtown, we walked to Millennium Park and took a few token "bean" pictures before walking over to the spot where Jordan asked me to marry him the day after Christmas 2010. Then we headed for the El stop to catch the train to Wrigley. I'd been to Cubs games before but never taken the red line to the Addison stop, which deposits you right above the field. 


I love game day in Chicago. Every other person is sporting a Cubs shirt, and there's an extra bit of excitement in the air, cheesy as that sounds. One thing I didn't quite take into account was the ridiculous amount of people trying to pack into the El. It was all we could do to push our way onto the car, and it was standing room only. It was a quick 15-minute ride to Addison, and then we spilled out onto the sidewalk and headed for the field. It was insane. There were so many people. 


Wrigleyville, as the neighborhood is called, is packed on game day. Bars and restaurants line the street, and there's an outdoor band playing covers of pop songs. Just outside the front of the stadium is the classic red sign, and everyone and their mom is jostling one another for a good picture. We of course ran into the problem of picture taking with two people, but I doubted the overworked traffic cop standing behind us would have been agreeable to helping us out.

We walked inside and were moving in the direction of our seats in section 206 when Jordan spotted a familiar face. 
"Look!" he shouted. "It's your grandma!"
Standing next to her was my grandpa, and my mom was just behind them. I was speechless. What was my mom, who lives in Texas, doing at a Cubs game in Illinois on the same day we were there? 


Just kidding. I knew she was going to be there.
That would have been way too weird. 


But we did just happen to run into them inside the stadium in a sea of 37,000 people, so that was pretty random. 

I'll spare you the boring story about why my grandparents and mother were at the same Cubs games as us and just show you some pictures from inside Wrigley, because it's freaking awesome.

The Cubs were down 1-2 when a 2-run shot was hit to right field. 

The Cubs won 3-2. A miracle, even against the Astros. 

My favorite part was singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch, but my second favorite part was singing "Go Cubs Go" at the end of the game. It's the song they play at the stadium when the Cubs win, and they put the words on the screen under the scoreboard. And then of course, the big red sign outside displays it proudly: 

It was a good day at Wrigley. 

****

{Embracing the camera with Emily!}