For those of you who follow me and my life vicariously, (c'mon, there's got to be one person out there), I'm sure you were waiting with baited breath for my long-overdue report on my recent trip to Chicago.  Well, wait no longer.

The lovely Carolyn and I have been planning this trip since March.  By that, I mean we bought three tickets back in March and then scrambled to book airplane and hotel reservations about a week ago.  Good times.

The end result of our booking was an early departure on Saturday morning, in which we had to be awake by about 4AM central time.  We actually slept in because Air Canada allows for a nifty little "check in online" option in which they promise us that, by clicking on a few buttons and links, we are permitted an extra half hour of sleep.  Turns out they lied.  We arrived at the airport in Toronto only to discover two huge lines of people being herded through customs.  After standing in this line until 5:30, a customs agent came through and, noticing that we had a 5:50 departure, pushed us up to the front where I encountered yet another customs agent who apparently spent his younger years binge drinking in my hometown in New York.  Small world.

We got rushed to our plane, where we were among the final five people who boarded.  Now, this is actually a highlight of the trip.  In our airplane, on the back of every seat, was a small tv where, to our shock, was an outstanding number of Hollywood movies and network tv shows.  After 15 or 20 minutes of indecisiveness, we picked Shrek 3, which we got to watch the first 45 minutes of on account of how the flight was less than an hour in length.  

We arrived in Chicago at about 7AM local time, where we took the blue line into the business district where our hotel (Club Quarters) was located.  Now, this was a pretty sweet hotel.  They had free bottled water, nicely-sized rooms, internet access and a free printer, and they also allowed us to check our luggage a full seven hours before we were supposed to check in.  We then proceeded from our hotel into the cloud-covered city of Chicago, where we explored Michigan Avenue while hoping the rain would hold off.

It held off.  We worked our way from the art gallery all the way to the Hancock Building, where we enjoyed an awesome lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, which included for me a spicy chicken sandwich with bar-none the best blue cheese I've ever had in my life (Carolyn agrees, it rocked).  Upon exiting, we walked our way back down Michigan and, as the rains finally began pouring down, we elected to head back to the hotel and take a long-overdue nap.

Now, we had originally planned on having drinks with the Goat Riders on Saturday night, but the weather quickly turned sour, Jason and his wife were busy doing son-in-law things with his mother-in-law, and in case you skipped this part of it, we had been awake since four in the fricking morning!  And so, we begged the Goat Riders to meet with us instead at the ballpark the following day.  We then went out for a quick bite to eat and wound up buying (and chowing down on) some of the best carmelized popcorn in the world.  If you've been to Chicago and are lucky, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Now, not that this is a long, rambling post or anything, but I'd like to interject for a moment about the fact that Chicago is apparently co-sponsored by Walgreens and Starbucks, as they are located on practically every city block.  And God bless Walgreens, as they had not only my favorite pop ever (Vanilla Coke, which they do not sell in Canada), but they actually had Vanilla Coke Zero - zero calories, zero guilt, baby! - which I drank by the gallon while in the city of hope, to Carolyn's reluctant tolerance.

Sunday was game day, and we woke up early and went to the Sears Tower, where we dished out $25 to spend 20 minutes on the observation deck.  It was actually pretty cool.  You could actually see the Chicago visibility disappear as the rains began to ominously pour from the heavens.  Also, as you may know, we had our picture taken in front of a blue screen before we went up.  Now, in Toronto at the CN Tower (which is much taller than the Sears Tower, but I digress), you get your picture taken and they actually put you standing next two (and dwarfing) the CN Tower.  Expecting this to be the same in Chicago, while our picture was being snapped, I gave a sort of creeped-out, beweirded expression while I looked from out of the corner of my eye at what I expected to be the Sears Tower, which would - I assumed - be dwarfed by Carolyn and I in the picture.  You know.  I'm saying that I was acting astonished to be taller than the Sears Tower in the picture, when in fact they just gave us the backdrop of Chicago as our photo setting, and instead it looked as if I was weirded out by Carolyn, who was cutely smiling as if everything was normal.  Suffice to say, I paid for that one.

Oh yes, I paid.

We left the Sears Tower and beat it for a Corner Bakery, where we had the same delicious pesto chicken sandwich that we had in Chicago in January at the Cubs Convention.  Then, we took the red line to Wrigley, where we hung out at Bernies.  I don't want to get anybody in trouble, but Carolyn forgot her ID and the door-guy, who was carding everybody, took pity upon her and, when she showed him her "I.D." (it was a credit card), he stamped her and let her in.  We then spent an outrageous-but-expected $12 on drinks, and met up with Jason, Leah, Byron, and Rob.   

Now Leah, God bless her, was very insistent on us getting burgers at Bernies for dinner, as they apparently make the best in the city.  But Carolyn, God bless her, put her foot down and we all headed toward El Burrito Mexicano, a hidden gem located almost directly under the L-Train station at Addison.  No, seriously, that place makes some smokingly awesome burritos.  As Rob previously noted, Carolyn and I ate burritos as big as our heads (with almost no filling - we're talking all-natural chicken, baby!) for just about $6.  Mmmm, that stuff rocked.

So.  At this point, the Goat Meeting ended, Byron, Leah, and Jason went their separate ways, and Rob, Carolyn, and I went into Wrigley.  Now, have I alluded to the rain-soaked status of Chicago?  Because in case you didn't know, it was raining all effing weekend, and it rained that night as well.  The game started out fine, with Carlos pwning the Cardinals, but in the bottom of the third it was as if God emptied his heavenly bathtub in one broad gesture, and the field was instantly drenched in a bucket of wet.  The umpires called that delay so frigging quickly that they practically vanished off the field before we were even aware of what was happening.

About two hours later - including a 45 minute dry patch - it was all over.  The game was called, our night was cut abruptly short, we parted ways with Rob, and went back to our hotel.  

On Monday, we actually went back to Wrigleyville, received a full refund on our tickets, ate at El Burrito Mexicano again, and then high-tailed it for Millennium Park before gathering our bags and heading back to the airport, where we were delayed for an hour before arriving at about 10PM in Toronto last night.

Let me just say, it was a good, fun time.  I don't care if it rained, I don't care if the game got called, but Carolyn and I did everything we wanted to, and I sincerely enjoyed the hell out of Chicago.  What a fine weekend it was.

Sure, it would have been better without the rain.  It would have been awesome to see Carlos dominate the Cardinals.  But I feel that we did absolutely everything we wanted to do, and so I am very happy to have gone.  And, absolutely, I'd recommend a Chicago trip to any Cubs fan who hasn't gone.  Do yourself a favor and go.

The sad news is, this might be the last time we go to Chicago for a few years.  While it's certainly possible that we will someday make it out to another Cubs Convention (hell, maybe even in 2008), it's more likely that we'll save our money for a trip to San Fran, or Italy, or somewhere we've never been.  However, Chicago remains my favorite city, regardless of bad weather, or pushy homeless people, or pushy ticket scalpers.

And the Cubs?  Well, I could be wrong, but I think they're not done yet.  And who the hell knows; maybe Carolyn and I will be back in October.  It's certainly possible.