Chicago

I was scheduled to change planes and go back to Colorado after my Iowa trip; however, when I discovered that the US was going to play Poland in a friendly in Chicago, the thought crossed my mind to hop off the plane in Chicago and see the game. And that is what basically happened. Jim and Stacy decided to come out well. I met them in Chicago last Thursday, October 7th. We played tourist during the day. On Friday we did a bike tour of the city. It was quite interesting riding down the streets of downtown Chicago.


A stop along the bike ride. Oprah lives near by.








Jim and Lincoln







View from our hotel room











We went to a MLS game Friday evening. We saw the Chicago Fire beat the Columbus Crew 2-0 at Toyota Park. We joined a bunch of American Outlaws at Small Bar north of town and took a chartered school bus to the stadium on the south side of town. It was a long ride made shorter by the fact that beer was allowed on this school bus. Only in Chicago I guess.

Brian McBride scores a goal

We didn’t have any plans before the game Saturday so we basically walked around and saw the sights that were within walking distance of our hotel. Here are a few pictures from that.




The Egg a Millenium Park





Under the Egg





The side of the Egg







The Sears Tower





View from the Ferris Wheel at the Navy Pier.






On the way to game, we walked by the head-quarters for the US Soccer Federation.

The US/Poland game was a 2-2 draw. We stood in the US Supporters section for the first half. It was a little too crazy. There were a few people there who I doubt will remember being at that game. Jim and Stacy got nailed pretty good by some flying beers. It got me a little bit but not too bad. We had enough of the festivities in the supporters section by half time and moved to the nosebleeds so that we could pay more attention to the game. The majority of the crowd was Polish, and to our surprise, they spoke Polish. After the game, we watched the fireworks that took place at the Navy Pier from the top of Soldier Field.


View from the top of Soldier Field





Fireworks at Navy Pier







On Sunday, I returned to Colorado while Jim and Stacy returned to North Carolina.

Until next time,

-MM