The Cubs 

Mike and Emily planned a family vacation to Chicago.  Left to their own devices, they made arrangements for a hotel room, tickets to Wrigley Field and train transportation from the hotel to the stadium.  I was quite impressed.  This was a family vacation that I did not have to plan.  Although if I had given it any thought beforehand I would have realized that we might need to add an activity or two that did not involved baseball. 

Mike and I drove to Chicago on Thursday.  For the first time in nearly thirty years of marriage Mike did not give me any flack about stopping at the rest areas along the way.  It would be nice to think that this was because he has mellowed over the years and is no longer so focused on getting where he is going that we cannot stop the car unless we need fuel.  No, the reason we stopped at every rest area we saw is because of Mike's Apple Watch fitness app.  He has over 300 consecutive days of meeting all of his fitness goals and he did not intend to break this record.  Fortunately for me, one of the fitness requirements is to walk or stand for at least a few minutes every hour.  Thus the car stops that ensured that he and I 'exercised' every hour. 

Anyway, we arrived in Chicago in a very relaxed frame of mind and ended up eating dinner at a Gino's East Deep Dish pizza restaurant which was right next to the hotel.  Mike would have preferred Giordano's but at the time we were unaware that it was only a block away.  Blissfully ignorant of the nearness of his favorite restaurant, Mike enjoyed a Gino deep dish pizza and I got to eat a vegetarian thin crust pizza.  I also treated myself to a great glass of the proprietors reserve wine and a cannoli for dessert.  At midnight we drove to the airport to get Emily.  While waiting for her, we worked off our dinner by fast walking through the airport to record exercise minutes on our Apple watches. 

The next day Emily, Mike and I attended the Cubs vs Nationals game at Wrigley field.  We took the red line into Chicago and then transferred to the blue line to get to Wrigley field.  Unfortunately a day that showed such promise did not end well.  The Cubs lost.  Mike was not pleased but Emily and I  managed to convince him to hang around Wrigleyville after the game.  He perked up when we had dinner at the Smoke Daddy BBQ place in the new Hotel Zachary.  He also bought a Bears Hat and I found a Cubs t-shirt (that coordinated with my Cubs hat) to wear to the Saturday game. 

When we got back to the hotel, Laura, Suzanne and Heath had arrived.  Heath had the foresight to plan some evening entertainment in Chicago.  He, Laura and Suzanne grabbed Emily and went out to enjoy a midnight comedy improv show.  Before they left we all agreed to meet for breakfast in the hotel lobby the following morning so we could leave together to go to Saturday's Cub game. 

And thus ended our first full day in Chicago.