Chicago Thursday

Thursday morning was one of the Hubsters highlights of our holiday, as he got to tour Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. For those of you not in the know, the Cubbies are like a less successful version of Man Utd back home. They have a similar history to the club and a legion of lifelong fans, but they have not won their championship for 100 years.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about Baseball and to be perfectly honest, I find it pretty boring. But even I enjoyed this tour and found it interesting. The Hubster is one of their loyal fans and so he was enthralled. One of the things the Cubs are best known for, is the often celebrity led sing-a-long of 'take me out to the ballpark' during the 7th innings stretch.

When we first knew they were going to be out of town the week we were there, he was not sure about doing the tour. But I convinced him it would be very worthwhile, having done a similar tour of Old Trafford and been thrilled myself. It was however hotter than haides the morning we did it, with crazy humidity and the first part was almost like a torture as we sat in the bleachers for a talk!

The humidity under the stadium was unbearable, as they had spent the morning hosing the walkways down! So it was a major relief to get up into the Press Box (despite the climb!) and finally find some kind of breeze. The view from here was great and I advised the Hubster that if we ever come to a game, we need to be either in there or a cheap seat in the shade!

He got to visit the team locker room, where alot of their personal stuff is on display in their lockers. Even I was impressed by how much was shared on the tour and the personal aspects.

Here he is in the home team dugout, waiting to be called into bat!

The last remaining manually operated scoreboard in the league. Apparently on game day, they will have 16 staff inside it making sure everything runs smoothly. The only air-conditioning is the open vents on either end!!

Our tour ended with a few piccies outside, including this one next to the statue of the famous Cubs commentator Harry Carey, he of those glasses!

After the Hubster squeezed in a quick geocache find back at the Museum Campus, we headed to the Chicago Art Institute.

We had a quick look around the new 'Modern' wing, but to be honest we're neither of us big fans of modern art.

So we headed off into the more traditional galleries to see some of the wonders of the art world. Here is Van Gogh's self portrait, it seemed like his eyes followed you wherever you moved!

A fabulous piece of Sevres pottery, of which I have always been a big fan and this vase was huge and so vibrant.

And then we had a gallery of Monet paintings, I could have put in a dozen pictures here, but 'Water Lillies' is my personal favourite. But seeing them close-up we were enthralled by the tiny brushstrokes and luminosity of his colours - just stunning.

This magnificant Indian Chief headress was from the Cheyenne tribe and originated from our neck of the woods.

And finally a beautifully designed English silver art deco rose bowl caught my eye.

We only managed a short visit to the Art Institute after our very energy sapping visit to Wrigley Field. We headed back to our room to finish the pizza pie and have an early night in preparation for our final day.