Day 4 - Tuesday

Today was Shannon's long day at the conference so I was out and about by myself. I decided that it was time to ride the El. It's a male Morris "thing;" that if there is a train to ride we will ride it.

I started with the Red line down to Chinatown. The line starts as a subway before moving above ground. It's a short ride to Chinatown, after which I had a quick walk around.

Chicago's Chinatown is one of the smaller ones that I have visited with only a few traditional buildings, so after a couple of quick photos it was back to the El.

I continued on the Red line to 63rd Street I then decided to go back in the opposite direction towards Wrigley Field.

It's about a 30-minute ride back thru downtown to Addison, the closest stop to the home of the Chicago Cubs.

We were going to a game that night and I decided it might be a good idea to check out the area while it was quiet, instead of looking for the ticket window with 30,000 other people.

I walked around for a while, checking out all the famous views and streets that you see on TV.

I then did lunch at the local Mickey D's, which of course was full of Cubs memorabilia, before heading back to the El.

I decided it would be fun to ride the portion of the El that it gets it name from, the elevated downtown section. I ended up on a Brown line train back towards downtown. My first stop was at Merchandise Mart, a building with its own stop.

Built in 1930 it is now owned by the Kennedy family, it contains 4 million sq ft of space, second only to the Pentagon in the USA. There are over 600 wholesale showrooms many of them selling interior design products.

John hancock Center form Merchandise Mart station

After a quick explore and a few photographs it was back to the El for the ride down to Quincy and Union Station.

Union Station was finished in 1927 and contains a 10 story high Grand Waiting Room.

From there it was back to Quincy Street station to complete the ride around the loop before heading back to the hotel.

Between Union Station and Quincy Street station

Shannon finished for the day about 5.30 and after changing it was out and back to the El for the ride to the game. We took the Purple line to the game, so Shannon would have a chance to ride the elevated section thru downtown. The Purple line only runs during rush hour and so was a little on the busy side.

When we arrived at Addison the scene had changed from my first visit, instead of 20-30 people outside the ground there were now 20-30 thousand people. That along with its inner city location made it just a little congested.

Wrigley Field is one of the old ballparks, small, intimate and just a little run down.

At lot of people go there because of the atmosphere, it's how baseball should be watched. A ground were you can get close to the action but when compared to the newer "intimate" fields, such as Camden Yards in Baltimore, it leaves a lot to be desired

We stayed for a few innings, but it's difficult to get worked up about two teams that you have no interest in. It was also the feeding of the belly time again; we ended in a "pub" a few blocks from the hotel.

They offered an interesting selection of beers but the food was typical American fare.

We finished our meal and walked back to the hotel, when we arrived we decided to have pudding for the first time in a very long time. So we stopped at the restaurant in the lobby for cake, the food was OK but the service was a little slow, the waitress was busy chatting to another customer. After a couple of silly pictures of Shannon it was back to the room to crash.