The streak dies... wait, wait... a 9-run 9th!?

Coors Field is pretty nice. Dustin awards it a B+ (or maybe an A-). It’s quite pretty, excellent food variety (not too pricey, either), they have some interesting features in the outfield…
Unfortunately, the experience was a bit marred by the presence of the dregs of society all around us, aka, the Cardinals fans. They were special people. There were the shrieking, arguing, apparently unattended children behind us. There was the deeply unpleasant woman sitting next to Dustin who complained about everything (she snagged the poor Sno-cone kid and chewed his ear off about the rain delay… because it was clearly his decision to delay the game). Then there was the rain delay itself – fortunately, it just delayed the start 30 minutes, but still annoying. So overall, it was a bit tough to fairly judge the stadium itself. I liked it.

As for the game (Rockies vs. Cardinals), by the bottom of the 6th inning, things weren’t looking good. The Rockies were down 9-2 and had left 12 men on base. We were watching the Cardinals win for the 2nd time in a row, and our home-team winning streak was clearly ending.
By the bottom of the 9th inning, the score was 9-3, it was raining, and the park was largely empty. Only foolish people like us stick around to watch games die.

The first batter got a hit. I’m thinking to myself, “Seriously, it’s late, I’m tired and rather chilly, let’s just get this over with.” The second batter lined out. I’m thinking, “Ok, two more of those and we’re out of here. And then another hit. And then a walk/passed ball/runner scores. And then… HOME RUN!
Now it’s 9-7… then a double… then another out (“Oh great,” I said,” they’re just prolonging the heartbreak.” I have no use for optimism). And then a hit. And then a hit. And then a hit. And then another 3-run HOME RUN for the win!!! Holy cow. It was crazy. Clearly, Dustin and I have home-team winning powers beyond human comprehension. People were chanting and cheering so that we could hear it all the way back to our car. Not only was it an amazing 9th inning (I mean, a 9-run 9th? Really?), but the Cardinals lost. Hooray!

Game 8: Success! We are more powerful than the Rally Monkey.

Moo-velous

“Right, and then I was thinking we could-“

“Moo.”

I glance over, nonplussed. “Yes, dear, there’s a cow over there.”

“He looked right at me.” A finger jabs impatiently into my shoulder.

“Right. Moo.”

Unless you have had the pleasure of driving past cows with Dustin, you may be unaware that every cow sighting is supposed to be accompanied by mooing noises. I know I was missing out on this vital piece of life until I met him. It does not matter if the car is silent or if you are in the middle of a deep conversation, the mooing must commence. Cows are noble. Dustin will tell you so.

Sometimes the mooing startles me. Sometimes I gamely join in. Other times I require prompting (hence the jabbing). Often I refuse, but usually while smiling… how can I not?

On this trip we have seen many, many cows. Moo.

Red(bird), White, and Blue

4th of July started with an early morning departure for St. Louis. We arrived in town a bit before noon, and since the hotel couldn’t take us yet, we headed straight for the 1:15 game (Cardinals vs. Brewers).
Blessed cloud cover persisted for most of the afternoon, so while it was extremely humid and hot, we were not sitting in direct sun. We had seats in the bleachers, but these were assigned so we were free to explore and roam around the fairly new Busch stadium. Overall, it’s pretty nice – big without feeling as huge as in Cincinnati, nicely organized, etc. The whole place is a bit bland, though. The food is mostly the same thing over and over again, with few options, and there’s not a lot of personality – while Houston has a train full of oranges and Cincinnati has a YMCA-dancing grounds crew, St. Louis has… hmm… Fredbird the Redbird tries, but I’m not buying.
Due to the holiday, they enlisted some Air Force recruits before the game, which was kind of cool, but then they had a (not exceptional) instrumental solo for “God Bless America” and the National Anthem. That was a bit disappointing, as was the weird female acapella rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch. The stadium is nice and comfortable, but overall, a solid “B.”

Our home-team winning streak extended to seven as the Cardinals took a quick lead over the Brewers and never looked back. We were hoping the Cardinals would lose, but the power of our presence was too much for the visiting team to overcome.

After the game, we walked to our hotel, immediately next door to the stadium. It was a complete madhouse (employees were walking around giving out free beers and frozen custard to make up for the huge lines… a nice touch, although I wonder how they get away without carding people for beer…). We made it through pretty quickly since we had hurried over and then spent the rest of our day/evening enjoying a little down time – we saw some fireworks out the window, but we didn’t feel like battling the crowds and humidity, so it was a low-key celebration.

On Monday, we drove to visit my Uncle Don and Aunt Sue in Seward, Nebraska (they’re the same ones we went to Alinea with last week). We enjoyed an excellent dinner and stayed the night with them before leaving for Denver on Tuesday, laden down with homemade focaccia bread and cake for the journey.

Nope, not another restaurant, just dinner at Uncle Don and Aunt Sue's house...

Up next: the last game in Colorado!

Go Cubs Go!!! *

Following a fun-filled Friday night spent catching up with friends, Saturday morning brought breakfast downtown in Wrigleyville and then the baseball game (Cubs vs. Reds). We got to the stadium nice and early (a bit after 10) so we could be sure to enjoy maximum sun exposure (actually, in case you’re unaware, this was because the bleacher seats at Wrigley are not assigned, so if you want good ones you have to stake them out).
After so many games with just the two of us, we enjoyed the company of our friends, and I enjoyed the fact that the womenfolk escaped to the shade for awhile before and then during the game. I think I put on sunscreen seven times. I’m not kidding. I now know what it feels like to melt.
The Cubs started off by leaving 12 men on base during the first four innings, so things weren’t looking too hot (unlike the weather), but then they picked it up and won 3-1. Hooray! We got to sing “Go, Cubs, Go!” and really, what more could a person ask for? Our home-team winning streak has extended to 6 – someone who’s good at math should figure out what the probability of that is…
It goes without saying that Dustin awards Wrigley Field an A+. He is rather concerned/unhappy about a Toyota advertisement that has appeared in left field, but otherwise it’s the greatest ballpark in the world. The fact that the four guys split 26 beers between them may have contributed to this viewpoint.

Post-victory with Ed and Susie!

On Saturday evening, we were able to catch up with another set of Valpo friends, and we even toasted some marshmallows over their fire pit. Ed and Susie were excellent hosts/chauffeurs throughout the weekend, and we enjoyed their hospitality until our early Sunday St. Louis departure.

* As in all instances of direct address, the proper grammar is here “Go, Cubs, Go!” – but I’ve seen Dustin and his friends exchange “Go Cubs Go” on too many occasions to count, so I’m going with that one.

Food, Glorious Food

This update is very food-centric… consider yourself warned. We’ve now finished the restaurant-going and tomorrow we’re heading to the Cubs game, so fear not, the baseball is soon to resume.

Anyway, after spending a few days with Dustin’s family, we set off for a trio of culinary delights in Chicago. On Wednesday, we ate dinner at Topolobampo, a Rick Bayless restaurant (we actually saw him eating on our way in, which was cool). We each got a set 5-course tasting menu with wine pairings. For Dustin, it was the menu served at the recent White House State Dinner, which Chef Bayless was invited to prepare, including a delicious ahi ceviche (Mexican chimichurri, fennel, avocado), a lobster & scallop dish, and a ribeye with “mole negro.” I got the “Veracruz” menu, featuring a tasty mushroom dish and pork with “mole de xico.” We didn’t take any pictures here – we enjoyed the restaurant overall, although the service was not super-friendly.

On Thursday morning, we set off for the Lincoln Park Zoo. No trip with Dustin is complete without visiting a zoo, and we’ve been here a few times. Dustin was especially a fan of the cows, which moo-ed quite a bit. After a couple of zoo-er-ific hours, we went to our bed & breakfast to rest up for the dinner ahead.
Dinner at Alinea. Alinea is currently ranked as the #1 restaurant in the US and #7 in the world. We’ve wanted to eat here for some time, and it did not disappoint. We met my aunt and uncle (who have taken us to eat at French Laundry in Napa, and who had eaten at Alinea once a few years ago) and arrived at our 6:00 reservation. 5 ½ hours, 24 courses, and 11 wines later, we had been delighted and satisfied and intrigued. Dinner at Alinea is hard to explain, so I don’t think I’ll really try… it’s not really like going other places – there’s a lot of unusual techniques, a lot of “what was that and how did they do it?” I will say that we were worried about being too full, but everything was so nicely portioned, paced, etc. that were were surprised – we were certainly much MORE full leaving Topolobampo after five courses the previous evening… it was a memorable experience and a wonderful and humbling meal.

We only took a couple of pictures (without flash, of course), so they are rather poor quality but we’ll include them anyway.

This is a dessert. The yellow is lemon curd, not egg yolk... also, it's on a pillow that smells like Earl Grey tea...

On Friday, we had lunch at Frontera Grill (again with my aunt and uncle). This is the more casual sister restaurant to Topolobampo, so it was somewhat similar but a very different overall experience. We enjoyed several types of ceviche, Dustin had pork, I had lamb shoulder… it was all very delicious and unique and tasty.

We are now staying with our friends Ed and Susie from Valpo, and we’re looking forward to catching up with several of our college friends and hitting the Cubs game tomorrow. Go Cubs go!

Pot Roast, Putt Putt, and Pizza

Editor’s Note: Today’s blog entry will be written by Dustin. In other words, prepare to have your socks knocked off.

After our big city adventure on Monday, the majority of Tuesday was spent going to visit relatives in Geneseo, Illinois. For those of you unfamiliar with western Illinois geography – Geneseo is approximately 20 miles from the boarder of Iowa, near the Quad Cities. (Bonus points if you can name all four.)

After arriving in Geneseo, we took a tour of downtown, drove by my old house, saw the hospital I was born in, and stopped by the cemetery. After this rousing drive about town, we went to my Aunt Elizabeth’s house for lunch. Joining us for lunch were a whole slew of relatives including my Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim from Peoria (photo below).
Lunch was very tasty – pot roast, vegetables, raspberry jello, cheesy potatoes, pie, homemade sheet cake, and more. Needless to say, we left several pounds heavier than when we arrived.

After arriving back in Darien, Skye and Dylan (my youngest brother) accepted my challenge to play mini golf at a near by course. It was a tough fought round of mini golf, but when the smoke cleared, I was victorious (Skye came in third). To celebrate, we went back home and had Giordano’s pizza and prepared for our Wednesday departure to Lincoln Park.