Sox Win! Sox Win! - Our review of U.S. Cellular Field - Day 17 of the Trip

Another great day in my home town!  The weather was much warmer today than it was yesterday.  It reached around 90 today with light humidity.  Anyway, today started out with a trip to the American Girl store at Water Tower Place.  With all the time and money spent on this trip for my main man Michael, Helen and I wanted to something really nice for Andie and there you have it.  Now neither Michael nor I had ever heard of this place, but apparently every girl under the age of 14 has.  Apparently, this is the Taj Mahal of doll stores.  You not only buy a doll that is supposed to look like you, but you can accessorize the doll, get the doll’s hair done, give the doll a spa day, and have lunch with your doll.  And if that isn’t enough, if the doll has a part that breaks, you can check the doll into the hospital.  

A doll hair salon - I kid you not!

It's all worth it to see that smile on my princess' face.

Needless to say, when we went there, Michael and I didn’t see to many other dudes hanging out.  It’s kind of like that trip to Victoria Secrets that most men dread.  Anyway, after a full emasculation, we were ready to (quickly) head over to the Shedd Aquarium.

The Aquarium is one of my favorite museums in Chicago.  In fact, it is probably the best aquarium I’ve seen and that includes the Monterey aquarium, which is pretty cool too.  Andie and Michael had a blast.  The jellyfish exhibit was very cool and we got to see a couple of Beluga whales up close.  After we spent our afternoon there, it was on to see the White Sox!!

Great shot of the family with the spectacular Chicago skyline in front of the aquarium

We got to U.S. Cellular Field early and we were joined by my best friend Pete Rodriguez (in from Phoenix to see family) and his son Pete Jr..  And for the third time on the trip, Michael got a ball.  This time, a kid who was standing next to him got a ball tossed to him from one of the Mariners players and he had just got another one earlier.  He gave Michael the ball.  Very cool.  That’s a Sox fan for you.  We walked around the stadium and Michael took it all in.  Now for me, I am still partial to my old Comiskey Park.  But I do like the “Cell” especially since it’s been remodeled back in the early 2000’s.  It doesn’t have the charm of the old park, but it still has one very cool feature that I’ve loved since I was a kid and that’s the exploding scoreboard, which goes off every time a White Sox player hits a home run.  And Paul Konerko did not disappoint me tonight – a solo shot in the 4^th inning. 

The park is spacious, and has great views of the field from anywhere.  The out-of-town scoreboard could be a little bigger, and the ads in the outfield are a little in your face, but it works and does a great job as a stadium.  The food is very good too.  We saw the Mariners for the third time on our trip and coincidentally, we saw Michael Pineda pitch for the Mariners all three times.  He pitched well again tonight, but in the end, the Sox beat him and the Mariners 3-1.  So far, the Sox fans were the most colorful of our trip so far – just like I remembered it.  But the highlight of the night came when they put up Michael’s name on the scoreboard. 

Michael's birthday is actually this Wednesday.  How cool is that?

Thanks to my best friend Pete Rodriguez and his wife Nadine for hooking us up with that (they know the scoreboard operator).  Anyway, here’s Michael for his take.

It’s Michael.  I loved the ballpark.  My mom thought Wrigley was better because it was older and had a couple of cool features like the manual scoreboard, but I really liked being there.  I’m not just saying that because of my dad either.  Having my name up on the scoreboard was really cool!  I thought the scoreboard exploding with fireworks after the home run was also very cool.  Overall, I give it a 7 out of 10.

Michael and Andie having fun in left field

Hey Cubs fans - I bet you wish you had one of these don't you?

Anyway, there you have it.  Tomorrow we’re still in Chicago.  We will do a trip to my favorite place in all of Chicago – the Museum of Science and Industry.  Then Michael and I will drive up to Milwaukee from our hotel for a 7pm game there, and then come back to Chicago after the game.  Then comes the hard part – we have to get up at 4 am to take off for Cincinnati to see a 12:30 pm game between the Reds and Cubs.  That will be rough, but at least Helen is with us to help me do the driving.   Our latest videos for St. Louis, Chicago, and Cincinnati will debut later this week due to time restraints.  We will still keep blogging though.  We hope you enjoy our updates.