Days Three, Four and Five of the Baseball Trip

No internet access for the past few days (well, free internet access anyway)

Day Three--We arrived in Cincinnati by mid-afternoon. Not knowing what to do before the game starts, we decided to take a one-hour riverboat cruise on the Ohio River. This killed two birds by a) giving us something to do before the game and b) having the opportunity to go to Kentucky, which is where the riverboats were on the other side of the river. You see, there were two states east of the Mississippi I've never been to--Kentucky and Michigan. Cross Kentucky off the list.

The cruise was nice. I enjoyed it a lot. As we were cruising, we saw a sign, on the Kentucky side, advertising about parking there for the game and taking a boat to the stadium. Well, we were already there, so why not? So, after the cruise, we parked in their lot, and took a boat across the river where it dropped us off at the foot of the stadium. Perfect.

We got tickets to the game and they were by far the best tickets we got so far. It is going to be a great night for baseball. Until the third inning. Because that's when the rains came. Not a little sprinkle. A deluge. For two stickin' hours.

We had to be in Chicago for an afternoon game the next day so we decided we had to ditch the game. The problem was we didn't know when the boat was coming back to pick us over. And, we didn't have a phone number to call. So, we waited down by the river and prayed it would soon come. Talking about feeling out of control of a situation.

We waited about 10 minutes and the boat did arrive. On to Chicago.

Day Four--We had to get up early to get to Chicago for an afternoon game. This was the day that our timing was perfect. We got to our hotel before noon and checked in. Got our bearings for the subway uptown to Wrigley. And off we went.

It was a city series game between the White Sox and Cubs. The atmosphere was electric. Good nature razzing between both sides. And, we finally made it. Wrigley Field.

I've been to Fenway Park in Boston and expected something similar. I wasn't disappointment. Wrigley doesn't have the amneties as other stadiums. But, it does have charm. From my perspective, I think you either love it or hate it.

The White Sox won the game 4-1. It was a quick game. Too quick as I wanted to drink in the atmosphere some more. After the game, we walked around in the stadium until we were thrown out. Then, we walked around outside on Waveland and Sheffield to look at the seats on the roofs across from the stadium. I didn't want to leave but it was off to St. Louis.

Day Five--We are getting tired at this point. It's been a long week. From Chicago to St. Louis was the longest drive of the trip and I'm still trying to recover from my flu.

When arrived in the afternoon, we headed to the Gateway Arch because it was always something I wanted to see. So, off we went following the directions of our Garmin GPS to head on I-64 East into the city. Except its closed. ARRRRGGHHH!!! How do we get into town? Well, thank goodness for the Garmin because it has a detour feature. So, it took us down Forest Park Drive, which was a road parallel to I-64 and got us in no problems.

There was a huge contrast between our day in Chicago and St. Louis. The Chicago game, I was wearing a coat. In St. Louis, it was hot. Stinkin' hot. 92 degrees (F) hot. So, I did get to see the Gateway Arch but no time to go to the top. And, it was hot just walking around.

Luckily, the stadium was close by but it was hard to get out of the A/C of the car to watch the game. Busch stadium is nice. Very fan-friendly. Easy access to bathrooms and food. And, the hamburgers at the Hardees stand on the third level were delicious. It was a good crowd, though rather on the quiet side. We sat in the upper level third base side. Out of the sun. But, it was still hot. And, the Cardinals lost 6-3. We are now off to Kansas City for the last game.