kitchtrips

Let’s go walking by the beach tonight
And watch the sun come up on Lake Shore Drive
Then I’ll take you in my arms
And I’ll keep you from all harm
Cause I know everything is gonna be alright

And I don’t care what people say
Cause I’m gonna love you night & day
Oh baby if you still want me
Still need me, all you gotta do is let me
Just walk right up to your door

I’m makin’ my way back to Chicago
I’m makin’ my way come rain or shine
I’m gonna find true love waiting for me
I’m gonna make it all work out for good this time

-Styx

Tuesday 28 May, 2024

Had one of the best sleeps on record – a tick over ten hours. Clearly, race week in Indianapolis really caught up with me. I ate and drank too much up there, or so I assume, because my 5km run through the local neighbourhood was a lot harder and longer than it usually is.

Relaxed this morning in our Airbnb – a nice condo in Lombard – then headed over to Wheaton. The Popcorn Shop, the Big Wheaton Chair, Shane’s Deli then Memorial Park for lunch (Buffalo chicken sandwich from Shane’s is legit!), another stop at The Popcorn Stop, then Kilwins for ice cream where I had the Georgia Peach flavour. That’s a pretty full couple suburban Chicago hours right there. Great to see Brian and Debbie, Jamie and Connor and Nolan.

Oh, and there were cicadas. Lots and lots of them – everywhere! Chicago is in the middle of a cicada appearance that only happens once every 4-5 years, or so I’m told. The noise is terrific. Reminds me of summers back at home, actually.

Over to Mike’s at 5:00pm. Headed for Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the particularly and historically bad Chicago White Sox who have 15 wins and 40 losses on the season and playing some of the worst baseball you can possibly imagine.

It was pouring on the way down. As Keith said in the car, “What’s worse than a 15-40 Sox game? A 15-40 Sox game in the rain!”

Actually, eerily reminiscent of the Indianapolis 500, we arrived at the ballpark just as the rain stopped. The game was delayed from it’s 6:40pm start to 7:20pm, which allowed us to have a few beers in the parking lot beforehand, a uniquely American tradition known as tailgating, which is quite illegal in Australia. Sam, my friend from IndyCar Radio, joined us. Misery loves company, I guess. By the time we went to our outfield spot, the sun was shining. It’s been a strange week for weather…

To be honest, the less said about the game, the better. The Sox were bad and Toronto were very good. However, a few things to note: incredibly good company; Josh tried to do nine hot dogs and nine beers in nine innings and got to seven dogs and eight beers – a damn good effort; we also ended up on the Jumbotron again for the “Miller Lite Cheers Cam” segment with the in-stadium host Alyssa Bergamini, literally one year to the day that we were on it last year. Clearly we were in the right place at the right time…twice. Just a bunch of guys hanging out near the Miller Lite Landing bar, trying to drink away another Sox loss. Will we go 3-3 next year?

All of that made up for some pretty putrid baseball. Hanging out with these guys is always a highlight of any Chicago visit.