Two words and repeat. Cubs Win!

We've seen almost every baseball scenario on this trip. On Monday, we watched the Cubs host the Rockies in Wrigley Field. Going into the 9th inning, the Cubs had a comfortable 8-3 lead over the Rockies. But then we watched the Rockies rally to score 6 runs in the 9th inning and take the lead 9-8. And then in the bottom of the 9th, the Cubs also rally and get a 2-run single from Alfonso Soriano and the Cubs win 10-9. What a great game to see in person and be with the crowd jumping and cheering "Cubs win! Cubs win!".

Game info: Chicago Cubs vs. Colorado Rockies
Final Score: Cubs 10, Rockies 9
Starting Pitcher Cubs - Jason Marquis
Starting Pitcher Cubs - Jeff Francis

A visit to Wrigley Field meant a lot to us on this trip, especially because its the second oldest active ballpark after Fenway Park. It definitely has that older ballpark feel with the grandstand-type seating. It was also interesting to be there for a night game and see the lighting in the ballpark. Games in Wrigley Field used to always be played during the day because they didn't have any lights to play night games. This changed in 1988 when the lights were installed above the first and third base grandstand seats. But then there's no lights coming from the outfield, so its obviously darker in the outfield and you can see double shadows.

Our seats were in the outfield bleachers, which were first come, first serve general admission seats. We were able to get seats in center field a few rows beneath the scoreboard. I had a hot dog and nachos with pull-stretched pork along with a Bud, and boy was it a lot of food. But they were so yummy, especially those nachos...it was like eating carnitas nachos.

Other best moments of the game:

• Witnessing rookie Mike Fontenot go 5-for-5 and 2 RBI's. That's rare to be able to hit safely 5 times in one game.
• Our home team record is now 5-2. And we've seen a home run in every game so far. Today, both teams hit home runs, and in Wrigley Field, its tradition to throw the visiting team's home run ball onto the field. When the Rockies hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 9th to get the 9-8 lead, the baseball was thrown back onto the field.
• After the Cubs gave up the 3-run home run to lose the lead, some crazed fan ran onto the field towards the pitcher's mound. We couldn't really tell what was going on but then the fan got tackled by a security guy almost immediately. And then he was tackled by more security and escorted out of the field. That was entertaining to see.

One other thing we did earlier in the day - we went to the United Center, where the Bulls (NBA) and the Blackhawks (NHL) play, to see the bronze statue of Michael Jordan.

Tuesday's plan - Travel day to Detroit.

We took it easy on Sunday. The plan was to see the White Sox host the Cubs at U.S. Cellular Field, but you would think it was a home game for the Cubs because there were more Cubs fans at the game. And then we met up with one of my college roommates, Sean, and he showed us around his neighborhood in Lincoln Park.

Getting to the South Side from our downtown hotel was an easy hop onto the red line and down to the ballpark.

Game info: Chicago White Sox vs. Chicago Cubs
Final Score: Cubs 3, White Sox 0
Starting Pitcher White Sox - Jose Contreras (L)
Starting Pitcher Cubs - Sean Marshall (W)

U.S. Cellular is another nice, modern ballpark. The bleachers section is huge and the diamond vision screens are huge. The food was really good too...I started off with a steak sandwich with fries and then a bratwurst and washed it down with a couple cups of Miller High Life. Good stuff (burp).

Our seats were in the nosebleed seats above first base. Though we felt far from the field, there were plenty of fans around us cheering for both teams to keep us in the game.

Best moments of the game:

• We got hit with the second home loss of our trip, but we got to see Alfonso Soriano blast a home run to left field and continue that streak.
• We saw the craziest pickle ever. The Cubs were up to bat with runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. The batter hit a ball safely in right field and the runners advanced. But then there was a runner on 3rd, and the batter went to 2nd, leaving the other runner in between them with nowhere to go. He ended up getting tagged out, and then the runner at third tried to go home but he got pickled and was tagged out too. So that's two outs, right? Wrong. Apparently, the umpires ruled that the Sox third baseman interfered with the first runner on 2nd base and so it was ruled that there were no outs with the bases loaded. That interference had no impact on the play, and understandably Sox manager Ozzie Guillen went to argue the call and ended up getting ejected. The Cubs ended up scoring 1 more run from that bizarre play, but it didn't matter since they were already up 2-0.

After the game, we met up with Sean, one of my UCSD college roommates, and he hung out with us for awhile. He showed us his home in Lincoln Park and we walked around his neighborhood for a bit. We also stopped for a Chicago style hot dog at Wiener's Circle and stopped at a bar for a beer. It was good to see Sean and catch up for a couple hours. We haven't seen each other since my first trip to Chicago last year for his wedding.

Sean, me, Julius. Taken by Ernest.

Monday's plan - See the Cubs in their home, Wrigley Field, as they host the Colorado Rockies. And we'll make a stop at the United Center to see the Michael Jordan statue.

Its Saturday and we drove to Chicago, which is only 1.5 hours from Milwaukee. We stopped at Kenosha for lunch and had White Castle burgers again. Those slyders are so good.

We arrived in Chicago at 3pm and checked in to the hotel. We left Julius at the hotel with all of our bags and Ernest and I went to return the rental car. We don't need a car in Chicago since we'll be here for 3 nights and we plan to use mass transit to get around town. This saves us some rental days and overnight parking charges. But when Ernest and I got to the rental location, it was closed. It closed at 2pm. I called another location a few miles away and they said we could return the car there. But when we arrive and meet the guy I talked to on the phone, he thought we were returning a moving truck and he doesn't handle cars. So we call the 1-800 number for the rental car and they tell us that the nearest location is Midway Airport. So we drive to the airport and return the car there. Then we taxi'd back to the hotel. That whole ordeal took 1.5 hours but we're glad we were able to get around town and return the car.

After we got settled in the hotel room, we walked a few blocks to Gino's East Pizza for some deep dish pizza. We had calamari for an appetizer and then we ordered a small Gino's East Supreme pizza (pepperoni, onions, green peppers and mushrooms) and a small Meaty Legend (pepperoni, italian sausage, bacon and Candadian bacon). That was a lot of food but we finished it. Well, thanks to Ernest and Julius for eating 3 slices each and I had 2. We were so full when we left the restaurant.

After dinner, Ernest went back to the hotel, while Julius and I went to the John Hancock building and went up the Lounge on the 95th floor and had a drink. The view of Chicago at night is really cool.

We didn't really take pictures today, but I feel like I should include some pictures. So here's two pics. The first is Julius eating nachos at Miller Park during last night's game. The second is Ernest eating a White Castle burger at lunch today.

Sunday's plan - Go to U.S. Cellular Field and see the White Sox host the Cubs in an inter-city matchup.

It's Miller Time! Its Friday and we went to the Miller Brewing Company today and did the free tour that guided us through the history and brewing process of Miller beers. It also included sampling 3 different beers at the conclusion of the tour. How much better can that get? The first sampling was in the Miller Inn where everyone sampled Miller Lite. Then we went to the Beer Garden and I chose to sample the Miller Genuine Draft and the Leinenkugel Creamy Dark.

Next, we went to Miller Park for the 5th game of our 9 game trip:

Game info: Milwaukee Brewers vs. Kansas City Royals
Final Score: Brewers 11, Royals 6
Starting Pitcher Brewers - Jeff Suppan (W)
Starting Pitcher Royals - Jorge De La Rosa (L)

Our seats were Field Diamond Box seats, in the 5th row just 1 section away from being directly behind home plate. They were great seats and this is the closest to the action and home plate than we've ever been.

Best moments of the game:

• Being in Miller Park...this is a beautiful ballpark. We were very impressed by the layout and feel of the park. It also has a retractable roof, so if it rains, they can close the roof and not have any rainouts.
• Our home team record is now 4-1 and we saw 3 home runs by the home team. And whenever the Brewers hit a home run, Bernie the Mascot has a huge slide in left field that he slides down while waving a Brewers flag. You can see the yellow slide in the lower left picture.
• The game itself was entertaining. It was high scoring and we saw tons of different plays like stolen bases, wild pitches, errors, great catches and a tag out at home plate. There was also a head's up stolen base by the Brewers when the Royals' pitcher wasn't paying attention because we was talking to the second baseman.
• The food and beer is great. The beer is all Miller and you can find all of their beers for sale in different places in the ballpark. And you can choose between 5 different sausages - Italian, Bratwurst, Polish, Chorizo or regular hot dog. We had the Bratwurst and they were tasty. I also had some fries and nachos, which weren't that special but they were good.
• Meeting a family right next to us who are from Los Angeles and they're doing a similar baseball road trip like us. They're also going to Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland like us but they're also going to Pittsburgh to end their trip.

We had a great time today. The Miller Brewing Company tour was interesting and having free beer was a plus. And we're glad we made the drive to Milwaukee to see Miller Park. Its a really nice looking ballpark and the game was fun. Our seats were great, the fans were into it and the Brewers won. It was a great day.

Friday's plan - Travel day to Chicago. We'll sleep in and take it easy tomorrow.

806 miles. That's what our odometer says how far we drove on Thursday. Our drive from Washington DC to Milwaukee took just over 13 hours, including stops for lunch and dinner. We passed through 7 states (Virgina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin).

The drive was fairly smooth, though we had to stop more than we thought to pay tolls. We hit a few thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening but other than that, we just had to grind through the miles.

We stopped over in Chesterton, Indiana for dinner and gas, and we found a White Castle hamburger restaurant. None of us have ever had a White Castle burger so we split a 30 hamburger crave case and 20 chicken rings for $20. I couldn't finish my share, but it was really good!