Hot time at Wrigley Field

Holy swelteringly miserable experience!

Who'd have thought back in early spring when we reserved our tickets to catch a baseball game at the legendary Wrigley Field, that the particular game we selected would happen to fall on a 95-degree day?
 
That's our luck! And since we had already paid for the tickets, we decided to sweat it out for as long as we could stand it. (Jenny wisely stayed behind at the hotel with baby Jimmy.) 

We took the "L" from our hotel to the field. Once we reached the stadium, we started climbing to find our seats. And climbing. And climbing. And climbing. One long ramp after another we climbed until at last we reached our seats which were, by my estimation, about 12 rows above the nose bleed section. Just two rows separated us from the back fence. 

At least though, we were in the shade. And we were at Wrigley Field.

The kids sat quietly in their seats for... oh... about 45 seconds... before asking when they could get treats. Wanting water and/or ice cream myself, and freely admitting I couldn't have cared less about a game between two teams I don't follow, I agreed to walk with the kids back down ramp after ramp in search of refreshments.

All too soon we were back in our seats with cotton candy and malt cups. That kept the kids busy and happy for another inning or two, and then the questions started about getting souvenirs. This time the guys agreed to chaperon.

When they came back, you couldn't have asked for a more obvious example of the difference between boys and girls. The kids weaved their way down our row to their seats, excitedly showing off their loot. Sydney had picked a small pink stuffed bear (a Cub, don't you know?) and Ellie had chosen a pink baseball cap. And what did AJ and Ben each get?

Oh, goody! Because who wouldn't want a giant foam bear paw.

Ultimately we lasted until the top of the seventh inning, and then we couldn't stand the heat any longer.

To our credit, we seemed to last about six innings longer than the Cubs did. The final score was a nail biter... they lost to Philadelphia by something like 9-1. And based on how many people we saw wearing Cubs t-shirts on the ride back downtown, we clearly weren't the only attendees who snuck out early.