Saturday night brought another one of those experiences that I really never knew I wanted to have, but now that I’ve had it, man, just awesome. The last couple years, there has been an ice skating rink outside of Wrigley Field; this was the part of the “mini-Kindlmarket” that was setup in December. Of course, the main Christ Kindl Market is downtown; speaking of that one, I need to walk over there soon. But yeah, so we’ve been to the one outside of Wrigley; it was cool. But this year, they did something different; they setup a Winterland INSIDE Wrigley Field. I knew they were doing this; I knew we would be going. I figured it would be cool, but man… it, was, awesome! I would highly recommend this to anyone. This is a must do, especially for any Cubs fans.
We were inside Wrigley Field, in December, walking on the field!!! The field was covered with these snap together tiles, which were really cool; can’t mess up the field inside the cathedral. The whole concourse was decorated, down the path up the 3rd base line, and around to the left field bleachers, where we entered the field. Yes, we walked right onto the warning track, right by the dying ivy, right under the basket. I think I’ve been on the field before, maybe not, but that moment was really cool. I told my son, right there, in that basket, is where KB hit that home run in Game 5 of the World Series that turned it around for us; he leapt under the basket like he was trying to catch a fly ball. Of course they had the ice rink setup, as well as, ice bumper cars; unfortunately, both of those were sold out for the evening, but have no fear… there was more. We scooped some tickets to get on the tilt-a-whirl; that was a blast. With all 3 of us in that car, we really got it spinning… thankfully not too much, that would have upset the large beer and spiced wine (with an extra shot of spiced rum) freshly sitting in my stomach. After that, we went over to the carnival type games they have setup. The one that drew our attention was the chimney toss, in other words, the basketball shot.
I went first; 0-3… unreal. I told my son, who was up next, that he had to represent for us; his first one was around and out… the next two shots had the same fate. My son was pissed. He instantly wanted to get another ticket and get back; we did. This time, I let him go first, because if he didn’t make one of the next three, I could give him my ticket, because, we weren’t leaving, until he made one… haha. Thankfully, his next first shot went in; he missed the other two, but we were all good. Then I stepped up, and bricked another. My son told me let me give you the dime… I said OK… threw it to him, he threw it back to me, and I drained it; yeah! For the last one, we tried that same strategy, except he wasn’t looking for my behind the back pass that went rolling past him through the outfield. Once he tracked it down, I caught his pass, and tried to do an MJ fadeaway… just short. But, we both made one; now we can move on, since my wife didn’t want to take a shot… haha.
Yeah, they had a lodge setup too… like a makeshift bar with big ass TVs, that sold marshmallows which folks were roasting outside. It was a really, really nice setup. But we were WALKING ON THE FIELD!!! What a vantage point. The scoreboard was lit up nicely; it turned out to be an experience that I’ll never forget. We’ll be back there again in a couple weeks.
So yeah, my Saturday night was pretty good; better than the morning, watching the US lose in the World Cup. Have no fear, the Bears will complete the weekend, right? Get to Wrigley Field Winterland… now!
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