A brief beginning to this journey:
My wife Rhonda and I are in town to visit friends, Lori and Greg, and are joined by two more friends who live in Pennsylvania (by way of almost every other city in lower 48), Jim and Ann, for a semi-annual weekend of frivolity. Sometimes it's in L.A., getting tangled in the traffic for the L.A. Marathon while trying to get to the House of Blues for a gospel brunch. Another time, it's in New York to run up to the top of the Empire State Building. This time, Chicago.
It was my doing to straddle it around a Cubs' home game. Trips to Chicago in the past were either too late in the year (college football season) or when the Cubs were out of town. This time, it was the Padres-Cubs on a Saturday. We could have gone Sunday, but the Father's Day crowd would have made tickets even tougher to get. It was lame enough to pay three times the face value (plus 10 percent service charge) through StubHub, but we decided it'd be worth the experience.
The experience, which, if you're lucky enough, starts with a walk down Addison toward the park, as this family of four did (above). After a car ride, train ride and then a bus ride from Lori and Greg's house, I was allowed to hop out and walk the final six blocks. It just seemed like the right thing to do. The anticipation of arriving gave me a chance to see a few signs of Cubs loyalty along the way ... signs up in the windows ... banners out ... warnings not to park on around there if it was a night game ...
It's not as if there was anywhere to park anyway. The $12 lots start about a mile away. The $25 lots are a few blocks away. Those claim to be "E-Z Out" spots. We'll take their word for it. Still, walking was the best way to soak it in. Especially as you get closer and closer, and sense that just around the next neighborhood hood pub, the stadium will be there .... (I'll shut up now and just let the pictures speak for themselves before I get into the place ...)

And walk a little farther down the first-base side of the stadium to see the Harry Caray statue ...

A first glimpse of the scoreboard ...

A first look at the field, through the fence that looks up the right-field line ...

The famous apartment building that looks over right field ... and if you want to know what the phrase and letters/numbers mean, go to this link:

The famous corner of Waveland and Sheffield ....

Where the patrons of Murphy's bar aren't that anxious for the game to start ...

Another loaded-for-business rooftop beyond the left-field bleachers ....

A look at the left-field foul pole, from the street behind ... (that's "Hey, Hey" reversed, thanks to Jack Brickhouse)

Finally ducking into an entrance along the third-base line, going into the darkened walkway, and going up toward the sunlight, the first flight of cement stairs ... and the field...

And the first look at the bleachers ... Bueller's day off is going swell so far ...

The group was already seated in Aisle 216, back under the shade, by the time I decided to show up ...

Still, I asked Jim to pinch me to make sure I had in fact arrived....

So, how about the view from these seats? You gonna complain about the post in the way?

Or that you can't see the center-field scoreboard ...

Or you gotta look up at this auxillary scoreboard to see what's going on with the count ...

Or the beer venders that get in the way (OK, hand one over) ...

Or the crazy array of ramps that people had to walk through to get from one level to another ...

Did we mention the post?

Eventually, it made for a good excuse to go out, walk around, and see the field from different angles ... starting with way up top ...

Down the right-field line ...

Even farther out past right field ...

Gotta like a beer stand up in the catacombs that has its own private restroom ...

With a clear view of the center-field scoreboard ...

And a look back toward home plate ... where the Cubs' Derrick Lee and the Padres' Chris Young have decided to start flailing at each other ...

More players became argumentative ...

And the benches continue to empty ... and note Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano at the top right having to be restrained, as he was back in the clubhouse changing his shirt and came running out with his belt half-way undone ...

Even Nomar Garciaparra was on hand to witness it and tell his friends all about how he was hiding under the bench the whole time ...

Was Jim really sleeping through all this? (No, it was taken about 5 minutes after he settled into his seat innings earlier ... He missed the fight when he went up to get some drinks)...

But all the excitement had the group buzzing ...

By the seventh-inning stretch, Julia Louis-Dreyfus sang "Take Me Out To The Ball Game," and then told both teams to "play nice."

So the Cubs' Zambrano has a no-no going, and the fans with standing-room only space have this view ... at least they can say they were there ...

Then Zambrano lost his no-hitter on an infield chopper with one out in the eighth. Then an inning later, some no-name Padre lifts a low-and-away fastball into left field that kept drifting and drifting and finally was out of reach for a home run -- only their second hit of the day. Then it poured rain between the top and bottom of the ninth inning. Then it stopped. And when it was over.... Zambrano was the losing pitcher... No wonder Cubs fans drink heavily ... It was as if we'd just watched a hockey game: 1-0 score, a brawl, and a bunch of French-sounding names all along the Cubs' lineup (did you know "Pie" is pronounced "Pee-Aye"?)

On the way to the exit, one last look at Mr. Cub ...

The last stop of the day was a walk back up Addison to the first local tavern. It didn't take long to find one ... and once there, you can commiserate with pretty much anyone around.

It was an unforgettable day. Right down to finally meeting the "Sausage King of Chicago" ... we forgot to ask his name. ...

I'm suggesting we leave before someone starts to get snooty.

For more about what happened in this game, go to this ESPN link.