I’m sitting on American Airlines flight 2301 from Chicago O’Hare to Dallas Ft. Worth after a great weekend trip to Chicago. (By the way, I am in seat 26D which I highly recommend given the clear extra leg room as compared to other seats on this flight; check out Seat Guru before your next flight to select the best possible seat on any given aircraft or airline.) This trip was my second annual pilgrimige to see my beloved Chicago Bears play at Soldier Field in downtown Chicago. I came out last year to watch the Bears lose a surprisingly close game to the Philadelphia Eagles who ultimately went on to win the NFC before losing to the New England Patriots in last year’s Super Bowl. (As a side note, the Chicago/Philadelphia game last year featured Terrell Owens doing situps in the endzone after scoring a touchdown, a highlight that is frequently used whenever that idiot is featured in some football story, which is WAY TOO often.)
This result of this year’s game was much different, but I had just as great of a time visiting the Windy City. Our very good friends Andy and Heidi Graham are always excellent hosts. We have been out to visit them a couple of times, and they have come our way a few times as well, and each visit always makes me wish that our two families lived closer to each other. I worked for Andy the year that I lived in Chicago and I really like that city. But for the cold weather, which I do not mind at all but which prevents me from ever successfully convincing Wendy to move there, I would love to live in Chicago.
After catching an afternoon flight out of Long Beach Airport, changing planes in Dallas, I arrived in Chicago late Friday. I have to say that for all of the talk about the death of the legacy carriers, my trip (even the plane change) was remarkably comfortable, efficient and inexpensive. American is one of the few major carriers in the U.S. that is not bankrupt and that does not appear to be on the verge of filing for bankruptcy. They fly in and out of Long Beach Airport which is amazingly convenient as compared to the disaster that is LAX and even as compared to Orange County. It’s a little dumpy, but there is never any wait at security, there is a free wireless Internet connection in the terminal and getting in and out by car is easy.
Andy and I played golf, well it kind of resembled golf, on Saturday morning. Andy’s putter was on fire and he beat me by about 10 strokes but we were both in triple digits. Our outing ended just in time for the start of the USC vs. Notre Dame football game. I’m not much of a college football fan (in fact, I am not at all a college football fan) but that was a great game. I have to admit that even with my near total ambivalence toward college football, I was pulling for top-ranked USC where I went for my MBA. We left for dinner before the game was over, but got score updates from Andy’s cell phone as the game progressed. We watched the highlights later of the epic rivalry match-up as well as the highlights of another loss by the Angels to the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox, of course, ended their long World Series dry spell winning the seires 4-1. The City of Chicago, which typically ignores the Sox in favor of the much more popular cross-town Cubs, is in full-blown White Sox frenzy, as they should be.
Not having had nearly enough exposure to sporting activities, we woke up Sunday morning and, with our friend Tony, headed in to downtown to catch the Bears game. The Bears are playing pretty well this year. Despite three losses this year, including a blowout loss to a very good Cincinnati Bengals team, the Bears have finally added some offense to a defense that has been good for a few years. Rookie quarterback Kyle Orton can play and was a surprisingly strong replacement for constantly injured, and so-called ‘Quarterback of the Future’ Rex Grossman. Coach Lovie Smith has really revived the team since coming to the team from the Rams. The opponent Minnesota Vikings are really struggling this year and were coming off a week of controversy after a bunch of players were caught on a boat with some strippers. For what was supposed to be a contender, they have lost all but one of their games and their quarterback, Duante Culpepper has thrown a ton of interceptions. The game against the Bears was no exception as the Vikes lost the game and Culpepper made a number of mistakes that lead to Chicago scoring opportunities. And, finally, because they have some offense, Chicago was actually able to take advantage of those opportunities and ended up winning 28-3 with most of the scoring coming in the second half.
We were on the upper deck of the recently renovated Soldier Field and it could not have been a more beautiful day. It was cool, but not cold, and the wind was light (at least on the upper deck). Downtown Chicago has really been renovated over the last few years and, after the game, we walked up Michigan Avenue before walking up into the loop and parking ourselves at a bar in the historic Palmer House Hotel for dinner, a few more beers, and the afternoon games on the many TVs. Then it was back to Andy’s house to watch the Sox clinch the AL pennant, occasionally clicking over to see the Seattle Seahawks run up the score against the hapless Houston Texans.
From the surprisingly comfortable air travel to the always good to see friends to the nice weather and seeing a Chicago Bears home game, this really could not have been a nicer trip. I found myself throughout the weekend thinking forward a few years when Noah and, eventually his soon-to-arrive sibling, can join me on this annual outing to one of my favorite places to visit.