A vendor at work was offering free tickets and parking pass to see The Cubs play yesterday. Since it was a weekday game no one else at work showed much interest so I got two tickets as did a coworker of mine. I’m not really a Cubs fan (go White Sox!) but I’m not passing up an opportunity for a nice day out for free either.
Our parking pass was for the Irving lot which is, predictably, off Irving Park Rd approximately four blocks away from Wrigley Field. It’s actually a narrow lot that sits directly underneath the L tracks. There’s porta potties in the lot too which was helpful since we needed to go and didn’t want to hold it until we reached the stadium.
We stopped at a food stand called Byron’s – Joe got a jumbo dog, I got a cheeseburger, and we shared an order of fries. It was just under $13 for everything and we stuck the bag of food in Joe’s backpack along with the three bottles of water we brought along.
Not our gate (which as K), but a different view of the stadium than we’re used to seeing
Security at the gate consisted of someone checking bags and then walking through a metal detector. As I always say about most security at venues, it’s an illusion. The girl didn’t look so thoroughly enough that someone couldn’t sneak a weapon inside. As Joe noted, she didn’t check underneath the water bottles, and the bags go into a bin outside the metal detector, so someone could easily sneak a gun inside. It’s an illusion of security and nothing more.
I’m glad they don’t prohibit bringing in your own food and snacks, though. We knew the factory sealed water bottles would be ok, but we weren’t sure about the food since their site doesn’t say it’s allowed, yet it’s not on their list of prohibited items either.
Once we found our seats (the view wasn’t that impressive unfortunately), we chowed down on our food.
Just some random people sitting in front of us
My coworker showed up after the game had started with a friend of his who seemed nice, if not a bit drunk and talkative. They weren’t there long before they disappeared for two innings. They came back armed with many beers and food but only stuck around for half an inning before leaving.
Unlike our last Cubs game 12 years ago, it wasn’t quite as cold outside. I wasn’t taking any chances, however, and wore my Cuddlduds under my jeans, brought my winter jacket, and packed my lavaseat (heated seat), a scarf, and a knitted cap with me. I also had my gloves and some hand warmers too. At first I felt silly with all that gear because the sun was quite warm, but just before the game our section became all shade and that made a huge difference. By the time we left during the 7th inning we were both pretty cold (and my heated seat cushion had cooled off even though it’s supposed to last six hours but was more like four).
In all it was a nice little outing that only cost us $13 in food and whatever the price of gas was so I can’t complain.
Ironically enough, they played the same exact team as last time – the Colorado Rockies – only this time they lost 4-1.