Chicago, what a great city to explore!
In November 2016 I had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite cities in the United States – Chicago. I was lucky during this time because my visit fell during one of the most exciting times to be in Chicago – the 2016 World Series of baseball playoffs. I live in Denver so I understand the excitement of your city winning a big sports championship. It wasn’t too long ago that I was helping my city celebrate a Super Bowl win (Go Broncos! 🙂 ).
Chicago has not seen a World Series win in over 108 years! The city waited so long for the pennant, when they won it they sure celebrated for lost time. I was lucky to be a part of it.
The Chicago Cubs won the World Series in game 7 playing against the Cleveland Indians. The game was an away game but that didn’t stop the people of Chicago from cheering on their team. Everywhere I went in the city people were proudly wearing their Cubs memorabilia and the game was being shown on every TV screen. My favorite part of all of this was seeing the lions in front of the Art Institute of Chicago wearing Cubs baseball hats. I didn’t watch the game in its entirety and catching on during the 8th inning. However, I have a very good reason why I missed the first part of the game and as you keep reading you will know why.
My hotel room was on Michigan Avenue (one of the main streets in downtown Chicago) and when the Chicago Cubs secured their win I began hearing cheering and screaming down the street. In fact the screaming and car honking kept going until 5 am! I made sure to take time to visit Wrigleyville that next morning. It was an amazing sight to see Wrigley Field with World Series championship added to it.
To finish off my visit to Chicago was the World Series parade. If you are not familiar with sports championship parades it is a giant parade usually hosted by the winning city as a thank you to the fans with players, coaches and the championship trophy in the parade. The City of Chicago put out all the stops for their championship team.
Back to why I missed the first part of the World Series championship game. The city of Chicago had not seen a championship game over 100 years and everyone was going to be watching the game. This worked out in my favor because I was able to score a ticket to, the very impossible to get, ‘Hamilton’ the musical! Prior to my trip I tried purchasing a ticket to the show but of course it was sold out. I then tried putting in my name to the ‘Hamilton’ lottery but I did not have any luck. When the Cubs made it to game 7 – the game that would determine who would win the championship – I figured that some people might be selling their tickets back to the box office in exchange for a different day. As luck would have it there was ONE ticket available! Since I was traveling solo I was able to purchase the ticket.
‘Hamilton’ was AMAZING!!!!! I applaud Lin-Manuel Miranda for writing such an extraordinary musical. I was completely blown away with the songs, the dancing, the stage…everything. I cannot recommend this show enough.
Chicago is filled with so much fun things to see and great places to eat. Here are some of the fun places that I liked to stop at when I visit Chicago:
Places to See:
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
- The Magnificent Mile Chicago
- Navy Pier
- Cloud Gate aka the Chicago Bean and Millennium Park
Places to Eat: When I visit Chicago I like to try out the different Chicago deep dish pizza places. Here a few of my favorites. *We are always up for good food suggestions so if you have a favorite deep dish pizza place in Chicago leave them in the comments!
I hoped you enjoyed my whirlwind of adventure to Chicago! It is one of my favorite cities to visit and I cannot wait to go back.
-Bridget
Navajo Traveling Sisters 