We did lots of walking around town and got completely exhausted from the heat. Thankfully, there were some big fountains that tons of people were playing in that we could cool off in.
That night, while I was trying to find a way to get on the roof of the hotel, someone walked into our room using a working card key. Hannah just told the startled couple that the room was occupied and they left. We didn't really think much of it until we got a call from the front desk around 10:30 at night. They informed us that we had been checked out and that they had sold the room we were in. I told them that we weren't going to be leaving since we paid for 2 nights and had a receipt to confirm this. She acted as though she was being gracious when she said she was extending our stay...I asked if she was charging us a second time and she said that nothing would be changed on the billing.
Today has been one of the most fun days yet, except for when we checked out of the hotel. As I thought, they screwed up the billing and charged us all kinds of wacky rates. We finally got the manager on the case and he took us upstairs and essentially gave us a full refund for half of the charges. We ended up paying a rate that is less than half of what we should have paid. I defy you to find a hotel in downtown Chicago for $75 dollars a night... apparently the trick is to get your room sold while you are still in it!
Well, with that productive start, we were pumped to tackle the rest of day. Our general plan was to head down to Wrigleyville (we found out that this is what the area around the ball park is called), find a place to ditch the car, then scrounge up some tickets to see the Cubs play the Diamondbacks. Normally, parking around the ball park can cost anywhere from 20 to 40 dollars, but we just left the car at a meter for 5 hours without paying and it turned out to be fine. Next step was to find tickets. We were waiting in line and had just decided that we were willing to spend $30 per ticket on some of the worst seats in the house (top row, limited view) and if there weren't any to be had, we'd just head on out. As we were waiting, this guy taps me on the shoulder and asks, "You guys going to the game?"
Me, "Yeah, we are."
Guy, "Here, take these" *Hands us two tickets*
Me, "Um, what?"
Guy, "Don't worry about it! The mayor was coming to the game with us and had to cancel, so you guys can have these...we'll see you in there!"
We instantly ran across the street and bought Hannah a Cubs shirt and me a hat. Then we ran back across the street and practically sprinted to our seats, which were on the 9th row!
Right before the game was supposed to start there was a rain delay that lasted about 3 hours. There was a tremendous amount of rain, so much so that large portions of the concourse flooded because of the amount of water washing in/because several drains started working in reverse. This means that copious amounts of water were bubbling up and covering the floor in 3 inches of water. Finally, the game started again and we got to watch a good portion of it before more lightening started up and another weather delay was called. Regrettably, we had to leave because we had been there for 6 hours and really needed to hit the road.
Here's a picture of the guys who gave away the mayor's tickets which run about $112 per ticket!
The original game plan was to head to a campground right on Lake Michigan, but the chance of thunderstorms was just a bit to high for me to have a clean conscience about taking my wife out to spend the night in an area at risk for high winds and lightening with a just a sturdy piece of nylon to keep us safe.
We hit the road heading south and ended up in Lebanon, Indiana before we got too tired to keep trucking. Interestingly, the GPS said it was going to be a 4 hour drive and we were confused when we beat that time by an hour. We are back in the eastern time zone, but we'll be back in central time tomorrow when we head down to Louisville and Mammoth Caves.
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