2011 February | Have Game? Will Travel!
After a week of spending most of her time on campus working on her dissertation, Nicole came home early so I could attend the Sunday night Blackhawks game.
As was the case last week, I decided not to attempt the scalping market and bought a SRO ticket for $27. Once again, I did not feel I could beat the $27 price point on the secondary market and I knew I would find a seat inside the United Center since it was a Sunday night game against the Coyotes.
Last year I spent President's Day driving to Rockford. This year was no different as the Rockford IceHogs hosted Peoria at 2:05 pm.
As opposed to last year where I had to buy a ticket from the box office, this year I asked a group of people if they had an extra ticket. They did and handed me the ticket for free.
Dylan was healthy and released from the hospital Saturday morning so it was business as usual over the weekend. Since Sunday afternoons are my favorite time to attend a Chicago Blackhawks game, I was not about to miss the Penguins coming to town in a 2:30 pm start time.
The Ultimate Sports Baby was really sick when I got back from the Blackhawks game Wednesday night. Earlier Thursday morning the Ultimate Sports Baby was admitted to Children's Memorial Hospital for a respiratory virus. But, the doctor's said he just needed time to get healthy so there was not much to worry about.
I drove straight to the United Center from work since Hospitality Jim invited me to the game the night before. Miraculously traffic was not that bad, so I had time to go out before the game. I drove down Ogden Ave. and chose Mahoney's Pub & Grille located at 551 N. Ogden Ave. since they had street parking nearby.
Since Nicole took Dylan to see her family last weekend, it was my turn to take him to see my family this weekend. Dylan and I planned to take the last flight from Chicago to San Francisco last night. By taking the last flight, my plan was for Dylan to sleep all the way on the plane. However, when I arrived at the airport our flight was delayed for 90 minutes. A delay with a baby is not fun since I would have to entertain him that entire time.
Nicole planned to take Dylan to her grandfather's 90th birthday party in south Texas so I had a weekend home alone in Chicago. Of course, since it is Super Bowl weekend, there is only one sporting event in Chicago – Illinois at Northwestern on Saturday afternoon. This was the first game ever televised by CBS Sports at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
I have written about this before and I will write about it again. Getting home from the northwest suburbs to my house by Wrigley Field on a Friday evening is nearly impossible to do in a reasonable amount of time. So whenever there is an event scheduled for the Allstate Arena on a Friday night, I plan to attend since I pass the arena on my way home from work.