100 Percent Chance of A Parade In Chicago

Up until this weekend, most of my knowledge of the City of Chicago came from two sources: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Fugitive.

Well, this weekend The Civee and I had a chance to expand that knowledge- we were invited to a birthday party for her sister Saturday held on one of the rooftops across the street from Wrigley Field.

We decided to head up there Saturday morning and return this (Sunday morning).  With the game starting at noon (Chicago time) we figured we’d have enough time to get to Chicago, park at the hotel and take “The L” up to Wrigley in time for the first pitch.  We hit Chicago at 11, and seemingly, our plan was looking pretty damn good.

We got off the highway and on to Columbus (the street our hotel was located on) and all of a sudden, we were greeted by hundreds of cars not moving.  Columbus, it turns out, was closed.

In the great tradition of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Fugitive, there was a parade in Chicago yesterday.  Not only did we have to seperate from the conglomeration of cars turning downtown Chi-town into a parking lot, we had to navigate to our hotel before we could carry out the rest of our plan.

Eventually, we managed to make our way to the hotel, but we pulled in the parking lot at 12:05 and our plan was shot to sunshine.  We did make it to Wrigley by the top of the third, which wasn’t that bad, considering we were set back an hour.

Still, I couldn’t get upset–the parade goers all had Polish flags, scarves, t-shirts and other paraphernalia.  Turns out it was the annual Polish Constitution Day Parade. As we sat in traffic, I actually considered ditching the ball game and joining my bretheren in celebration of the ratification of the world’s second-oldest democratic constitution.

But we had a ball game to go to.

The rooftop experience was fun. I wasn’t surprised that most of the people on the rooftop weren’t there to watch the game (especially with the free food and drinks).  It was nice to see former Yankees Ted Lilly (8 IP, 1ER, 10K) and Alfonso Soriano (2-5) have a good day.  It was even nicer to not get hassled for wearing a Yankees cap.

After the game, the Civee and I got back on the L and walked around the city a bit.  It was fun and we’d like to go back sometime for more than just a day.

If we do, our experience (and the movies) have taught us there will be a parade that day.