I'm back and now I need a vacation from my vacation

Wow it's been a little over two weeks and now I'm back.  I know I posted a couple mobile posts from the three ball games I got to go to, but they weren't real posts.  I also hate to call what I just did a vacation.  I never consider visiting family a vacation.  But it was good to see everybody and get out of Alaska for a few weeks.  Of course I was hoping for better weather, but what can you do.  This is just a summary of the trip, minus all the boring family stuff.

When the wife and I flew into Chicago we ended up spending the night at my wife's aunts house.  We got in early so we crashed and later that night took in the second home game for the Cubs.  And it was cold, really cold!

We lasted till the 8th inning and then sought refuge across the street at a bar for wings and beer and to watch the rest of the game.  Oddly enough two years ago we ended up going to Wrigley for the second home game as well.  The Cubs won both times.  They were playing my beloved Brewers.

We also took a trip over to Minnesota tothe  Mall of America.  My wife had never been and the weather was nice for the drive.   I also got to go to my first Lego store.  It was a little overwhelming for a Lego fan.  I'll post about that over on my Lego blog.

I ended up getting sick half way through our trip and finally felt good enough for the drive.  If it had worked out better we might have stayed the night and gone to a Twins game while we were there, but we ended up just driving back to my folks house in Northern Wisconsin.

After about 10 days with my folks we headed south again to visit another one of my wife's relatives in Oshkosh and along the way we stopped at Lambeau for lunch.

I highly recommend the bacon beer cheese burger on a pretzel roll, unbelievably good.
I ended up going through the Hall of Fame again and my wife went shopping for me at the gift shop.  There was quite a bit on clearance so I am now fully stocked on Packers apparel.
I also wanted to see all the Lombardi Trophies together.

They also had a new exhibit featuring the photography of the late Vern Biever the Packers' official photographer from 1941 till he retired in 2006.  It was really cool.

Then we hoofed it down to Milwaukee to take in a couple Brewers games at Miller Field.  I had yet to make it to a game there and was pretty excited to see the place.  Both games were against the Cubs and the roof was closed for both, which was probably a good thing as it was still pretty chilly.  This was also right in the middle of the Brewers 9 game winning streak, I do believe the two games were 6 and 7 of that streak.  I also got to see my favorite Brewer prospect Logan Schafer make an appearance in both games, replacing Aoki on Saturday and an ejected Braun on Sunday.
The first game we were close to the worst seats in the house.

The worst seats would have been two seats over from mine on the left there.  I also got to see a few old college friends I hadn't seen in about 9 years, just by chance.

Here's a view from the very top row of the 4th level.

That is a long way down.

On Sunday it was bobblehead day and we scored a pair of George Scott bobbleheads.  I think half the folks there were like "Who the hell is George Scott?"  Luckily I know exactly who George Scott is.

George played with the Brewers from 1972 to 1976 and racked up 5 Golden Glove awards while with the team. Hence the gold gloves on the bobble.

Both games were a lot of fun and we had great seats on Sunday.  Second Level row two on the third base line.

We ended up back in Chicago for my wife's birthday and had great weather so we headed downtown to the sky deck of the Sear's Tower, now called the Willis Tower.

I also have a large cache of baseball cards and comic books at my folks house.  I've been meaning and planning on eventually moving all that stuff up here, but haven't.  I did dig through it and mailed a bunch of stuff up to myself and I'll have a few posts on what treasures I found buried.

Good to be back.  CB out.