Chicago, il
This year the 40th National Sports Collectors Convention was held in Chicago at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Colt and I accompanied my dad up there for the weekend to help out. To keep with Colt's wanna be famous lifestyle, we flew American Airlines 1st class from Charlotte to O'Hare on 08/01/19.
As soon as we arrived in Chicago, we had to rush to the show because Jim Thome was beginning to sign autographs at 12 and he's one of the main reasons we went, we have a couple 500 Home Run baseballs that we needed his autograph on.
After getting his signature, we spent the day at the show looking at all the amazing cards and memorabilia they had for sell. Colt liked the show for a little bit but quickly got burned out on not being able to buy and touch everything he saw!
Friday, we left the hotel and hopped on the subway system and rode it into town, for Colt's first time on public transportation, he was pretty happy. We went to Willis Tower and stepped out on the Skydeck. After Willis, we scurried on over to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs dismantle the Milwaukee Brewers in a 6-2 win. We left Wrigley with bags of souvenirs including custom jerseys down to Cubbie pop sockets.
We went back to the room to get Grandpa and walked down the street to eat dinner at the Sugar Factory. There was an outdoor concert featuring a Pink Floyd cover band and they were jamming!
Saturday we did more sight seeing. We started off by visiting Guaranteed Rate Field, home to the Chicago White Sox, but they were not playing in town that weekend and the gift shop was closed, so we took some pictures and on we went on our way. Chicago's famous Navy Pier was next on our to do list along with their Centennial Wheel and Giodano's famous deep dish pizza! After hours in the excruciating heat, we marked all our to-do's and caught an Uber back to the hotel. After resting for quick minute, we took Grandpa and walked back down the street to eat at a Brazilian steakhouse conveniently located next to Harley Davidson of Chicago, where I picked out my next bike.
Sunday we had to be at the airport pretty early, our flight left at 0930. We were standing in the ticket line to check our bags, Colt had his ear buds in and I was casually people watching like I love to do. After looking around, I turned to check my 6, and noticed a couple guys who looked oddly familiar. I tapped Colt on the shoulder and bent down to whisper, I think the Dobre brothers are behind us, he slowly turned around and quickly shot back face forward. Marcus Dobre laughed and I said "it's you guys, aint it?" he said yes and I asked if Colt could get a picture, obviously tired, they still were happy to oblige. They were in Chicago for the weekend concert series LOLLAPALOOZA and were on their way back home too.
A busy weekend came to an end when Mom picked us up at the airport and drove us back home.