That toddlin' town
Greetings to all. I hope that you had a great weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or Passover or neither.
My wife and I went on a somewhat unusual (for us) trip over the weekend. We went to Chicago, but had a very good reason.
Our eldest granddaughter is a volleyball player, and she's pretty good, we hear. Played initially for her school team but was invited to try out for a more select team, made up of kids from her entire geographic area. This is her second year on this club team, and we'd never had the chance to see her play in person.
Until this weekend.
Through a quirk in scheduling her team participated in the Windy City National Qualifier, which was a massive event staged in the Chicago convention center known as McCormick Place. Try to imagine, if you can, an indoor space approximately a football field and a third in size. Volleyball courts as far as you can see in all directions. Each team of about ten players (all teenaged girls, of course) and a coach or two. Parents, grandparents, friends all in attendance. Whistles and cheering nonstop.
You get the idea!
So that's where we were this weekend. We arrived in Chicago Thursday evening, visited with our daughter and her hubby and son (granddaughter was in a different hotel with her teammates) at our hotel, the downtown Hilton Chicago.
If that sounds familiar for some reason, this hotel was featured prominently in the 1990s Harrison Ford movie version of "The Fugitive." The climactic final scenes take place in the hotel and were apparently shot on the premises. I realized it when our cab pulled up and we were under the front awning, which looked a great deal like the overhang of a traditional movie theater. Lots of lights!
I also deduced that this hotel may have been the backdrop for the poster art for the second Christian Bale-Christopher Nolan Batman collaboration, "The Dark Knight." That movie, and "Batman Begins" before it, were both filmed in Chicago.
We didn't see Harrison Ford or Christian Bale, by the way.
Anyway, the weekend was a blur of volleyball matches and Uber rides (too far in the cold wind to walk most of the time), with some good meals sprinkled in. We enjoyed the quintessential Chicago pizza experience Saturday and got a little sightseeing in after the morning matches. In fact, if you look me up on Instagram (@richardlexsmith) you can see some of the pics I took.
If you're curious about how our granddaughter's team performed, I'll say this: they lost all three of their Friday matches, some close sets but all defeats, and lost the first two on Saturday. But then they won the third match, which allowed them to wait until 11:00 AM to play on Sunday. They won that match. And the one after that, so finished the tournament with three consecutive wins!
I love Chicago, but somehow I now like New York better. I suppose it's because Chicago is the city AND the suburbs, whereas New York is, well, New York, with other towns very close by.
Anyway, that's what we did this weekend! Send me a comment and let me know how YOU spent the holiday weekend!
My wife and I went on a somewhat unusual (for us) trip over the weekend. We went to Chicago, but had a very good reason.
Our eldest granddaughter is a volleyball player, and she's pretty good, we hear. Played initially for her school team but was invited to try out for a more select team, made up of kids from her entire geographic area. This is her second year on this club team, and we'd never had the chance to see her play in person.
Until this weekend.
Through a quirk in scheduling her team participated in the Windy City National Qualifier, which was a massive event staged in the Chicago convention center known as McCormick Place. Try to imagine, if you can, an indoor space approximately a football field and a third in size. Volleyball courts as far as you can see in all directions. Each team of about ten players (all teenaged girls, of course) and a coach or two. Parents, grandparents, friends all in attendance. Whistles and cheering nonstop.
You get the idea!
So that's where we were this weekend. We arrived in Chicago Thursday evening, visited with our daughter and her hubby and son (granddaughter was in a different hotel with her teammates) at our hotel, the downtown Hilton Chicago.
If that sounds familiar for some reason, this hotel was featured prominently in the 1990s Harrison Ford movie version of "The Fugitive." The climactic final scenes take place in the hotel and were apparently shot on the premises. I realized it when our cab pulled up and we were under the front awning, which looked a great deal like the overhang of a traditional movie theater. Lots of lights!
I also deduced that this hotel may have been the backdrop for the poster art for the second Christian Bale-Christopher Nolan Batman collaboration, "The Dark Knight." That movie, and "Batman Begins" before it, were both filmed in Chicago.
We didn't see Harrison Ford or Christian Bale, by the way.
Anyway, the weekend was a blur of volleyball matches and Uber rides (too far in the cold wind to walk most of the time), with some good meals sprinkled in. We enjoyed the quintessential Chicago pizza experience Saturday and got a little sightseeing in after the morning matches. In fact, if you look me up on Instagram (@richardlexsmith) you can see some of the pics I took.
If you're curious about how our granddaughter's team performed, I'll say this: they lost all three of their Friday matches, some close sets but all defeats, and lost the first two on Saturday. But then they won the third match, which allowed them to wait until 11:00 AM to play on Sunday. They won that match. And the one after that, so finished the tournament with three consecutive wins!
I love Chicago, but somehow I now like New York better. I suppose it's because Chicago is the city AND the suburbs, whereas New York is, well, New York, with other towns very close by.
Anyway, that's what we did this weekend! Send me a comment and let me know how YOU spent the holiday weekend!
Comments
Post a Comment