Pumpkin Farm

Before I revisit the world series game I attended, I wanted to post some great pictures of Marissa from our recent visit to a pumpkin farm.  My parents aren't on Facebook, so they don't get to see these types of pictures unless I post them here or send them to them in an email. No trouble at all though as I love looking through them again and again!

Our farm of choice, Didier Farms. Not too far and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Free use of wagons for lugging around kids and/or pumpkins!

Many different kinds of pumpkins on display.

Primary reason we chose Didier....the bakery. Yum. There were six donuts...we ate those...got six more to go!

Marissa was in heaven picking up and moving pumpkins. 

After moving a bunch around, she settled on this one.

We went by the pony rides on our way to the petting zoo and she exclaimed "This one! Go here!!".  Well, what could I do?  I was hesitant because in August, she wouldn't sit on a horse on a carousel for more than 20 seconds. 

She warmed up to him though. 

And really started enjoying herself. 

We had to ride twice!!

Then came a ride in a truck, which she thoroughly enjoyed. 

All in all it was a great time. Our neighbors and their little boy met us at the farm and we all had fun. The petting zoo was crazy expensive though and Marissa is hesitant to pet dogs, so we took a pass. Maybe next year. 

There may be a next year for the petting zoo and for the Cubs, but not for Goose Island by Wrigley. Due to construction of a huge hotel complex outside Wrigley Field, several businesses closed up shop, including this Goose Island location (there is another). The landlord couldn't guarantee them that they could operate next year during the Cubs games (the most profitable time of the year obviously) so they closed down 9/30.  Such a shame as it was our "go to" place before Cubs games, for out of towners and if we just wanted a good burger. Bah.

Big time catching up!!

Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous, but I really just am pressed for time to write. It's not that I don't have great thoughts for topics and such, because I do, but it's just a matter of finding time. The last four days have been crazy, so here we go:

Sunday was our third Bears home game of the season and the last for a month. The schedule kind of stinks that way for us with 5 of the last 7 games at home. Brrrrr. For now though, it's beautiful Fall weather.

It's also breast cancer awareness month, so this was the Bears "Pink" home game. LL went online and found all sorts of good pink things including this flag. 

I saw these "booby cupcakes" on line and thought we absolutely had to have them. Our guest for the game, a 33 year old breast cancer survivor, made them and they were awesome!!

She also made some NON-booby cupcakes. Ha!

We briefly interrupt this post to bring you a picture of our little rock star. 

So on Saturday, Domino's Pizza opened their 100th store in Chicago. In celebration, they were selling single topping medium pizzas for $1, with a limit of 5 pizzas per person and only from noon til 1:40 (100 minutes). If a couple showed up, they could get 10!! Now, Domino's isn't my favorite pizza, but if you sell it to me for $1, I'll buy them all day.....for a day or two. We were thinking we'd have one for lunch on Saturday, one for dinner, then one on Sunday evening and I was planning on taking the other two to my Starbucks for the baristas for lunch. The picture above is the line I faced, even though I got there 15 minutes early and when I drove by 30 minutes before it started there was no one in line. 

Still, the line wasn't that long and there was really few people behind us. 

Until a little while later when the line wrapped around the parking lot!! All the way to the left of this picture there were people lined up. They did NOT all get pizzas. Here's the thing, it takes a while to cook a pizza, much less five or ten. So even though I was 20-30 people deep in line or so, it was questionable that I was going to get pizza! After the first 5-10 people left with 5 pizzas per person, the rest started coming out with only two. Yep, they changed the deal because they had a great promotion with shoddy execution at best. So I did end up getting two pizzas eventually, but it was after 1:00 when I got them. That's a lot of disappointed people behind me in line. Talk about backfiring!

Last week on Wednesday, the Royals clinched a spot in the World Series. LL's brother works for the power company in KC and they have a suite at the Royals stadium and are a big sponsor. Right after they clinched the pennant, he called me and invited me to a game, either Tuesday or Wednesday, he wasn't sure when he'd get tickets. It's a 9 hour drive from the city, but a very short flight (75 minutes). But how often can you go to a World Series game? For me, only once, game 1 in 2005 at Comiskey with the Sox/Astros, so I was going to find a way to go. LL's parents were also invited, but they opted to drive (it's only a little over 7 hours from their house). 

So away I went! Saturday Domino's in the cold, rainy line, Sunday Bears game and Monday I'm off to KC.  Monday night was a big gala event for sponsors, politicians, reporters and ex-ball players and such. Here are the pics from Monday night. 

The mascot Slugger and LL's brother.

The entrance.

George Brett in the background. 

The obligatory WS background shot.

Pristine field.

Pick a head, any head.

Love this picture. The scoreboard was constantly changing and showing video, so it wasn't easy to get.

Me in the Giants dugout. My seats were right above here in the first row!

On the field! They had these Royal cutouts for each position. 

Joe making a call to the bullpen......

....and he wants the lefty! Why does he point to his left arm if he is actually talking to the bullpen? Well, that's sort of a flaw in the picture now isn't it?

The outfield fence...literally a chain link fence over a whole mess of lights. 

One of the many cool ice sculptures over the two days. 

This one has baseballs in it and you can drink from it! You pour a drink in the top and the ice chills it.  Nice!

Just a cool lighting effect on the patio. 

Stone crab and shrimp!

More of the same.....

...with some jazz thrown in there for good measure.

Part of my sampling with a not too bad view.

Nice little lighting effect again.

Look at these bad boys by the entrance!! Ice sculptures with fire coming out the top.

Me and Willie Wilson! We had a fun little conversation about a current Royal (Dyson) and a past teammate of his, Rickey Henderson.

My gala pass, dirt from the field (stolen) and a limited edition printed WS coin. Very cool! 

Tomorrow, pictures from the game!