Baby's First Chicago Cubs Game

It’s one of our favorite places on earth.  The streets are crowded with fans, the smell of hotdogs and popcorn is in the air, and cheers of Cubs fans are heard for blocks away.

This summer we took Anderson to her first Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley field.  Being loyal Cubs fans means we try to make it to Wrigley once a year for a game.  There’s nothing like Wrigley Field to us.  No matter where your seats are, or how terribly the Cubbies are getting beat, baseball games are such a fun, memorable event at the Friendly Confines.

 

 

Weather in Chicago can be a little interesting to say the least.  On game day we were somewhat surprised when we were wearing jackets and bundled up in blankets during our middle of June Cubs experience.  Despite the cold weather, Anderson was a trooper and had fun watching people, and her team play the Pirates.

Even though our family is extremely loyal to the Cubs, when compared to other baseball stadiums, the Friendly Confines ranks well below in “family friendliness.” 

Here’s why:

-Be ready to stand in a long line for the bathrooms!  The bathrooms have been updated and are much nicer than before though.

-There are no (or very few) “family bathroom” facilities.  JC did a Dad magic act and changed Miss A in a bathroom stall.

-There are not too many places to go to get out of any inclement weather.  There are awnings over some seats to protect from the rain, but be prepared to pack any items to help deal with the outdoors.  For us this would have been pants, jackets and blankets. 

-Strollers are pretty much not going to happen in Wrigley Field, unless you have the small, compact kind – and even then you might have some trouble finding a place to store the stroller.

-Be prepared (or prepare those in attendance with you) to leave a few innings early.  The crowds, and smaller stadium, make it hard to maneuver around with a baby.  Waiting until the mass exodus at the end of the game would be a recipe for disaster, even though this unfortunately means you miss being able to sing "Go Cubs Go."

 

 

Like most things in life now, going to Wrigley Field is no longer the same as it was pre-baby.  Our pre-game experience now includes bottles, diapers and handling baby preparations; a far cry from the Chicago hotdogs, pre-game drinks and laughs with friends.  The added stress of bringing a little one to her first Cubs game was so worth it as we were able to share another special moment with our little girl.  As our year of “firsts” is coming to an end, these last few experiences are cherished that much more.

Traveling with our "little explorer" to D.C.

Smelly people, loud people, or people who take up your space.  All people I try to avoid when flying. 

During this latest travel adventure, I was sitting next -to - and responsible for -- the smelly traveler.  Our then 5 month old baby decided to smell up our very small plane and then fall asleep while starting our travels to Washington, D.C. 

Riding on my first flight in style with my frog jammies.

Do we wake the sleeping, smelly baby?!?!

 At first, JC and I were both sure that that smell couldn't be coming from our sweet, perfect little girl.  But thanks to newly introduced baby food, her smells were starting to become more human like.  After realizing we were the "smelly family," and getting glares from the college boys sitting across the aisle from us, began the debate: do we wake up our sleeping baby during her first flight or continue to be the smelly family for the short 30 minute flight.  A serious dilemma!

Despite starting out the trip on a foul foot, our short family trip to Washington, D.C. was extremely successful and very stress-free.  JC and I discovered team work, time and baby crisis management, while Anderson took in her first museums, plane rides and hotel stays.  We saw and learned fascinating things about U.S. history.  We also found out that we have a little traveler on our hands as she did a wonderful job tagging along with us through the sites of D.C.

"Seriously, it is way too early to be up Mom!"

Family "selfie" -- Anderson loved flying.

Even though our travel adventures were somewhat limited as we had a little one to think of, we still saw a good amount of what D.C. has to offer.

The Air and Space Museum, National Archives Museum, various monuments during the day and night and a White House Tour were all part of our quick D.C. trip. 

At the Air and Space Museum.

 

After diving into our first travel adventure with a baby, we are ready for our next one!  There are, however, a few tips that I will keep in mind while traveling with our little explorer in the future.

1.)   Plan ahead!  Know if you need to bring sheets for a crib if staying in a hotel -- or even if the hotel has a crib, among other things.

2.)   Research transportation.  Even though D.C. has great public transportation we decided to get a car to drive to the various museums and places we were visiting since we stayed a few miles from downtown.  Trying to learn a public transportation system, in the winter with a 5 month old, was not what I wanted to deal with on vacation.

3.)   Be flexible.  Luckily Anderson is a very calm, laid back baby, which allowed us the ability to leisurely browse through museums; however when she was ready to eat we had to meet her needs, even if we weren't hungry or ready to go!

4.)  Be prepared for a "new" way of traveling.  JC and I have been traveling together for years now.  We both love exploring and learning about various things during our travels.  We also love taking in a few local eateries and watering holes.  Many of those things that we used to do while traveling no longer happened during this trip.

5.)   Enjoy the moment!  I was so thankful to be able to take Anderson to a new, exciting place while she was young.  She may not remember or enjoy the vacation like we did -- but for us, it is a vacation that we will always remember and cherish.

Visiting Munich and Dachau Concentration Camp

Munich, the capital of Germany, opened our eyes to great food, liters of beer, the Rathaus-Glockenspiel and a trip to the country’s first concentration camp, Dachau.

We arrived in Germany later in the evening, quickly unpacked, then headed back out for an evening of entertainment and good food.  We had dinner at the Ratskeller.  The Ratskeller is the restaurant in the basement of the Rathaus, or town hall.  The restaurant was a dimly lit place serving up all kinds of German foods.  We had a roast type meal with potatoes and, of course, Apple fritter, for dessert.  The food was very good; probably one of the best meals of the trip.

Dinner at the Ratskeller.

Yum!

 After our bellies were full we headed over to the Hofbrauhaus.  JC was extremely excited about going to the Hofbrauhaus because this is a main location during Octoberfest.  Beer is served in liters and the atmosphere of the restaurant/pub is full of drunken fun, which on occasion turns to drunken brawls.  The restaurant was very hot, with no air conditioning and a packed house, but I stuck out the wait for JC to drink his liter of beer.  Rows upon rows of picnic type tables are set up for patrons to eat and drink.  For those serious drinkers, a family stein is kept in a locked storage bank and brought out whenever a family member arrives at the Hofbrauhaus for a drink.

Hofbrauhaus

Stein locker.

The restaurant was packed!

 The next morning was spent on a guided tour of Munich.  We visited Nymphenburg Palace, built around an Italian villa in the 1600s.  The large grounds have beautiful ponds and gardens.  We passed many other statues and places of importance before we headed to the Town Hall area to watch the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.

Nymphenburg Palace

Every day at 11 in the morning the Glockenspiel chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century about the marriage of a local man and woman.  Huge crowds gather around to watch the story play out through the figurines.  During our time in Munich there was a big race taking place, so there was a massive crowd in the area.  The whole show lasts about 15 minutes.

Glockenspiel at the town hall.

 At lunch JC tried the traditional Munich sausage called the Weisswurst.  It is a white colored sausage made from veal and bacon.  Our tour guide told us to eat the sausage the correct way you must peel the skin back first, then add the special mustard sauce.  I had no part in trying this sausage.  The look and way you had to prepare it for eating was not something I was keen to.  My salad served me nicely.

Munich white sausage

 Our afternoon was spent on an optional tour to the country’s first concentration camp, Dachau.  On the way out to the concentration camp our tour guide told us the German’s remember World War II and tell others in the country about it so a similar situation never happens again.  When we arrived we first walked through the old train tracks where they would bring prisoners in to Dachau.  They would then enter through the gates and go through the process of being stripped of all of their belongings, shaved, cleaned and identified by their reason for imprisonment.  We walked through the the building where all of this took place and tried to read through as many of the information boards as we could get to.  It was absolutely fascinating and also heart-wrenching at the same time.

Electric fence, wire, ditches and creek surrounded the concentration camp.

 All of the barracks that were original to the camp had been destroyed because of disease that had spread through the people, but one barrack had been reconstructed to give us an idea of what one looked like.  It was unimaginable to think 10,000 people were forced to sleep in one barrack.

Barrack

 Our final stop in Dachau was to the gas chamber area.  Because of the high number of people that were prisoners at the camp another building was added which was where the gas chamber was located.  It was extremely eerie and almost brought tears to my eyes walking through the rooms where they would keep the dead bodies, the gas chambers and the rooms which house the ovens.  It’s hard to believe that humans could be that cruel to one another.

  

Original room for ovens.

Even though this part of the trip was by far the most somber and eye-opening, I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to visit these sites as it was a huge part of our world’s history.  I would say because of the historical importance of Dachau, it was probably one of my favorite stops along our German vacation. 

Christmas Ornaments, Teddy Bears and Snowballs: Rothenburg, Germany

Day six was one of my favorite days on our German tour.  We stopped and visited beautiful Rothenburg, Germany.

Rothenburg, Germany

 

Rothenburg is a medieval town with towers, cobblestone lanes and century-old houses.  It was the picture-perfect image of what I expected a German town to look like.  The city is surrounded by the Town Wall, which was used to keep enemies out of the city years ago.  It was partially damaged in World War II, but was restored to its original structure.

 

People can walk out to the top of the Town Wall to get a glimpse of the entire city and surrounding Bavaria.  We did not do this, but did step out onto a walk area to take in the views of vineyards and hills.

Valley surrounding Rothenburg.

 

Our tour group leader led us through the small, cobblestone streets to the Town Square.  In the Town Square vendors had a farmers market set up selling fruits, vegetables, cheeses, wine and more.  The Town Square is directly in front of the City Hall, known as the Rathaus in German.  JC tried walking up the 241 stairs to the top of the Rathaus, but wasn’t able to because it was closed for lunch.

Our first stop after being set free from the group was to go shopping at one of the biggest Christmas stores, the Kathe Wolfharht Christmas Village.  Rothenburg is known for Christmas ornaments, so we wanted to make sure to bring home a small Christmas souvenir.  Outside of the store was an old-fashioned truck with presents loaded into the back.  Life size nutcrackers also greeted us as we entered the store and Christmas trees were decorated in all colors and sizes.

 

After we had our Christmas ornament we walked through the streets to get a feel for the city.  We stopped in at another shop selling Rothenburg Teddy’s and bought a couple small, stuffed animals for the baby.

 

When we felt like we had a good feel of the city, had seen a great deal of the beautiful fountains and checked out all the shops we wanted to, we stopped for lunch at an Italian pizzeria and had delicious bruschetta pizza.  We sat at a table on the street to enjoy our lunch.  I was surprised at how many Italian pizzerias there were in Germany.  There seemed to be one at every stop we made and the food was always delicious.

Before we left we had to sample the dessert popular in Rothenburg, snowballs.  Traditional snowballs are hard balls of dough with powdered sugar.  Now bakeries have a variety of different flavors.  We tried a chocolate flavoring with nuts.  Snowballs are somewhat difficult to eat as they are very hard, making it difficult to know where and how to begin eating the treat.  I would not say this was my favorite treat.  But because it is a specialty of the town I enjoyed trying the dessert.

Rothenburg was the beginning of our time in the Bavarian region of Germany.  This region is especially picturesque and what I imagined Germany would look like.  Is this your idea of what Germany should look like?

A Glimpse of Leipzig and Nuremberg, Germany

On our fifth day of traveling we trekked through Leipzig and ended our day in Nuremberg.

The stop in Leipzig was extremely short, lasting maybe an hour.  The St. Nicholas Church was our first stop in the city.  Our tour guide encouraged us to take a quick peek at the old building.  The Protestant church became the place of peaceful revolt during the Communist era of East Germany.  The building was originally built in the 1100s and is beautifully decorated with gold trim around parts of the ceiling and other décor in the building.

 

We also stopped at the St. Thomas Church where J.S. Bach worked and where his remains are still today.  Outside the Lutheran Church is a statue of Bach.  While we were visiting, we got to hear some beautiful music as a symphony practiced.

Statue of Bach outside the St. Thomas Church.

 

St. Thomas Church

Inside St. Thomas Church

First Bratwurst of the trip!

Before leaving Leipzig I had my first taste of German sausage from a food cart.  The sausage was very tasty, with German mustard (more like a Dijon mustard) on top, and also very cheap at only 1,60 Euro.

We continued our drive to Nuremberg after our short stop in Leipzig.  To welcome us to Germany we had the opportunity to try the traditional Nurnberger Bratwurste.  The bratwurst were similar in size, look and taste to a sausage link we would have in the U.S. for breakfast.  Our tour guide insisted they were completely different than the sausage we are used to, but to me they seemed very similar.  The Nurnberger Bratwurste was served a little differently, on a hard bun.  The restaurant we went to cooks up to 600 sausages at one time.

Cooking the Nurnburger Bratwurste

View of Nuremburg.

 After our small snack we explored the city.  We walked up to a high point of the downtown area and were able to look out on the city and admire the spectacular views and medieval ramparts.  The hike was all uphill for probably a half a mile, but it was worth the climb to get a glimpse at the city.

We also stopped at the 14-century fountain dedicated to the Holy Roman Empire, the Schoner Brunnen.  It is said that it brings good luck to anyone who spins the brass rings in a circle twice.  JC and I both took our turns at spinning the brass ring.

JC spinning the brass rings for good luck.

Street mirroring what Nuremburg looked like years ago.

Enjoying the sights in Nuremburg.

 One street, close to the edge of the downtown area, gave us an idea of what the city looked like before World War II and a good portion of the city was destroyed.  The street was very narrow, with interesting buildings serving as restaurants, shops and homes.  It was a neat, quaint looking street, unlike most of the other areas that have had some touch of commercialism and modern architecture.

Before we left we also grabbed some gingerbread cookies.  Nuremberg is known as the town for gingerbread.  Our tour guide told us locals will not buy gingerbread unless it is Christmas season because it is thought to be a treat only indulged in during the holiday.  Tourists, however, will buy the treat year-round to get a taste of the delicious treat.

Before dinner JC and I went on a furious search to find Christmas ornaments.  We finally found a store, and a few ornaments to take home with us.

Nuremberg was another city that we wished we could have spent more time in.  But as our tour guide said when we expressed our desires for longer times in certain places, it was a glimpse of Germany tour to give us a small taste of what the country is like.

Our 2 Day Berlin, Germany Experience

As an American I sometimes forget how powerful and influential our country and President is all over the world.  Our third full day of travel showed just how much of an impact President Obama has even in Europe.  Obama held a speech at the Brandenburg Gates during our stay in Berlin, where President Kennedy once held a famous speech.  Because of Obama’s visit our whole two days of travel in Berlin had to be changed up.

Before our Berlin exploring began we had to leave Dusseldorf on the High Speed Rail to travel to this next city.  Our guide brought us to the train station early to allow us to get something to bring aboard the train for lunch as we would be traveling through the early afternoon hours.  Since public transportation is a main source of transportation in Germany, and Europe, the station was packed with people already at 10 a.m.  We browsed through some of the shops and eateries and finally settled on a pretzel and pizza croissant for lunch.

 

We sat first class in the train and had actually lots of room to move around inside the car.  The highest speed the train got up to was about 200 kilometers.  Even at that high speed you really couldn’t feel the train moving.  Germany had been experiencing some major flooding in certain parts of the country, so we had to take a different, roundabout path to Berlin.  The trip should have only taken a few hours, but because of the detours ended up taking about five hours.  Despite the long train ride, I was still impressed with the rail transportation in Germany.  It is leaps and bounds above what we have available to us in Central Illinois.

Once we got to Berlin and our hotel we were back on the bus to head out for some sightseeing.  Our original plans were altered because of Obama’s speech, so we instead went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum.  Checkpoint Charlie was the point where people had to check in before entering East or West Germany after World War II.  This museum had endless pictures and artifacts from the time period showing the extremes people would go to trying to escape West Germany, which was ruled by the Soviet Union, to enter the U.S. side of East Germany.  Since we arrived in Berlin much later than expected we weren’t able to spend a great deal of time at the museum.  Our local tour guide lived in East Germany during this time and told a few fascinating stories about her experiences during this time period and the awful living conditions people were forced to endure in West Germany.

Checkpoint Charlie

Posing in front of Checkpoint Charlie .... and McDonald's!

Sign near Checkpoint Charlie.

JC standing where the Berlin Wall once was.

As we were walking out of the museum and back to the bus we walked over where the Berlin wall was once standing.  The streets and sidewalks now have a different colored brick to represent where the wall stood.

Our last stop during the first night at Berlin was at the Bendlerblock where Claus von Stauffenberg and other German soldiers who unsuccessfully tried to kill Hitler were executed.  There was a plaque remembering Stauffenberg and others in the small courtyard area.

Memorial at Bendlerblock for Stauffenberg and the other soldiers executed.

The next day we picked up our sightseeing tour of Berlin by visiting the Holocaust Memorial.  Rows upon rows of huge blocks take up one corner of a street.  A person could definitely get lost walking through the Memorial as each small monument was the exact same as the next.

Holocaust Memorial.

More of the Holocaust Memorial.

Another stop was at the location of where the remaining parts of the Berlin wall stand.  The wall is maybe a block long and crumbling in parts because when it first came down people were allowed to break off chunks of the wall as souvenirs.  Right underneath the wall was the Gestapo Torture Chambers where they held and tortured people who did not support Hitler and his propaganda.  We didn’t have much time to spend reading all of the history and looking at pictures during this stop either, which was also a little disappointing.  

Berlin Wall.

Picture of Hitler in the Gestapo Torture Chambers.

We visited other sites such as the State Opera House, but the highlight of the guided morning tour was stopping at the Brandenburg Gate.  Since Obama chose the monument for his speech, scaffolding and tents blocked the view from the road leading to the gate.  We had to get out and walk directly in front of the gate to be able to take in all of its glory.  It was a really beautiful, amazing structure which makes you reflect on history and all that’s taken place below its gates.   

State Opera House

In front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Brandenburg Gate.

 After a stop at lunch JC and I opted not to go on the optional tour to Potsdam due to the extreme heat and lack of sleep.  We did, however, check out the Berlin Zoo, which our tour guide told us was an excellent zoo.  We didn’t make it to the zoo until later in the day, so we were able to see a lot of the feeding taking place with a number of animals.  The zoo’s in the U.S. definitely outweigh the Berlin Zoo, but I always enjoy visiting a zoo.

Our last stop for the night was at an authentic German Restaurant.  I had a pork roast meal and JC had the Weinerschnitzel (sausage plate).  Both meals were very good.  For dessert we began our taste of Apple Strudel.  This sample of the delicious dessert was one of the best.

Berlin in general was a highlight of the Germany trip.  JC and I both said we want to go back to Berlin to explore the city on our own time.  There is so much history and things to see in Berlin a day and a half doesn’t allow for you to see even half of the wonderful sights and sounds of this great city.