Destination 5: Wrigleyville, Chicago

Wrigleyville is a great place to go when looking for a day of fun with family or friends! I actually visited here a couple days ago and went to a Chicago Cubs baseball game. It was a blast and I would highly recommend going here for the day. In this blog post, I will tell you different places/transportation that I went to and used.

I went with two of my friends to the game. We planned ahead by getting tickets to the Cubs game a couple days before. We got a pack of three tickets for $57 each which came out to be $171. (Super cheap for a Cubs game!) It was on a Sunday, so that could possibly be the reason that the game was a little cheaper than normal, especially since they made it to the playoffs. We ordered them off of StubHub and kept the tickets on our phones so we didn't have to print them out for our convenience. We planned our entire day ahead of time just so we knew our transportation routes, where to eat, and such. As much as we wanted to go with the flow, it's a little difficult when we aren't all that familiar with the train routes/times and all the surroundings in the city since it can be a tad bit chaotic-especially when the Cubs are playing.

Transportation To:

The game didn't start until 2:20 pm, but we left pretty early in the morning to have the opportunity to enjoy spending the day in Wrigleyville instead of going there for the game, turning around, and coming home. We decided to take the train because it would be cheap, we wouldn't have to pay for gas, and we wouldn't have to worry about driving in traffic. We drove from my friend's house in Coal City, IL to the train station in New Lenox. The train comes every hour at the same minute. In this case, the train we took was at 10:24. Meaning if we missed it, we wouldn't be able to catch another train until 11:24 that was going where we were headed. We luckily made the 10:24 train on time! To avoid wasting time buying tickets at the train station, we bought the tickets on the train. Tickets were $8 each roundtrip. We decided to do roundtrip because that was the cheaper route. If we did a one way, it would've been $5 then we would've had to buy a one way ticket on the way home as well for $5, which would total $10. The train took about 48 minutes or so to 35th street (Guaranteed Rate Field-Sox Park). We got off at this stop. You have the option to stay on the train and get dropped off at a different stop, but the most effective way is the way we took because it drops you off right at Wrigley Field. Once we got off at 11:12, we had to make it to the Red Line at 11:18! Conveniently, the Red Line is right next to the stop at 35th street. Once again, we had to get tickets. In order to get on the train, you had to have the tickets, so this time, you couldn't buy them on the train. Lines were a little long, so I would highly suggest you buy your tickets on your phone in advance so you don't miss the train while trying to get tickets. We wanted to buy a round trip ticket again because we knew we would be taking that exact train back home again. These tickets were also $8 each for round trip meaning we each spent $16 on transportation which isn't bad and it saved us the stress of driving in traffic! Totally worth it! This picture to the right is a diagram of the stops that the train makes. We got dropped off at Addison at 12:03, and it is literally directly by Wrigley Field so it was very convenient and easy to get around once we got off the train.

Food:

There are many, many places to get food/beverages/souvenirs in Wrigleyville. This day was a bit chilly and my friend forgot her sweatshirt, so conveniently she was able to go right outside the field and people were selling tons of Cubs t-shirts and sweatshirts for a reasonable price. She got a Cubs sweatshirt for $35. Afterwards, we decided to get food and drinks because we still had about 2 hours to spare until the game. We went to Sports Corner Bar & Grill. The food and drinks were delicious and the atmosphere was so much fun. We ate on the rooftop. While we were waiting for the game and our food, there were tons of TVs that were playing Sunday Football. We enjoyed watching that. This place wasn't expensive by any means and I would definitely return. My friend and I both got a cuban and two drinks. My other friend got a pulled pork and two drinks. Our bill came to $87 total for all three of us without tip. We actually expected to spend a lot more, so that was nice we had a little extra spending money. Once we were finished with lunch, we decided to go to the field and get ready to watch the game.

Inside Wrigley Field:

Once we were in the game, we got a drink from one of the vendors. When you go to a professional baseball game, expect to spend a lot of money on food and/or drinks in the stadium. Drinks were about $10.50 each, so expect to spend that much or more. Ronnie Woo Woo is a HUGE Cubs fan who is widely known. He was walking around the stands and actually came and sat with us for the whole game! He was great company so if I were you and I went to the game, I'd be on the lookout for him! He's pictured below.

Transportation From:

After the game was over, we went right down the street to Addison-the train station where we got dropped off at, and waited for our train. We already had our tickets for both trains, so that was nice. We were unsure of what time the train was going to come because it was hard to plan ahead for that. We didn't know what time the game was going to be over. There is a website online where you can find all of the train times (www.transitchicago.com/redline). Once we got on our train at Addison, we got dropped of at Sox Park again. Walked over to the Metra and got on that train to New Lenox. The website that told us what time the train was going to come was www.metrarail.com/maps-schedules. These websites are very easy and convenient for use so I'd suggest looking at them to know when to be ready for the train to come!

If I were to go to the Cubs game again and visit Wrigleyville, I would do this exact same thing since it was very easy to get around, and we got dropped off right at the field. If you are interested in going to see the Cubs and going to Wrigley Field/Wrigleyville, I would highly recommend everything listed above and hope you enjoy your time as much as my friends and I did!

Thanks for reading & Go Cubs Go! ~Emily~

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