So, go be a bum.

I was a Wrigley Field Bleacher Bum at a Cubs game in Chicago (thanks to my friends Pat and Ben from Matterhorn Marketing, who sprung for my ticket while we’re here for SOBCon.  Hey, it’s usually $25 whole dollars to be a Bum!)

The deal with bleacher tickets is that you don’t have assigned seating;  it’s first-come-first-served, and you may not get a seat at all, but you DO get to hang out with rapid Chicago Cubs fans and enjoy historic baseball atmosphere at an affordable price.

Wrigley was built in 1914; the only major league stadium that’s older is Boston’s Fenway.

Now, if you have kids, you’re going to get there early and get some seats unless your children are very tall and can see over the standing grown-ups, or you plan to do the toddler-on-the-shoulders thing.

I’ll also tell you that the fan language gets pretty strong as the game wears on and the beer consumption increases. Buyer beware.

Still, I think it is well worth the experience to see a Cubs game at historic Wrigley. Do take the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) Red Line to the game – parking costs nearby are astronomical.

The company was founded in 1986 by Pleasant Rowland, and the original dolls were fictional historic characters:  pioneer girl Kirsten, Victorian girl Samantha, World War II-era girl Molly, colonial girl Felicity,  slavery escapee and Civil War-era girl Addy, etc.

Even though I’m not a big doll person and neither was my now-teen daughter (she blew my money and her time on Japanese manga books) I talked about the ins and outs of the store with Char Polanosky, who blogs at Doll Diaries.

Look, call me a curmudgeon, but I wince when I read a store brochure that says, “Shop. Dine. Party, too! Come celebrate all the things girls love to do.”  To me, girls need to back away a little from this “we’re all about princesses and shopping” racket, but Char convinced me to consider it from a history and education angle.

That appealed to me, so I decided to visit the Michigan Avenue shop myself while in Chicago for a blogging conference.

American Girl Place is part of the Water Tower Place shopping complex on the famous Miracle Mile.

Talk about an empire….whip out those wallets, Moms and Dads. The dolls are certainly wholesome entertainment (I heard that over and over from parents, and the semi-slutty Bratz dolls suffered a lot of slings and arrows) but keeping them outfitted will cost you.

I overheard one customer tell another that at least one family “….flies from New York to Los Angeles regularly, and they arrange a Chicago stopover to come to the store – with an empty suitcase, of course.”

Er, all to support the economy, I guess.

The first floor is a display area for the historic dolls – there are artifacts from each era and the dolls are arranged with their era-specific clothing, toys and household items.

The ones for World War II Molly were particularly appealing for me, perhaps because she wears glasses like I did as a child;  the Depression-era Kit dolls were, um, unfortunately quite timely in their descriptions of Kit’s family economic crisis.

All the dolls are plucky. I support plucky! I like Nancy Drew!

Then I rounded a corner and was somewhat appalled to find Julie, an American Girl coming to grips with change in the 1970s. She wears a mood ring and peasant blouse. Her bedroom is pink and orange with a beanbag chair and hanging beads around her bed.

Hey, wait a minute – I went to high school in the ’70s, and now I’m a historic doll?! I had pink and orange sheets, too. I slunk off in old-lady shame to look at the rest of the store.

It was pretty amazing.

There’s a doll hair salon, where friendly staffer Veronica was tending to a perpetually-smiling, unblinking plastic head with shiny hair that apparently needed styling (pigtail braids, $20.)

Hairdressers spend a lot of time untangling hairy doll head messes, too, before they can style. Veronica says they will “swap heads, but only for the same head.” No sticking Molly’s head on Kit, apparently.

Doll ear-piercing is available  (18″ dolls only, for $14 – results in those rubbery ears are obviously irreversible.)  There is a photo studio where kids can take a formal portrait with their doll (cheapest package; $22.95.)

You can get a custom T-shirt for your doll or check her into the Doll Hospital for required repairs.  There is a nice café where patrons can dine with their dolls; there are cute little doll chairs that attach to the tables, and loaners if your child arrives doll-less.

There are tons of in-store special events with hands-on activities for kids, including grandparent days, cooking classes, character birthday celebrations, meeting the book authors, dates with Dad and one called “A Smart Girl’s Guide to Money.”

If you visit the Chicago flagship store, take a look at the Web site ahead of time and set a budget for doll fun activities. It’s hard to maintain equilibrium when everywhere you look are cute doll-sized things to buy and do.

Consider tradeoffs – new hairstyle, maybe a new doll dress but no doll furniture. Or, repair the mangled arm at Doll Hospital, get a new set of household items and a pair of shoes, but no hair styling or photo sessions. Or, one hair session, a kid’s Molly-style set of pajamas and a branded beach towel, but no doll clothes.

The café requires set seating times and the special events are usually by reservation, so call ahead to arrange. I was impressed by the cheery professionalism of the staff; they seem to really enjoy working there.

Any other suggestions for enjoying the positive aspects of an American Girl experience (but avoiding wallet meltdown or girly overload?)  Comments below are welcomed….

In Chicago, Illinois, I found Garrett Popcorn.

Now, I don’t leap out of bed in the morning in search of popcorn. It’s an OK food, but not one of my top favorites.

Still, I’d heard that Garrett in Chicago is special, so since I’m here in the Windy City for the SOBCon08 blogging conference, I headed out in search of the crunchy stuff.

My finger-licking scouting report: this is one bag of greasy, yummy, super-fabulous popcorn.

I couldn’t decide between the CaramelCrisp and the CheeseCorn, but I didn’t have to: Garrett’s sells “The Mix” with both of them mixed together.

Warning — you’ll need a serious pile of napkins to survive a buttery, well-lubed Garrett eating session.

There are several locations in Chicago (670 North Michigan Avenue plus some others) and two locations in New York City. The store locator page can help you find Garrett, or if you can’t make it to Chicago, just order online from their Web site.

I’ve found a new addiction.

Do you have a favorite local food or drink? Please share it down in the comments!

Related posts:

• It’s true: Chicago has changed from the 1920s
• Chicago architecture, seen from a river cruise
• My kinda town….Chicago is

(This is cross-posted with the Perceptive Travel blog.)

In the U.S., there’s a saying usually ascribed to Native Americans about getting another person’s perspective by “walking a mile in their moccasins.”

As a traveler, it’s always interesting to see my country through another’s eyes.

As I scanned my local newspaper the other day, I noticed an Associated Press article in the Sports section about how Chicago is trying to convince international officials to pick their city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Apparently Chicago’s international image is pretty much summed up by….the gangster Al Capone.

Industrial grit and grime. Violence.

This is not at all the city that I’ve visited, but when you live in a big country and travelers tend to cluster in well-known coastal cities like New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, it’s natural that a sprawling Midwestern place on Lake Michigan might tend to be overlooked.

In the AP article, Edinburgh resident Carol Morrison is quoted: “It’s much more visually stunning than I’d expected.”

Gosh, yes, Chicago is that.

I visited last summer with my teen daughter to speak at the BlogHer blogging conference, and even though I’d been there before, I was struck anew by the energy, verve, sports enthusiasm, beautiful parks and dazzling architecture.

If you like history and amazing buildings, I strongly recommend the 90 minute docent-led Chicago Architecture Foundation river cruise (what, you didn’t know that Chicago has lovely rivers? See, you should visit….)

The museums alone could keep a visitor tied up inside for days.

For a hard look at press freedom and freedom of speech in general, there’s the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum. For mind-blowing beauty, there’s the Art Institute of Chicago (I was crushed that Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks was gone when we visited….it was on loan to the MFA in Boston.) For T-Rex-sized portions of natural history, there’s the Field Museum.

Inside “the Loop,” the main downtown area, I was never concerned about my personal safety, even at night.

Some parents might be horrified, but my teen walked from the Navy Pier to the Field Museum on her own, and I never worried about her.

Sorry, Al Capone and assorted gangsters no longer rule Chicago.

Poke around in the Chicago Tribune‘s travel section for plenty of visitor fun in what we call the Windy City or the City of Big Shoulders.

And if you plan a trip to any country, always try to explore a little bit beyond “the usual” places….and don’t rely on a city’s reputation from the 1920s.

Take her on a river cruise run by the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF.)

They offer all sorts of interesting tours, but on our July 2007 visit to the City of Big Shoulders, we wanted a maritime version.

We grabbed sandwiches and drinks at a local grocery store, and caught the 1:00 pm departure of the boat Chicago’s First Lady from the pier at the Michigan Avenue Bridge and Wacker Drive.

An experienced docent (trained guide, usually voluntary) kept up knowledgeable, fun patter for 90 minutes as the boat glided up and down different parts of the Chicago River, showing us over 50 significant sights and giving us great background info about why this city is known for creative buildings.

We learned how the city’s role as a commerce hub was established through the railroads, canals and Lake Michigan. In 1871, the devastating Great Chicago Fire wiped out the central business district and leveled more than 17,000 buildings, so architects and developers went to town, so to speak, designing and constructing striking edifices.

The tour was rather pricey ($26 on a weekday, $28 on a weekend, no discounts that I could find) but I thought it was worth the big bucks and my teenager actually paid attention and enjoyed it.

The top deck is open and there’s also an enclosed, windowed area with tables below….we sat below initially just to eat our sandwiches, but we were so comfortable and had such a good, air-conditioned view through the glass that we stayed down there the whole time. The docent’s descriptions were quite clear over speakers and it was nice to see what everyone else was seeing without baking in the sun.

The cruise operates May-November.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Chicago, Architecture River Cruise

We’re here!

For the next couple of days, I’ll be one of the speakers at the fabulous BlogHer blogging conference at the Navy Pier in Chicago, IL.

I’m on a Day One panel with talented musician Christine Kane and buff health enthusiast Carmen Staicer, who is also Mom to the Screaming Masses (don’t tell me you don’t have time to work out; she has six kids.)  We’re talking about ”finding and following your [blogging] passion.” 

There are still plenty of posts for me to write about our Midwest road trip to get here to Chicago, plus the city itself….we saw the fun musical “Wicked” the night we arrived and did the Chicago Architecture Foundation tour on the river yesterday.  Teenage daughter also checked out the Navy Pier yesterday while I did some conference stuff.

Never mind the posts that I still want to do about the Colonial Williamsburg area.  

Good thing I have plenty of writing fodder for the next few months. 

Technorati tags: travel, blogging, BlogHer07

This is just a quick post while I’m here this weekend for the fabulous SOBCon 07 blogging conference, which ends today.

We are out near O’Hare Airport, not downtown, but yesterday I did manage to run into the central Loop area on the “El” (elevated train, a transportation fixture here) for a couple of hours.

I’ve only been here once before, years ago, for a Navy engineering school at the nearby Naval Station Great Lakes. All that I had time for then was one afternoon walkaround plus an amazing outdoor concert with folkie Tracy Chapman and South African rocker Johnny Clegg.

This is such an open city, with rivers running through town, the ever-present breeze, polite people and amazing architecture. Do you know that I heard “Please, may I have….” about five times yesterday at various food service counters and transport stations? How nice, and unfortunately how unusual in some cities.

Later this summer I’ll be back here on a Midwest road trip with my teenager, and I promise to write lots of posts.

For now, you can see some Chicago info on my guest post over on Darren Cronian’s well-known Travel Rants blog in the UK. I highlighted five places in the U.S. that are off the beaten path; maybe they are familiar to North Americans, but they are not as well known to international visitors.

Besides Chicago/Door County, Wisconsin, I chose Providence RI/Block Island, north central Florida/Panhandle beaches, Portland/Astoria Oregon and Forth Worth/east Texas.

Stop by Travel Rants and visit!

Technorati tags: family travel, travel, Chicago