Over Labor Day weekend, we went into Chicago to catch the Iowa Hawkeyes play Northern Illinois at Soldier Field. Now, I've been by Soldier Field hundreds of times, but had never been inside. I was sort of looking forward to the experience.
We went in with our friends, Scott and Marcia Schroeder and stayed out in Elmhurst at the Spring Hill Suites. We had dinner at Bob Chinn's up in Wheeling the Friday night we got in. On Saturday, we got up and drove into the city the next morning.
Actually, traffic heading into the city was pretty light for a Saturday morning. But by the time we got around Soldier Field, traffic was backed up along Lake Shore Drive. By the time we got around to the south parking lot, they were just closing it up. So we ended up parking (for $30 bucks!) in the underground parking garage between Soldier Field and The Field Museum. It wasn't ideal for tailgating, but at least we were close to the stadium.
It was a beautiful day in Chicago. We met up with our friend, Tom Kakert from Hawkeye Report, and his wife, Jennifer, near the Field Museum. 
Tom had some friends who were tailgating near the Charter One Pavilion over on Northerly Island across Burnham Harbor from the stadium. We walked over there to meet them and have a couple beers and some snacks. Here's a great shot of the stadium with the harbor in the foreground.
Cindy took this shot of the downtown Chicago skyline from where we were tailgating. Like I said, it was a gorgeous day in Chicago. A little warm, but there was a nice east wind off of Lake Michigan that helped make the air temperature feel good.
I got a call from my cousin, John Wehrle, who was up from St. Louis for the game with his girlfriend, Bonnie Loman. My other cousin, Tom, was in from Des Moines; and their nephew and my cousin Sarah Wehrle Burke's son, David, had flown in from Rochester, NY for the game. They wanted to meet up with us so Scott, Marcia, Cindy and I started to walk back toward the stadium.
After catching up with them near the stadium, we went down to where the car was parked to drink a few beers and eat some more snacks. Although it was in the underground garage and there was a big air 
circulation system running at about 90 decibels near us, we hung out there before the 2:30 kickoff. It was out of the sun and quite cool and nice down there. Here's a picture of John, myself, David, and Tom tailgating before the game.
To get into the stadium, we went up and elevator then down a tunnel. This is the shot of the inside of Soldier Field where the tunnel comes out onto the concourse of the stadium. Our seats were sort of up in the third deck of corner of the stadium. Not bad, but not as good as the seats my cousins had.
However, the cool thing about our seats was that it got us into the Cadillac Club on the east side of the stadium. It was basically a huge sports bar that had food, televisions, REALLY cold beer and a nice deck to walk out onto to look out onto the lake.
Here's a nice shot of David Burke, Bonnie and John in the Cadillac Club. David's mom, Sarah, told us to buy David a beer. Well, we bought more than a few beers for him that day. He was having a great time getting corrupted by his uncles and his cousin.
We settled into our seats just in time to see the Hawkeyes take the field. Soldier Field holds about 62,000 people and I'd have to say there were 45,000 Iowa fans on hand there this day.
The opening kickoff to the 2007 Hawkeye football season!
Here's a shot of Chicago skyline from our seats. Note the large amount of gold shirts (Hawkeye Fans) in the stands. Even though it was a designated home game for Northern Illinois, Iowa fans dwarfed the NIU fans.
Satisfying my scoreboard fetish. Actually, the scoreboard at Soldier Field was really nothing more than a big screen TV, a clock and a bunch of advertisements. Definitely not like a major league ballpark.
Touchdown Iowa! Albert Young scores on a seven yard carry in the second quarter. Iowa built up a 13-3 lead at the half and then played uninspired ball in the second half to beat Northern Illinois 16-3. It was a pretty dull second half, to say the least.
Scott and Marcia's son, Greg, is in the U of Iowa student athletic training program. Greg got the football team assignment this fall and gets to work with the team. Here he is running off the field after giving the team some water during a time out. As hot as it was that day, Greg was handing out a LOT of water to the team.
After the game, we drove immediately up to Lincoln Park and went to Chicago Pizza Oven and Grinder Company. 
The wait for a table was going to be about 90 minutes, so we went across the street to the Clark Bar for a few beers while we waited. Here's a picture of Scott and I as we sat in the Clark Bar. This will teach Scott to make faces when Cindy takes a picture of him.
While Tom was working on his account of the game, Jennifer Kakert took a cab up from their downtown Chicago hotel and met us for dinner at Chicago Pizza Oven. Neither Scott, Marcia or Jennifer had been there before. We ordered a big anti-pasto salad and each of us ordered the one pound pot pizzas. It was a great meal and a great end to a great day. I'm not certain I'd really ever had that much fun in Chicago during one whole day. I think Iowa should play in Chicago every year.
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