Bullish in Chicago

Chicago

On the night of March 3, 1998, we go to the Miami Arena, and enter through a side entrance according to the instructions Crystal was given when she won tickets on radio station WEDR, the ’Soul’ station of Miami. Along with 9 other people, she is in the running for a trip to Chicago to see the Heat play the Bulls. That means seeing Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen, Dennis Rodman and the rest of the Bulls. We were ushered to a room in the bottom of the Arena, where there was a lavish buffet and a free bar. So, we mingled with the other ‘winners’ who I told were soon to be ‘losers’. I had a feeling that night. In about an hour, they came and got the companions of the contestants and took us to seats in the arena. The 10 chosen were sent else where to wait for the half time contest. I don’t even remember who they were playing that night.

At half time the 10 were brought to center court and introduced to the crowd. The DJ from WEDR explained-“ I have 10 envelopes here. I’ll let each person pick one, in the order that they won on the radio”. That meant Crystal got the last one. “Nine envelopes have the word Sorry inside. One envelope has the word Chicago inside, and that one wins the trip” So, nine people picked, with number nine choosing between 2 envelopes, and Crystal getting the one leftover. He then lined the 10 people up, on the center court line, and said, “On the count of 3, open your envelopes. 1, 2, 3”. Some tore them fast, others were methodical. Slowly I saw Crystal open hers, then, a big smile appeared. Whoo Hoo! We’re going to Chicago. They sent a guy who took me up an elevator and into Sky Box, rented for the evening by Budweiser, who sponsored the contest. I think it was Mark Higgs, a former Miami Dolphin running back, that was representing the radio station. First, he said, “help your self to the bar and the food, then, we’ll talk about the trip”. So we did. How exciting- being in a Sky Box, eating and drinking with some very nice people. Soon, we went to the back of the box, so as not to disturb the people watching the game. “ This is what you’ve won,” he said. “ Round trip air fare to Chicago. One night at the Whitehouse Hotel, just off of N Michigan Ave, tickets to the Bulls game, and $100 spending money. The game is a week from today, any problem going then?” We had no problem at all. So, we gave him all of the info he needed, and he said we’ll FedEx all the tickets and money to you in a day or so, but the game tickets will be at the will-call window at the Arena in Chicago. Then he said, I have to go now, please stay up here and watch the rest of the game. So we did.

We fly to Chicago on the 10th. A winter storm had passed through the day before, and snow and ice were everywhere. We took a cab to the hotel, which turned out to be a very nice place with very nice people. When we got to the room, we found a 6-pak of long neck Budweisers iced down in a champagne bucket. A nice surprise. After settling in, since it was sunny, we took a walk around the neighborhood. We walked over to Michigan Ave and went through a couple of big malls. On the way back, we stopped for a Guinness in a bar called Pippins. Again, very nice people. We went back to the hotel and got ready for the game. We had a great dinner in the restaurant in the hotel, then took a taxi to the United Airlines Arena. It was about an hour until the game started, but we wanted to check it all out. We went to the will-call window for the tickets. They have never heard of us, and had no tickets for us. We gave them the letter from the radio station explaining the whole trip and tickets situation. Check back in 15 minutes we were told. Now, this is outside, it’s beginning to get dark, and the temperature is 20* with a wind chill of 5*. About 45 minutes later, they gave us 2 tickets, I think, just because we were slowly freezing.

We made our way into the arena, and located our seats. They were mid-court, but in the next to the last row, way up high. At least it was warm. The game was ok for a while, then Michael Jordan began to put on a show. He was hot!!!. It was very amusing to watch the antics of Dennis Rodman. A little after the second half began, it became obvious that Miami was out of it, so we decided to go exploring Chicago. I had checked the maps, and since one of Crystals quests is to go to the Hard Rock Café, if there is one in a city, that’s where we had the taxi take us. It is about 8:30 now. After a drink or two, at the HRC, we walked through the ice and slush up to the Planet Hollywood for drinks and t-shirts. Then back down the other side of the street, there was a Rainforest Café, so we checked it out. It was starting to get really chilly now, so we taxi’ed back to the hotel.

The taxi driver was from Columbia, and offered to take us to the airport in the morning. So, we gave him a time to pick us up and turned in for the night. Up for a nice breakfast, then right on time was the taxi. Back to the airport and home to 60* Miami. All in all, a very quick 2 day vacation that went very well.