PhotoAbuse – The Blog

Click to see a few more pictures

We haven’t made it out to Bourbannais for Bears camp yet so we decided to head up to Soldier Field to see the Bears.

Family Night turned out to be more fun than I thought it would. There was a band playing outside the stadium and quite a few vendors to check out.

We had nosebleed seats but they weren’t all that bad. Good view of the field. Watching the practice was sort of like watching paint dry from that distance though. It did get a little more interesting once they started the 7 on 7 and 11 on 11 drills though.

There was a fireworks show right after the practice. Great show. It was right on top of us! We were in the north end zone and they were launching them from right outside the stadium!

We parked in the south lot and it was total gridlock. Everyone was in good spirits ‘cept for the woman who kept laying on her horn. I thought it was just someone messing around but when she got near us you could clearly see she was dead serious on getting out of that lot. She must not get out much.

Overall, it was a good Friday night. I hope we can get down to camp so I can get some better pictures of the players. We’ll see….

Click for a few more pictures

I didn’t plan on doing much on Sunday. I never do.

I did want to go to a local flea market to visit with my Uncle Jack and have a look around. Kieran and I showed up around 8:00 to find the place hoppin! We visited with Uncle Jack for a while and then took a walk around to see if there was anything interesting out there. I did end up finding an old Dads Root Beer crate. Perfect size for storing all my clamps, tape, and misc stuff.

We got home around 11:00 or so and chilled until the Sox game started. They have been on a tear for a month now with a 24-5 record since early June. No one is more surprised than me! Not only did they win Sundays game against KC, they thumped them 15-5! With Detroit losing to Minnesota, the Sox also go into the All Star break leading the AL Central!

After the game was over we met up with Wanetta and Logan for an afternoon walk at a nearby lake. Wanetta called me earlier in the day saying the she saw the beavers out swimming around and wanted to see if they would come out again. About 5 minutes after we arrived at the beaver lodge we heard a big splash and then a pretty big beaver appeared. Couldn’t tell if it was protecting its territory or if it thought Logan was a big black beaver. Logan was fetching sticks and the beaver kept patrolling. After about an hour, it started drizzling out and we headed home with plenty of time left to relax!

Click on Picture for more!

What a day!

We arrived in the Loop around 8:30am for the Blackhawks Rally scheduled to kick off around 10:30. Obviously a late start buy hey, at least we got down there! I was watching the news before we left and Wacker & Michigan was already filling in so we didn’t even consider trying to get up there.

Found a spot near State & Washington and set up camp on the curb. And waited. And waited. It was getting really warm out but we didn’t care. This was gonna be a party!

A little after 11:00, the parade kicked off. The Loop hasn’t seen anything like this since 2005! Ticker tape floating down and a roar from the crowd that could be heard blocks away.

All the players were on top of double decker buses and while a few of them didn’t look like they had slept since the win, they all appeared pretty overwhelmed by the crowd.

After all, it’s not every day 2 million people come out to cheer for you!

They did it! They really did it!

I can’t wait for the parade. This is a picture from earlier this year of Kieran with Colin Fraser and Andrew Ladd.

That sure was a sweet shot in OT!!!!

Click for more pictures

I was assigned the Regional playoff game between Eisenhower and Andrew High Schools on Saturday. Great day for baseball that was for sure. Warm with lots of sun.

This was the first game this year I went to an Andrew game. I had heard from various people that they had another good ball club this year. They sure showed it today! A couple of towering home runs, some good base running and a pitcher who was throwing smoke led them to the Regional title.

They play again Wednesday.

Click on the pooch for more pictures!

This was a fun weekend! I like variety and this weekend I got to make pictures of a bunch of different events.

Friday night was the Lincolnway Central vs Lincolnway East Hockey game. Also Senior Night for these schools. Once again, Bobby Hull was there signing autographs. I had made an 8×10 print of a picture of Kieran and Bobby from last year for him to autograph. He got a kick out of it and Kieran was pretty pumped about it! I also made a picture of the 2 of them for next year!  He is a very nice guy.

I went last year and it was packed. This year was no different. What’s cool about this is the energy level. These schools take hockey pretty seriously and it shows. The crowd was really into it and so were the players. There was some serious banging going on from the 1st faceoff on. Some great goaltending on both ends but in the end, East took the trophy. Thanks to Head Coach Bill Hetfleisch, I got to spend the game on the bench and had a great ongoing conversation with Ed Herbert, the goalie coach, between shots. Great night to say the least!

After the hockey game I shot over to the Charlie Horse to see a few people that I went to HS with. That was fun! I hadn’t seen a few of the girls since HS and it was great to see them again. No pictures there though. Just a little catching up!

Read the rest of this entry »