Got to spend the weekend in Chicago helping out at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, which was a good mix of quizbowl excitement and seeing friends. Most notable tournament moment was watching the eventual champs put up 885 points in a playoff game. For those of you who don't play, top teams will generally score in the 300 to 400 point range. So 885 is pretty mind-bending, especially in a playoff against another top team.

Quick recap, outside of tournament stuff:

Friday saw me fly ATA to Midway. It was the first time I'd flown ATA since a Florida-bound charter a good decade to 15 years ago. It's a little less sketchy now, and given the code-share agreement I do get a distinct cousin to Southwest vibe.

I'd flown into Midway under the impression that the tournament site was nearby. Turns out it was actually near O'Hare. Thus ends the lesson on actually reading information before making flight plans. I thus got to ride the CTA from one airport to the other. It's a pretty easy ride (one well-marked line change), but a long one (in the 75 to 90 minute range). On the plus side, I got to see a lot of the city (the trip takes you from the south into the Loop and then up to the northwest) and knocked out a goodly chunk of Dark Tide, a very interesting volume on the Boston Molasses Flood.

Mostly did tournament stuff Friday night, but did cap it with a trip to Superdawg, which you should build into your itinerary if you visit Chicago.

Saturday was pretty much all tournament during the day. Night entertainment was taking in the second game of the Calder Cup finals, pitting the Chicago Wolves against the Philadelphia Phantoms. For what is currently the highest level of professional hockey in this country, the game was awful. Philly won in the second OT, but we'd left after the first. My personal game highlight was seeing former BU player Freddy Meyer plying his trade with the Phantoms. He did not have a game to remember, picking up four penalties, including a cheap shot at a Chicago player as they were going off ice and a closing the hand on the puck.

The game was followed by another trip to Superdawg.

Sunday had the playoff portion of the tournament, which I only worked for the first three rounds. I spent a lot of time hanging out, talking a bit, reading, and catching the end of the French Open men's singles. Nadal is primed for stardom, but he has to lose the Capri pants.

Mid-afternoon saw me back to the CTA and back out to Midway. The flight back to Boston was delayed an hour or so due to weather. Once in Boston we were delayed on the taxiway when an idiot decided to get up and use the bathroom just after landing. When repeated requests from the flight crew for people to remain seated with belts fastened didn't register, something happened that hadn't happened to me since the third grade.

The pilot pulled the plane over to the side of the road.

OK, not literally, but the pilot did stop and explain that we were cleared to dock but couldn't if everyone wasn't seated. And as there was a guy in the can, we were going to sit tight until he decided to join the rest of us in the main cabin. That finally did the trick. Idiot.

So while this was my longest trip to Chicago to date, I still have only seen most of the city in passing. I really need to stop making this a "one of these days" sort of thing.