On July 27th, we had a fantastic off day in the Windy City, Chicago! It was a relaxing morning, with a delightful breakfast of french toast, sausage, and coffee overlooking the bay outside of our lodging. With great lodging and even better hosts, we were ready to take over Chicago!
We were a short walk from Millennium Park, home of the famous Chicago Bean sculpture, so we took a walk over to take in the sight. After taking a seemingly endless amount of pictures, we began to walk up the “Magnificent Mile”, a street near our lodging full of shops. We explored all that the mile had to offer, which consited of tourist stores, to high end Calvin Klein. It was really interesting to see designer stores, as the shops near my hometown of Lakewood, Colorado typically are not that expensive! We stopped into a local pizzaria for lunch, getting some amazing Chicago deep dish pizza.
In the evening, we went to a sponsored dinner at Club Lago, an Italian restaurant in the heart of the city. We had several Pi Alphas there, including a brother who has done six different events over the years. I can’t even fathom how someone can do that. The meal consisted of pasta, chicken parm, and lots of salad and bread in between. It was really cool to hear from all of the Pi Alphas about their experiences, and to talk about what we experienced as well. The meal was definitely a great way to end our time in Chicago. We returned to lodging with full bellies, and spent the evening laughing and chatting with our lodging sponsors. We called it a night early, as we had to wake up at five o’clock in the morning the next day. Tomorrow, we head into Indiana!
Patrick Carlson
Iota Kappa – University of Northern Colorado
Crew – Historian