April 9

Since the official college visit concluded yesterday and we don't fly back to Oakland until tomorrow, today was Explore The General Area Saturday.

We took a rec from the current student who sat with us during the welcome banquet and visited the My Half of the Sky coffee shop in downtown Wheaton for our morning fueling stop. Abby had a churro latte, while I opted for a toffee nut almond milk latte and a homemade cinnamon roll. The latter was so yummy that after I gave Abby a taste of mine, she headed off with (my) money in hand to buy her own. The shop itself was crawling with customers, but it was cute so definitely worth a visit.

From there we activated Google Maps and set off for Chicago to take a stroll around the Windy City. We encountered a few slowdowns, but it was a mostly uneventful trip (until we tried to figure out where to park. But even then, we wound up just a block or two from where I'd kinda sorta-wanted to land, so I'm thankful God for that not small miracle!). 

I aw'd over the two pairs of couples (freezing their cinnamon buns off while) taking wedding photos right there in the middle of the city, and then we headed over to the River Walk and strolled by the water for a while and admired the views. (And Abby scaled the succession of play structures.) Then we late-lunched it at Ed Debevic's, where our server was actually quite cute and polite (that's her posed with us in the amazing paper hats she plunked on our heads) but told us to make sure we told everyone she'd been mean and devastatingly witty. 

After that, we tried to remember where we'd parked the car and when we finally found it (phew!) we drove back to our hotel in the 'burbs where I fell asleep for 45 minutes. (City driving tires me out!) And then we capped off our day with a very short drive to a near by Giordano's for some deep dish pizza.

It's been a fun trip. Tiring for sure, but fun. And I'm so thankful for the one-on-one time with my favorite girl.