But let's start small. My journey began at 4:45 this morning. It was supposed to start at 4:00 technically, but I guess I slept through the first alarm. No big deal though. I was ready to roll. My family and I knew that we would be going straight from the O'Hare airport to Wrigley Field, so we packed the night before in only backpacks as opposed to suitcases. That way we could go straight to the field without having to drop our luggage anywhere. I would like it to be known, that my backpack weighed only about ten pounds. I couldn't help but feel that Don Gosney would be proud of me.
But anyways, we got to the airport at about 5:45am. I was about ready to fall asleep while standing but I managed to stay awake long enough to board the plane.
Sleepy me and always peppy Pops at SFO
The plane ride itself was smooth and fairly uneventful. I watched both of the Fantastic Four movies and caught about an hour of sleep. My mom, who had fallen asleep between the two movies, woke up and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, this movie has been on for almost 3 1/2 hours!" That was good for a quick laugh, but that was about as crazy as things got on the plane.
However, when we landed things started to kick off. We touched down at about 12:30pm and immediately raced towards the train station to catch our 2:00pm Cubs game. We had to ask for directions and instructions a few times on how to get to the field and how to take the train, but after all the running, walking, train riding, and bus riding we ended up outside the stadium at about 2:45.
Pop and fully awake me at Wrigley Field
Much to my surprise, when we walked in towards our seats it was already the top of the 5th inning. I thought it might be in the 3rd at the most, but that was ok. The field was amazing and the game was great. Our bleacher seats in right-center field were good...
The Fam inside Wrigley
...but we found it was the seagulls who had the best seats in the house.
You can't see them so well here, but the white dots on the grass are birds who decided they wanted to play for a while. There were about five of them participating at any given time.
Soon, however, the game was over and the Cubs lost: 4-3. It was a real heart-breaker but we knew it was time to move on. The next item on our list: Giordano's Pizza.
I had been raving about this place ever since I got back from Cornell last summer. I told my parents that we had to go and that it would be the best pizza they had ever had. So good, that they wouldn't even be able to take their face away from their food to take a picture.
Sort of like this
Our original Chicago style pizza was so good, I was near tears. They ran out of french fries at the Cubs game so I had been starving since the 8th inning. If I do end up coming to Northwestern, I can honestly say that Giordano's pizza will have been a big part of my decision. You can't get it anywhere except Chicago so if I go somewhere else I might just have to build one in my new city. Plain and simple.
After Giordano's however, our day was pretty much at an end. We found our way back to the train and took it over to the Hilton Garden Inn in Evanston. I had to do a bunch of homework when I got back to the room (since it is technically still a school night) and then began to write this... for lack of a better word, fabulous blog. We are planning to take a shuttle to Wildcat Day tomorrow and find fun activities to do at Northwestern and in Evanston. More on that tomorrow though. For tonight, may I just say that Chicago is amazing and I am so happy to be here. Thank you again for this opportunity ILC. I am forever grateful to you all. Good night! I will talk to you all tomorrow!
