Due to exhaustion, both my and Molly's patience levels were wearing thin by the time we got into Lafayette. Thankfully, we were able to sleep in a hotel that night and recharge our batteries. The next morning, Monday, we drove the three-ish hours back to Cincinnati.
I spent the next four days with Molly and her family in Cincinnati. One of the major benefits of having a culinary major for a best friend is that you have great connections to great food such as cheesecake, strawberry scones, and paninis. :)
Unforunately, since her school is year-round, Molly still had homework and class as well as work. The down side of that was more stress for poor Molly and us not getting to spend as much time together. The up side was I got to see Molly's school and spend some time with her family.
My last day there, Molly was free so we spent it at the zoo and The Cone. The Cone is a local ice cream stand that is shaped like giant ice cream cone. It and Ted Drew's in St. Louis are my favorite ice cream places on the planet. When Molly and I were younger our families used to visit these two places a lot. It was interesting walking down memory lane and seeing places that I hadn't seen since I was much shorter. Ironically, I thoroughly enjoyed this day of choosing to act like a child, but I was so frustrated just a few days before when I felt treated like a child. Hmm...interesting.
Thursday evening Molly took me to the airport and we said goodbye. My flight to Salt Lake went without a hitch. However, my connecting flight to Phoenix got grounded because of maintenance issues. Lame. Thankfully though, Delta did a good job and got us on a different plane within a half an hour. I almost missed the announcement for it they did it so quickly. I met a fellow prayer warrior on that plane: the high school kid behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to pray with him for the flight. I can only guess that he identified me by my David Crowder Band t-shirt. :)
Eventually, I landed safely on solid ground. I spent a few days with my family in Phoenix and now I'm here in beautiful Flagstaff. It feels good to be back and settled after all the craziness, especially now that my roommate Felicia is back! It certainly was an adventure. Now I guess I'll just have to see what the rest of the summer has to offer. :)
Showing posts with label Cincinnati/Chicago Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cincinnati/Chicago Trip. Show all posts
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunshine on Michigan Avenue: Chicago Day 3
Sunday was picturesque, sunny, and warm. It was literally the perfect day to walk around outside all day.
Molly had decided that she wanted to spend some quality family time with Jeremy and she knew that I wanted to spend some quality time with David. So, I woke up early that morning and took the train myself back to Jessica's apartment while Molly stayed to spend the day with her cousin.
David met me at the station. We waited for a bit at the apartment where Laura made us omelets. Without exaggeration they were some of the prettiest omelets I've ever seen, and they were the first Laura had ever made! The first time I made omletes they definitely did not look like that. That girl's got talent.
Eventually, David and I left and spent the afternoon walking hand in hand up and down Michigan Avenue. We got free chocolate at Ghiradelli's and Hershey's, looked at foreign Harry Potter covers in a European book store, perused a photography gallery, explored the 4 story Borders, rode the escalators in the Water Tower mall, and played in the Lego store (which was so cool!!). We also stood beside the river, watched a one man band, and saw this fascinating building that had rocks from all over the world embedded in it.
David bought me lunch at Einsteins and we just sat and talked for a long time. It was perfect because a patch of rain came right as we went in and cleared up by the time we left. :)
We met up with Jessica and Laura back at the apartment and left again to get coffee. I was salty because they gave me a hot chocolate when I ordered a hot chai, but the saltiness soon dissolved as Laura and David rocked out loud to "That's not My Name" (or whatever it's called) by the TingTings. Priceless.
The saddest thing about such incredible days is that they have to come to an end. David and Laura took me to Union Station, where after surviving a communication snafu, I met Molly to catch out Amtrak back to Lafayette. I gave a giant hug and quick goodbye-I'm-going-to-miss-you-like-crazy to David. Molly and I ran and jumped onto our train and we were gone...
Molly had decided that she wanted to spend some quality family time with Jeremy and she knew that I wanted to spend some quality time with David. So, I woke up early that morning and took the train myself back to Jessica's apartment while Molly stayed to spend the day with her cousin.
David met me at the station. We waited for a bit at the apartment where Laura made us omelets. Without exaggeration they were some of the prettiest omelets I've ever seen, and they were the first Laura had ever made! The first time I made omletes they definitely did not look like that. That girl's got talent.
Eventually, David and I left and spent the afternoon walking hand in hand up and down Michigan Avenue. We got free chocolate at Ghiradelli's and Hershey's, looked at foreign Harry Potter covers in a European book store, perused a photography gallery, explored the 4 story Borders, rode the escalators in the Water Tower mall, and played in the Lego store (which was so cool!!). We also stood beside the river, watched a one man band, and saw this fascinating building that had rocks from all over the world embedded in it.
David bought me lunch at Einsteins and we just sat and talked for a long time. It was perfect because a patch of rain came right as we went in and cleared up by the time we left. :)
We met up with Jessica and Laura back at the apartment and left again to get coffee. I was salty because they gave me a hot chocolate when I ordered a hot chai, but the saltiness soon dissolved as Laura and David rocked out loud to "That's not My Name" (or whatever it's called) by the TingTings. Priceless.
The saddest thing about such incredible days is that they have to come to an end. David and Laura took me to Union Station, where after surviving a communication snafu, I met Molly to catch out Amtrak back to Lafayette. I gave a giant hug and quick goodbye-I'm-going-to-miss-you-like-crazy to David. Molly and I ran and jumped onto our train and we were gone...
A Tall Glass of Water: Chicago Day 2
Saturday morning, our second day in Chicago, we watched the rain fall outside the windows of Nathan's apartment until around lunch time. The clouds cleared up and Nathan, Anka, Molly, and I all jumped on a metro train to Jeremy's side of town.
With Jeremy we hopped a few more buses to a local culinary legend: Hot Doug's. When we arrived at this hot dog stand the line wrapped out the door and almost a block down the sidewalk. I figured, if this many people are willing to wait this long for a hot dog, it must be good right? Molly and I passed the time mostly by talking with Jeremy, who has a great sense of humor. A moth came and landed on his chest and then flew away. He said "Ah, moths. They come and go out of your life so quickly." I added, "And steal your heart away." The three of us lamented this fact for several minutes and then laughed until we couldn't breathe.
Sure enough Hot Doug's food was amazing and worth the hour and a half wait. The best part though was catching the waiter dancing with a tray to "Dancing Queen". He stopped dancing and looked at me sheepishly when he saw me watching. He said, "I guess that was kinda weird huh?" I replied, "No, that was amazing!"
After Hot Dog's it was that strange goodbye to Nathan and Anka where Molly and I followed Jeremy into the middle of the street. Molly, Jeremy, and I critiqued Food Network chefs at Jeremy's until dinner time. Then, Molly and I caught the L train to go meet up with David Tollefsen at his older sister's apartment.
David's older sister, Jessica, is married and lives in an apartment right across the street from Moody Bible Institute. How cool is that? Molly and I rendezvoused with them successfully there. It felt so good to have the freedom to navigate on our own! I was a bit nervous to meet Jessica and her husband John for the first time, but it turned out I had no need to be.
That evening with David's family was like a tall glass of cold water after a day in the Phoenix sun. They welcomed Molly and I in with open arms and showed us incredible hospitality. They seemed to be genuinely glad that we were there and interested in getting to know us. It was the most at peace and rested I felt the entire trip. And the interesting thing was you could tell they weren't trying to go above and beyond, they were just being themselves. Especially with the contrast of the night before, their lifestyle reflected Jesus to me in one of the most tangible ways I've ever experienced.
We grilled dinner out on the roof of their apartment building until dusk. I got to talk to John about his vision for planting a church in Tucson as well as quote about 1/4 of the Princess Bride. At some point I got to talk to Jessica as well about her classes at Moody. It was also cool to get to know David's younger sister, Laura, a little better and see her open up some and be goofy. :) And, of course, it was great to just to be able to hang out and talk with David.
After dinner, we all went swimming in their apartment pool and hot tub and played around like little kids. When it got late, Molly and I were just going to take the train home, but John and David offered to drive us back to Jeremy's. Again, they offered without so much as a hint of annoyance or incovenience. They didn't do it out of obligation, they did it because they cared about us and wanted to do it. Even though they had just met us. Amazing.
Before bed, Molly, Jeremy, and I played a cut-throat (almost literally) game of Sorry! with Jeremy's girlfriend, Beth. It was definitely worth staying up until 2:30 am for! Beth kicked all our butts though, but Jeremy came in from behind to make it a close second.
Molly and I figured out all our plans for the next day and crashed.
With Jeremy we hopped a few more buses to a local culinary legend: Hot Doug's. When we arrived at this hot dog stand the line wrapped out the door and almost a block down the sidewalk. I figured, if this many people are willing to wait this long for a hot dog, it must be good right? Molly and I passed the time mostly by talking with Jeremy, who has a great sense of humor. A moth came and landed on his chest and then flew away. He said "Ah, moths. They come and go out of your life so quickly." I added, "And steal your heart away." The three of us lamented this fact for several minutes and then laughed until we couldn't breathe.
Sure enough Hot Doug's food was amazing and worth the hour and a half wait. The best part though was catching the waiter dancing with a tray to "Dancing Queen". He stopped dancing and looked at me sheepishly when he saw me watching. He said, "I guess that was kinda weird huh?" I replied, "No, that was amazing!"
After Hot Dog's it was that strange goodbye to Nathan and Anka where Molly and I followed Jeremy into the middle of the street. Molly, Jeremy, and I critiqued Food Network chefs at Jeremy's until dinner time. Then, Molly and I caught the L train to go meet up with David Tollefsen at his older sister's apartment.
David's older sister, Jessica, is married and lives in an apartment right across the street from Moody Bible Institute. How cool is that? Molly and I rendezvoused with them successfully there. It felt so good to have the freedom to navigate on our own! I was a bit nervous to meet Jessica and her husband John for the first time, but it turned out I had no need to be.
That evening with David's family was like a tall glass of cold water after a day in the Phoenix sun. They welcomed Molly and I in with open arms and showed us incredible hospitality. They seemed to be genuinely glad that we were there and interested in getting to know us. It was the most at peace and rested I felt the entire trip. And the interesting thing was you could tell they weren't trying to go above and beyond, they were just being themselves. Especially with the contrast of the night before, their lifestyle reflected Jesus to me in one of the most tangible ways I've ever experienced.
We grilled dinner out on the roof of their apartment building until dusk. I got to talk to John about his vision for planting a church in Tucson as well as quote about 1/4 of the Princess Bride. At some point I got to talk to Jessica as well about her classes at Moody. It was also cool to get to know David's younger sister, Laura, a little better and see her open up some and be goofy. :) And, of course, it was great to just to be able to hang out and talk with David.
After dinner, we all went swimming in their apartment pool and hot tub and played around like little kids. When it got late, Molly and I were just going to take the train home, but John and David offered to drive us back to Jeremy's. Again, they offered without so much as a hint of annoyance or incovenience. They didn't do it out of obligation, they did it because they cared about us and wanted to do it. Even though they had just met us. Amazing.
Before bed, Molly, Jeremy, and I played a cut-throat (almost literally) game of Sorry! with Jeremy's girlfriend, Beth. It was definitely worth staying up until 2:30 am for! Beth kicked all our butts though, but Jeremy came in from behind to make it a close second.
Molly and I figured out all our plans for the next day and crashed.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Impressionism: Chicago Day 1
Our first day in Chicago, Friday, was a bit like an impressionist painting. If you stand back a bit and stroke your chin as you take in the whole picture, you see that is it quite stunning and captivating. A work of art. However, if you step closer all you can see are smudges and dots, some even in ugly colors. As a whole, Friday was an amazing day; however, some of the details were frustrating smudges.
Friday can also be related to impressionism because we went to the Chicago Art Institute and viewed several beautiful impressionist paintings. It was breathtaking to be surrounded by exquisite works by Monet and Renoir. My favorites were Chrysanthemums and Seascape by Renoir. We walked around for several hours and saw a special exhibit of Matisse work and other paintings, including Nighthawks.
After lunch we walked around Millenium Park, which is sort of the same idea as Central Park. We saw "The Bean" sculpture, the actual name of which is "Cloudgate". I feel kind of sorry for the artist who created such an awesome work with an elegant name, only to have it referred to as a bean all the time. Haha, oh well. We also walked past Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. We saw lots of flowers and sculptures and Nathan made up "tour information" for us as we went along.
Since we had been walking the whole afternoon and Molly didn't get much sleep we went back to rest at Nathan and his wife Anka's apartment. They live on the 44th floor in the heart of the city. The view was incredible!! It also had a revolving door. Molly and I found all the revolving doors in the city to be quite a novelty. Our guides always just laughed at us.
Friday night we took a taxi to Alhambra's Palace, a Middle Eastern restaurant with live music and dancers. I had delicious chicken tagine. It was interesting though because they had Spanish and Mexican flaminco dancers as the entertainment for the evening. Middle Eastern restaurant...Spanish dancers...hmmm, ok. Molly's other cousin, Jeremy (Nathan's brother), also joined us for dinner along with some of Nathan's friends. It was a fascinating cultural experience.
So, as you can see the day was a good one that definitely gave us a taste of Chicago. But, here are the smudges. I had hoped to be able to rendevous with David on Friday, but at the last minute it didn't work out timing and distance-wise, which was disappointing. I was very grateful to Nathan for being willing to take us around, but something about his attitude towards us made me feel dragged around like a 7 year old. I felt like he didn't trust us to figure anything out on our own and like he was bored of babysitting. This was not helped by the fact that after dinner we stayed at the restaurant for I would guess two more hours while Nathan proceeded to drink. You might know that I have bad experience personal issues with situations like that. Also, the music changed to blaring Middle Eastern music that prevented me from being able to hear Molly even if she was shouting next to me. When we finally arrived back at the apartment I slept on the couch in a jacket with a rolled up t-shirt as a pillow. These parts of the experience made me feel trapped, smothered, awkward, unwanted, and disrespected.
That's why I like the metaphor, though it might be stretched a little, of the impressionist painting. My overall impression of Chicago itself was good and I was excited to move on to the next day.
Friday can also be related to impressionism because we went to the Chicago Art Institute and viewed several beautiful impressionist paintings. It was breathtaking to be surrounded by exquisite works by Monet and Renoir. My favorites were Chrysanthemums and Seascape by Renoir. We walked around for several hours and saw a special exhibit of Matisse work and other paintings, including Nighthawks.
After lunch we walked around Millenium Park, which is sort of the same idea as Central Park. We saw "The Bean" sculpture, the actual name of which is "Cloudgate". I feel kind of sorry for the artist who created such an awesome work with an elegant name, only to have it referred to as a bean all the time. Haha, oh well. We also walked past Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. We saw lots of flowers and sculptures and Nathan made up "tour information" for us as we went along.
Since we had been walking the whole afternoon and Molly didn't get much sleep we went back to rest at Nathan and his wife Anka's apartment. They live on the 44th floor in the heart of the city. The view was incredible!! It also had a revolving door. Molly and I found all the revolving doors in the city to be quite a novelty. Our guides always just laughed at us.
Friday night we took a taxi to Alhambra's Palace, a Middle Eastern restaurant with live music and dancers. I had delicious chicken tagine. It was interesting though because they had Spanish and Mexican flaminco dancers as the entertainment for the evening. Middle Eastern restaurant...Spanish dancers...hmmm, ok. Molly's other cousin, Jeremy (Nathan's brother), also joined us for dinner along with some of Nathan's friends. It was a fascinating cultural experience.
So, as you can see the day was a good one that definitely gave us a taste of Chicago. But, here are the smudges. I had hoped to be able to rendevous with David on Friday, but at the last minute it didn't work out timing and distance-wise, which was disappointing. I was very grateful to Nathan for being willing to take us around, but something about his attitude towards us made me feel dragged around like a 7 year old. I felt like he didn't trust us to figure anything out on our own and like he was bored of babysitting. This was not helped by the fact that after dinner we stayed at the restaurant for I would guess two more hours while Nathan proceeded to drink. You might know that I have bad experience personal issues with situations like that. Also, the music changed to blaring Middle Eastern music that prevented me from being able to hear Molly even if she was shouting next to me. When we finally arrived back at the apartment I slept on the couch in a jacket with a rolled up t-shirt as a pillow. These parts of the experience made me feel trapped, smothered, awkward, unwanted, and disrespected.
That's why I like the metaphor, though it might be stretched a little, of the impressionist painting. My overall impression of Chicago itself was good and I was excited to move on to the next day.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Planes, trains, and automobiles...
The stages of my journey to Chicago were as follows:
1) Shuttle from Flagstaff to Phoenix at 4:00am. Yuck! (Thank you so much Alida for giving me a ride to the parking lot!)
2) Plane from Sky Harbor to Cincinnati Airport via Delta Airlines. I had to wait in the airport for hooooouuuuurrsssss. But that was ok, because that way there was no stress about missing the flight (*cough* like going to St. Louis *cough*). I had a window seat, buuut it was rather bumpy the entire way. I don't do so well with that. I almost kissed the ground when we touched down at the Cincinnati Airport (which is in Kentucky actually, weird). Molly and her younger brother Cade came to pick me up. Yay Molly!!!! :D
3) Automobile from Cincinnati to the suburb West Chester with Molly and Cade. We ate at Chipotle and essentially got it for free because a lighting bolt struck right outside the building and knocked out the electric register. Sweet! I also shocked the heck out of Molly by pulling a sarcasm card and telling Cade to Eat it! when I suspected he didn't like one of my favorite movies. Haha. Molly and I also drove through our old neighborhood where we met on the bus in 2nd grade. :)
4) Automobile on Thursday afternoon from West Chester to Lafayette, Indiana. There was a slight foul up with Molly's fan belt, but soon we got that fixed by the local mechanic and were on our way. Molly was the official driver and I was the offical navigator. We both performed admirably and spent the few hours jamming to music and talking about boys, haha. :) We stayed at Molly's aunt and uncle's house. We ate at a restaurant called 9 Irish Brothers where I had amazing fish and chips! Molly's aunt also showed us around the college town and we got to see a little bit of Purdue. It reminded me a lot of a bigger version of NAU. I loved it. :)
5) Train (Amtrak) Friday morning from Lafayette to Chicago Union Station. Woke at 5:30 am for this one too, ugh. Haha, but Molly and I boarded without any fuss and the ride was quite comfortable. We watched the countryside roll past until it morphed into the skyscrapers of Chicago. Molly's cousin, Nathan, met us at the station and walked us to his apartment.
6) Buses, L trains, Metra trains, and taxis ( I think that's what they're called) all over the city. On Friday we spent the day in Nathan's care. His method of teaching us the local transportation system was to equip us with CTA cards that work on buses and the L and then to go places and have us follow. Get on this bus, get off, cross this street, run to this train, and you better follow or you'll get left behind!! We were so conditioned to this method that on Saturday, when Molly's other cousin, Jeremy, was our guide, he stepped out into the middle of the road and we just hopped off the curb and followed him. Turned out he was just looking down the street to see if the next bus was coming. He gave us the strangest look and we had to explain ourselves, haha. It was a great crash course though and we got to navigate by ourselves a couple times. Molly also got her first ride in a taxi when we took one to and from dinner with Nathan and his wife on Friday night. So yeah, all the transportation in itself was a great adventure. :)
Next up...our exploration of the city on Friday...
1) Shuttle from Flagstaff to Phoenix at 4:00am. Yuck! (Thank you so much Alida for giving me a ride to the parking lot!)
2) Plane from Sky Harbor to Cincinnati Airport via Delta Airlines. I had to wait in the airport for hooooouuuuurrsssss. But that was ok, because that way there was no stress about missing the flight (*cough* like going to St. Louis *cough*). I had a window seat, buuut it was rather bumpy the entire way. I don't do so well with that. I almost kissed the ground when we touched down at the Cincinnati Airport (which is in Kentucky actually, weird). Molly and her younger brother Cade came to pick me up. Yay Molly!!!! :D
3) Automobile from Cincinnati to the suburb West Chester with Molly and Cade. We ate at Chipotle and essentially got it for free because a lighting bolt struck right outside the building and knocked out the electric register. Sweet! I also shocked the heck out of Molly by pulling a sarcasm card and telling Cade to Eat it! when I suspected he didn't like one of my favorite movies. Haha. Molly and I also drove through our old neighborhood where we met on the bus in 2nd grade. :)
4) Automobile on Thursday afternoon from West Chester to Lafayette, Indiana. There was a slight foul up with Molly's fan belt, but soon we got that fixed by the local mechanic and were on our way. Molly was the official driver and I was the offical navigator. We both performed admirably and spent the few hours jamming to music and talking about boys, haha. :) We stayed at Molly's aunt and uncle's house. We ate at a restaurant called 9 Irish Brothers where I had amazing fish and chips! Molly's aunt also showed us around the college town and we got to see a little bit of Purdue. It reminded me a lot of a bigger version of NAU. I loved it. :)
5) Train (Amtrak) Friday morning from Lafayette to Chicago Union Station. Woke at 5:30 am for this one too, ugh. Haha, but Molly and I boarded without any fuss and the ride was quite comfortable. We watched the countryside roll past until it morphed into the skyscrapers of Chicago. Molly's cousin, Nathan, met us at the station and walked us to his apartment.
6) Buses, L trains, Metra trains, and taxis ( I think that's what they're called) all over the city. On Friday we spent the day in Nathan's care. His method of teaching us the local transportation system was to equip us with CTA cards that work on buses and the L and then to go places and have us follow. Get on this bus, get off, cross this street, run to this train, and you better follow or you'll get left behind!! We were so conditioned to this method that on Saturday, when Molly's other cousin, Jeremy, was our guide, he stepped out into the middle of the road and we just hopped off the curb and followed him. Turned out he was just looking down the street to see if the next bus was coming. He gave us the strangest look and we had to explain ourselves, haha. It was a great crash course though and we got to navigate by ourselves a couple times. Molly also got her first ride in a taxi when we took one to and from dinner with Nathan and his wife on Friday night. So yeah, all the transportation in itself was a great adventure. :)
Next up...our exploration of the city on Friday...
Monday, May 31, 2010
Adventure is Out There!!
In less than two days, on Wednesday morning, I will be boarding a plane to Cincinnati, Ohio! Land of green grass, lightning bugs, and the Cone. It makes the Midwest part of my heart very happy. :) I'm going there to visit my best friend Molly. We have been friends since we met on the school bus in 2nd grade, when my family lived there in Cinci at the time. I haven't seen her in two years and I am stoked beyond belief to see her in two days!! :D
Over the weekend, Molly and I are going to gallivant into Chicago to enjoy the city life. It's both our fix of adventure for the summer before we both have to go back to work and (for Molly) school. So we're going to make the most of it. :)
Also, while in Chicago we will have several handsome young guides, two of which are Molly's cousins and one of which is the certain Mr. David Tollefsen. It's been several weeks since I've gotten to see him and it will be many many weeks before I get to see him again after that. So, I'm also super excited to spend time with him on his side of the country for a bit. ;)
I will update with stories of our adventures as they happen. Hopefully it will be as epic as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. :D
Over the weekend, Molly and I are going to gallivant into Chicago to enjoy the city life. It's both our fix of adventure for the summer before we both have to go back to work and (for Molly) school. So we're going to make the most of it. :)
Also, while in Chicago we will have several handsome young guides, two of which are Molly's cousins and one of which is the certain Mr. David Tollefsen. It's been several weeks since I've gotten to see him and it will be many many weeks before I get to see him again after that. So, I'm also super excited to spend time with him on his side of the country for a bit. ;)
I will update with stories of our adventures as they happen. Hopefully it will be as epic as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. :D
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