A lot of this summer has been about getting Happy Girl ready for senior year, and college thereafter. The school year just seems to be too busy to really concentrate our search, so taking some trips this summer, mother/daughter style was at the top of the agenda.
I decided if we were heading (near) east, I wanted to make it even more fun and touch base with a couple of my college besties in Wisconsin and Michigan at either end of our trip. That way, even if these didn't end up being "the" colleges, it would still be a worthwhile trip. Of course, road trip travel is always a fun adventure!
We started out with a reunion in Madison, with my college choir bud, Rachel. Don't think we'd probably seen each other for 15 years! It was so fun introducing her to Happy Girl, and having her show us around the fun town of Madison.
I enjoyed seeing Rachel's apartment all decked out with interesting world travel momentos, mostly from Russia. I fondly remembered our college choir trip, and think it kicked in a little wanderlust to see more of the world!
We then headed to Carthage College, situated right on the banks of Lake Michigan, between Milwaukee and Chicago. I wasn't quite into the mode yet, and totally forgot to take any pics at this school...duh!
We headed to Chicago next, for Happy Girl's first visit to the very exciting, very big, Windy City. I just loved the juxtaposition of historical and modern in this city.
We were checking out Loyola University. We first toured their Watertower Campus right in the heart of downtown. It was very metropolitan, but I honestly was more excited to find the Hershey's store was in one of their buildings!
Luckily, we were short on time, because I could have spent way too much time and money here!
Happy Girl was thrilled to experience her first El train ride on the Red line between Loyola's Watertower campus and their Lakeshore Campus. She is invigorated by the city vibe and soaked up every exciting moment. She thought it was cool how the city skyline could be seen in the tile in the underground station. Think I was more worried about random peddlers coming up to us:(
Loyola's Lakeshore campus was beautiful. It is actually two college campuses that merged, so the architectural diversity is varied. There's several classic, stone structures, quite a few amazing Art Decor buildings, and some new, sleek, enviromentally-friendly buildings. With the backdrop of the Lake Michigan shore of giant boulders and natural grasses, wandering the sidewalks at the end of the day was a treat.
You know, I love me some good architecture! And when there's huge pots of flowers involved too...I'm a satisfied, beauty lover!
Of course, we had to end the day with the best part of Chicago that she'd never experienced before...
Thank goodness, Giordano's delivers, because after fighting the rush hour traffic to get to our hotel, and having walked all day in 90 degree heat, there was no way I was leaving the room!
More on our hidden gem of a hotel and the rest of our adventure tomorrow (because there's already way too many pics in this post!)
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