We arrived in Western Springs (30 mins from Chicago) a little after 8 Friday night. Kate's cousins, the McHugh family, took us to the once-a-year festival of Western Springs. Face painting. Train rides. Blow-up apparatus. Sarah bought me sesame chicken from a vendor, yum! Mark told us of the town news and friends and family. Little Mark was enjoying the rides with his friend Sarah. Afterwards, we went to a local place called Palmer's to eat (it reminded Kate and I of Sharkies in Blacksburg except without the obnoxious crowd.)
Saturday morning we awoke to a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes, sausage, coffee, milk, OJ. Next we went to Chicago for the afternoon. Kate and I enjoyed the sites. The traffic was a little heavy but Mark told us of the buildings and stories behind Chicago as we waited in traffic. Mark is a great tour guide and his navigational skills allowed us to circumnavigate Chicago traffic many times! Way to go Mark!
Mark then took us to a local pizzeria named Gino's. Kate and I split a thin crust half Vegetarian and BBQ Chicken pizza (can you guess who ate what?) and tried some of the infamous deep-dish. The day was packed full of events and we had a fun time. Thank you Mark, Sarah and Mark Jr. for your hospitality and interesting conversations about inventing cars with jet packs and chain-saws attached to them (a conversation that I indulged in with Mark Jr.)
Later that afternoon, we left for Grand Rapids, MI. This stay would be the slightly awkward and mysterious one because we did not know Paul Knust, the individual that we would be staying with (while he was not home.) Talk about grand hospitality! His roommate was home though. It turned out to be anything but awkward, as Kate and myself sat up and talked with Thom, Paul's roommate, until the wee hours of the morning. Thom informed us of grocery store horrors and the craziness of customers. He's the store manager. He is also a full-time Economics-major student and rows during his free time--yes! he's very busy. But we were happy that he took time out of his busy schedule to talk with us and make us feel at home. Oh yeah, he also made us some breakfast in the morning before he went off to work. Thanks Thom!
Around 11, Kate and I departed for Mars Hill Bible Church, which is the church of Rob Bell. He has written numerous books and filmed short-movies that have impacted my life tremendously, so we decided to go to his church. Now we are hanging out at Paul's house and about to go for a bike ride.
We will be leaving early tomorrow morning for New York and making a pit stop at the one and only Niagara Falls. We are going to meet up with friends and family which include Dan Carrielo, Daniel Pierce and Joel Monastaryl. Then we shall drive together to New York and spend a couple days at Dan's folk's lakehouse in Hamlin, NY.
We know, our life is kind of boring and stuff. See you in Niagara Falls.
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