Evanston and beyond.

Today was the first day we really explored the campus of Northwestern University, where Sam spent 1997-2001.  After checking out of our hotel, we first headed for the lake to stick our toes in Lake Michigan.  This, however, was not so easily accomplished. We drove to the north end of campus, where the map showed the student beach.  However, loads of construction equipment obstructed our view, so we moved a little further south and found access to the lake's edge by a university parking lot.  Once parked, Nancy took some pictures of me sitting on a rock by the lake.  I posted my picture on Facebook.

Chicago skyline in the distance

By the lake

Arty shot of Lake Michigan 

Nancy had just walked farther down the access path to take some more pictures when I saw a campus cop park behind my car.  Quickly, I ran toward him, shouting, "I'm moving my car right now!"  I explained that my son had graduated from Northwestern and that I just wanted to take a few pictures.  His response: "This is a private parking lot, ma'am."  I should have said, "Hey, I contributed $100,000 to this private parking lot, buddy..."  Too late.   He said that we should park in town and walk to the lake.  Did I mention that it felt like 1000 degrees at 11AM?   But we dutifully found a parking space and walked to Norris Center, where I bought some stuff for the children of N'western grads.  As we were sitting in the cafe area, my phone vibrated.  Jackie Shapiro, Sam's college girlfriend, had sent me this picture from about 13 years ago:

Of course, I cried.  What a pose - he had his life ahead of him, and he was embracing that...

We then strolled through the arts part of campus, which included all the performance venues.  We found the building where Sam had his RTVF graduation ceremony. Then it was a beautiful setting; now it's a construction zone.  As we were walking down paths trying to stay in the shade, we came upon the administrative building for RTVF.  We took a little tour of the building, but the only person we saw was a current student manning a desk.

Before we left the Chicago area, we still had to dip our toes in the waters of Lake Michigan.  We discovered that all of the Evanston beaches charged, so we traveled to the Evanston/Chicago border and found a beach where we could check out the waters for free -- not that cold, surprisingly.

On this day, instead of taking a death march, we took a death drive.  It took FOREVER to get from that beach to I-90, the road that would take us to Wisconsin.  There had to be an easier way...  And then, when we finally got to  I-90, the traffic was awful.  Finally, finally, we reached DeForest, Wisconsin, at about 5:30.  Open Table app in hand, I searched for a non-greasy, non-cheesy place to have dinner.  Success was sweet - an unexpected treat awaited us in Middleton, Wisconsin, at Tapas Rias.

The drive to this restaurant was through beautiful fields and farmhouses; the restaurant itself was in a strip mall.  As we walked in, the strains of a guitar mingled with the sounds of the flamenco dancer.  Nancy had never been to a tapas bar; I think I've made a believer out of her.  Small plates of all kinds of delicious things, both hot and cold, along with different flavors of sangria.  Awesome.  We had a lovely dinner and then took a leisurely drive through Madison, home of the University of Wisconsin, on our way back to the hotel.  Olympics coverage awaited.