Rudy and The Bean

I told you it was a giant jelly bean

The next morning, we got up early and traveled about nine miles south into Indiana.  There was a special place that I have wanted to see.  The special place to me, was the campus of Notre Dame University.  When I was graduating from high school, Notre Dame was one of the schools that accepted me.  Unfortunately, my parents could not afford to send me and I didn't have a scholarship.  Even though my family was not Catholic, we had all been big fans and I loved the tradition of their football program.  I was very excited to share this place with my family.
    It was Sunday morning and we arrived just as mass was beginning.  The atmosphere was magical, as we wandered into the walk of memories and the bells of the of the cathedral began ringing.  We had thought of attending mass, but felt that we weren't quite dressed for the occasion.
    As we sat in front of the main building and took in the atmosphere, Cecelia got a little teary eyed as she shared with the girls how it was for her at Santa Clara.  She used to go to mass every Sunday, while she was in college.

Notre Dame's Veterans Memorial

    After sharing some stories about college with the girls we went and found the football stadium.  With the chants of Rudy, Rudy, Rudy running in our heads, we got a glimpse of the football field through the Knute Rockney gate.  With a statue of the famous coach looking on, we turned to see touchdown Jesus facing the same gate.  The girls had seen and heard stories about touchdown Jesus, but it was exciting for them to see the real thing in person.
    Feeling pumped up about Notre Dame football after our visit with coach Rockney, we headed over to the book store to get some souvenirs.  We did a good job and walked out with quite a bit of navy, green and gold.
    Decked out in our new Notre Dame garb, we jumped in the truck and drove to west Chicago.  Our plan was to stay in a campground and take the metro into town.  All went well until we found out that the train into town took 90 minutes to get there and it ran on the hour on Sundays.  This made our time in the city short, because we were going to be meeting my good friend Dan, who I had not seen in nearly 20 years in the evening.  This gave us about a two and a half hour window to eat deep dish pizza and explore the city.
    When we arrived at the station in Chicago our intrepid band of resilient travelers knew what to do.  Cecelia, the navigator found the directions we needed to get to Millenium Park, Taylor and Claire then set the walking pace to get there.  My job along the way was to find Chicago's famous deep dish pizza.
    Along the way, we took in some of the iconic sights of the city.  Water taxi's on the river, Sears Tower, and the elevated subways system called the L.  As we were speed walking along, I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to find pizza, but I was saved by the famous Pizano's restaurant.  They sat us immediately for lunch and we had a wonderful meal.  The deep dish was outstanding and the atmosphere was just as good.
   Full of deep dish pizza, we walked about a block to Millenium Park in order to walk off the ton of cheese that we had just consumed.  It is a good thing that Cecelia is the only one of us that is lactose intolerant.
    I wanted to share the park with my family, because it is one of those special places that has so many unique features that it is difficult to take in one visit.  As we walked along, I pointed out the water features that had faces on them that changed every couple of minutes.  Water runs down them, while they smile and wink at you.  It is always a festive place, but there was one thing that I wanted to share with them in particular.  It was the giant Bean.

Trippie!!!!!!!!!

    The Giant Bean is like a giant chrome jelly bean laying with the hollow side down.  It is the wierdest shaped mirror that you will ever see.  As you walk around and under the bean, you look for yourself in the reflection.  It can be difficult sometimes, because all the curves make it difficult to find your group.  Luckily we found ourselves and took some photos before moving on to check out some of the other areas in the park.

    We walked closer to the shore of Lake Michigan, but unfortunately realized it was time for us to head back to the metro and catch our train to meet my friend Dan.  Hopefully we would get on the correct train.
    Arriving at the Wheaton station, we found Dan waiting for us.  Dan and I were like brothers, years ago and when we saw each other it was an emotional meeting, but one in which we greeted each other like we had just seen each other.

Intrepid Travelers

   After picking us up, Dan gave us a short tour of the town of Wheaton.  There are a couple of really interesting things about Wheaton.  The first is that it is the home of the Billy Graham Museum.  He was an alumni at Wheaton.  The second was to find out that the literature department has a display with C.S. Lewis's wardrobe and the desk in which J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings.
    Dan then took us to his home and we spent an outstanding evening reminiscing and sharing with our wives how our lives have changed.  It was great catching up about how our kids have progressed and what we have been doing over the years.  The time went too fast and it was time for us to return to the trailer.  We went to bed immediately, because we had a very important meeting the next day in Wisconsin.