Chi-Town Day 4: Northwestern

By MAGGIE WANG

It was a trip down memory lane for four Northwestern grads and their six kids. (We were missing Bry's family at this July 4 alumni reunion in Evanston.)

It started with a caravan with Teddy and Mag to Dominick's supermarket to get some snacks, followed by a bagel breakfast picnic by the Kellogg business school's building. (Not sure why we didn't go to the Medill School of Journalism -- not as much grassy area, I guess -- but I was happy I wasn't doing any of the planning! )

 

Having had some fun with Teddy's daughter Elle the previous day, Maven tried to show Elle some of those pictures on her iTouch. Elle seemed skeptical of what Maven was offering. I had uploaded all the pictures to their iTouches for their enjoyment. 

Side note: The girls both got iTouches (officially iPod touches) before this trip. This marks our family's first interactive Apple product experience besides our iPod minis purchased more than four years ago. There are many great iTouch applications that I can download for education and play. It's been a great tool to keep the girls occupied for the plane and for short periods of time when necessary. It is a treat, and they love it.

Kevin played ball (using Teddy's purple Northwestern mini-football) with the kids while we were waiting for Soop's family to join us. We then all headed over to another nice green area by the lake (called the Lakefill, where they've built new soccer and field-hockey fields recently) for some relaxation.

See all that Northwestern purple in the background?

The girls were picking flowers and pine cones while the boys were playing ball, although the girls eventually started playing ball and Frisbee, too.

Maven shared her Goldfish snacks with Matthew and Emily. Matthew was definitely a big fan to the point that Sedona said, "You cannot have any more until you finish what is in your mouth."

After leaving the Evanston campus, we hit up one of Kevin's favorite eateries since childhood, Steak 'n Shake, with Mag's and Soop's families. They are all huge fans. I thought it was fine, but again, not sure what all the hype is about.

It was a hot and long day, so we came back to our downtown hotel to rest before hitting up the hotel pool. It wore us all out. We all fell asleep even before the 9 p.m. fireworks started!

Happy Birthday, America! Sorry, we were party poopers!