Glenview, IL to Chicago, IL

We woke up at 6, had the usual breakfast, and departed for Chicago. The ride was only 17 miles to lunch, where we were to have a friendship visit.

The ride wasn’t too bad at all. There was a lot of turns, which caused a little panic for the crew, and thus, too many red flags, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I was a little disappointed in the scenery of the ride, as we only passed the northwest suburbs of Chicago and nothing to extraordinary. We arrived at the friendship visit, which was roughly 8 miles from downtown Chicago and lodging. With a little flair, we prompted our bikes up in a line, and shock the hands of all the participants. The friendship visit was with an organization that helps people with intellectual disabilities of low income status. Most of the participants were black or Hispanic. We first started off by having a Jimmy Johns sponsored lunch. It brought back memories of hours of hard labor I once poured into the franchise. After lunch, there was a little basketball being played on the courts, along with a dance floor playing 90’s rap. One thing that I found a little interesting and partly disturbing was how all entire facility wasn’t maintained much, but there were state-of-the-art video cameras watching everyone from above…just in case. I met a kid named Patrick who gave me a one on one lesson on rapping.Basically, throw in some profanity every other word and syntax isn’t especially important. It was stream of consciousness but a little vulgar. After a while, a dance off begin between the participants and the Journey of Hope riders. Much of it was blurb but the roof was raised.

The friendship visit was different than usual. The participants were really into it, and it was a lot of fun. It was an experience, to say the least. We said our goodbyes and racked our bikes onto the vans. Because of the road conditions, the Project Manager decided on not riding to the hotel, mainly because of safety.

We arrived at The W hotel on Lake Shore Drive. Wow, it was the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. Right next to the hotel was a beach on Lake Michigan. On top of that, its service was great, and the rooms were spacious. After settling in, a bunch of us decided to check out the beach before dinner. We took the 5 minute walk and I pretty much worked on my tan. Seeing the beach with the Chicago skyline in the background was absolutely stunning.

After relaxing in the sun for an hour, we headed back to the hotel where we got ready for dinner. For dinner, we were sponsored by, by the University of Illinois student’s parents, Alex and Tommy’s parents. We went to one of Chicago’s most famous pizzerias, Lou Malnati’s. It was a little different than I thought Chicago deep dish pizza to be. It was a little less cheesy than I expected. Regardless, it was delicious and quite filling.
After dinner, I had desserts with my parents and my sister, Sasha. They met me at the hotel, and we walked to Michigan Avenue, where we had desserts at the Grand Lux Café. The banana crème pie, the New Orleans Beignets, and the Chocolate Mousse cake did not disappoint. After saying goodbye to my parents, they headed. I was a little bored, so I went to the hotel gym and got a quick workout. After a long and fun night, I headed to bed, looking forward to my day off.