Spring Break College Visits
April 2022

Dates: April 4-7, 2022

People: Mark, Sarah, Luke, Jonah, Seth, Anya, Ben

Itinerary

• 4-4 (Western Michigan, Indiana Dunes, Family Friends)

• 4-5 (Concordia Wisconsin, Marquette)

• 4-6 (University of Illinois, Family Night)

• 4-7 (Travel Day)

MONDAY APRIL 4

Our road trip began with a 7:15am departure.  We had a 9am appointment in Kalamazoo at Western Michigan and so needed to get over there in good time.  It rained most of the drive over but we made it just a few minutes after 9am.  We checked in at the welcome center for WMU and joined a student-led welcome talk which had just started.  About 50 people in the talk.   They split us into 4 or 5 groups of about a dozen to tour the campus.  Our guide was the student president elect and from Malaysia.  Very nice guy.  He gave us a 90 minute tour and we were certainly intrigued by the WMU campus.  We walked their old student center which would be demolished within a year.  We saw, but didn't enter the new student center.  Mark, Jonah and Luke were on the tour.  Sarah and the others waited at the car and the welcome center.

After leaving WMU we got lunch at a Culver's on the west side of Kalamazoo.  We then headed over to Indiana Dunes National Park.  The weather had cleared up nice and was in the 50s.  We did the Three Dune Challenge hike.  Mark carried Ben in the tula carrier.  Anya did fairly well on the trails getting carried by Jonah occasionally. We left the dunes around 3:30pm to drive over to Lombard where we had a 5pm dinner date with the Hein's.  

We saw traffic reports of I294 being backed up so we took 80 all the way over to I355 and followed it north to Lombard.  We got off at the old stop at Butterfield Rd and drove by the old house on Elizabeth St and then up Main St Lombard to get to the Hein's place.  We visited with them and met their daughter for the first time.  Mark and Matt went over to Giordano's in Glen Ellyn to pickup supper.  We dined with them and visited.  Anya helped give the Hein's little one a bath before bedtime.  We stayed til around 8p and then headed over to our hotel on North Avenue. We stayed at the Comfort Suites Lombard-Addison and it was a good night's stay.

TUESDAY APRIL 5

Mark was up at 5:20am when Seth's phone alarm went off. His phone hadn't switched over to central and so it was still on eastern and hitting yesterday's alarm time.  He hit the hotel treadmill for a bit and found out it did't work well.  Then headed outside for 2 more miles of running once the sun had come up. Once again we had to leave early and so we hit a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on the road 7:15am for Wiscsonsin.  This would be Anya and Ben's first time in Wisconsin.  We had a nice drive up to the Mequon area and Up 5:20am, had a quick treadmill run and then 2 more miles outside.  Left 7:15 for drive up to Mequon.  Got in 9:05 for our visit.  Nice campus tour and then a 20 minute meet with an admissions counselor. We were on campus til around 11:30a when we needed to head down to Marquette.  

We headed down to Marquette and Sarah did the walking tour with Jonah and Luke.  Mark took the others to a Subway and then Walmart to kill time.  The three enjoyed a nice visit at Marquette.

After tours we talked about hitting the Milwaukee City Market but then decided to skip town.  Hit a Taco Bell south of town for lunch.  Then talked of driving through Chicago but growing rush hour traffic instead had us stay on 294 to get around town.  We decided to make the drive all the way to Champaign. 

Headed down to Champaign for a stay at the Comfort Suites for the night. It turned out to be another nice hotel choice.  We did supper at the Portillo's there on the north side of Champaign. We watched Free Guy in our hotel room at night.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 6

Mark was up first and got breakfast and went out for a run. Easy relaxing morning for everybody. At 10:30 Mark took Anya and Jonah out to do some geocaching. At 11:15 we all drove over to the Crystal Lake Park and hit the playground and more geocaching.  We drove down the street from the park to a shopping area and split up for lunch.  Mark, Luke, Seth and Anya hit the Jimmy John's.  The others tried a few places seeking the shortest line and eventually settled on Panda Express.  With little time remaining we headed down the road further to the UofI admissions and Mark, Luke, and Jonah began the 1pm tour.  It started with an almost hour long talk and then a 90 minute campus tour.  We were in Champaign til 3:30pm.

We then made the drive over to Dorsey getting in at 6:45pm.  We worshipped with them for Lent service.  Then had frozen pizzas for supper.  We sorted out the paper work for the Kia mini-van they would be giving us.

THURSDAY APRIL 7

Mark was up at 6:30am and did the 6-mile section loop.  Then we worked hard to get on the road.  We got both vans ready and then were off at 8:50am.  We stopped for lunch at the Taco Bell in Plainfield.  The inside wasn't open so we had to hit the Shell gas station for bathrooms and ate lunch in the car.  We stopped for gas at the meijer on the east side of Fort Wayne and then made the rest of the drive home.  Mark drove the Kia with Luke, Seth, and Ben.  Sarah drove the T&C with Jonah and Anya.  We made it home at 6:10pm.  We had to keep to this time schedule as we had a special church council meeting at 7pm.