Tag: Milwaukee

Making College Fun

Making College Fun

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Even with a lot of work to do, I still find time to do enjoyable activities. Studying is important, but having downtime is just as important. I don’t work well when I’m stressed because my mood and motivation go down and nothing gets done. Therefore, I’m going to write several of the things I’ve done thus far since school started and things I hope to do in the month of October do de-stressing and have some fun.

Things that I have done:

1. I went to a Cubs game. They lost 2-1, but the game was still worth it. My boyfriend and I sat four rows behind home plate, the weather was perfect and the game wasn’t boring. Even though I’m not a baseball fan, I had a great time because I completely focused on being at Wrigley Field with someone I love spending time with instead of thinking about work, classes, or actually getting stuff done. It was really nice to give my brain a night off and not have to think too much about the stressful aspects of my life.

2. I’ve gone out to dinner about once a week. Since school started, I have gone to Outback Steakhouse and Bakers Square, and discovered Five Roses out in Rosemont, Moretti’s in Edison Park, and Rogs in Schiller Park. These places are out of the way for most Loyola students, but there are many delicious places to go out to eat in the area. Some of my favorites are FoodLife in WaterTower Place, Elly’s near Lincoln Park, and Pete’s near the Granville Red Line.

 

Things I Look Forward to Doing:

  1. I’m going camping this weekend. I’m really excited because I’m going to Milwaukee, WI tomorrow with my boyfriend and some friends. I’ll be spending a lot of time fishing, sitting by a campfire, gazing at the stars and hopefully doing some hiking. Smores and tents, here I come!
  2. I hope to finally do a corn maze this year. I’ve never done one so I would love to finally make that happen.
  3. Go to Fright Fest at Six Flags and go to the haunted houses. I’ve never gone to the haunted houses at Six Flags and I would love to see if they scare me because thus far, the only haunted houses that terrified me were the ones I went to when I was 12.
  4. I’m going paint balling at the end of October. I went once when I was 13 and I had a lot of  fun so I can’t wait to go again after all this time.
  5. Potentially go to a pumpkin patch and carve pumpkins. The last time I carved a pumpkin, the nice word to describe what it looked like is interesting. This year, I want to try again and really make a pumpkin that can look worthy of sitting outside on the front porch for people to see.
Night Trip to Milwaukee

Night Trip to Milwaukee

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One of the nice parts about being in the city of Chicago is the access to other cool cities that are located just a short drive away.  Among those cool cities is Milwaukee, and this summer I had the opportunity to drive up to Milwaukee for a St. Louis Cardinal baseball game.

There were many “best parts” about this game: the cheap tickets ($2 dollars on StubHub, if interested in baseball, you should seriously check this out), the good friends that accompanied me, even the brats at the ballpark.  However, the actual “best part” would probably have to be the fact that one can drive from Chicago to Milwaukee in under 2 hours, which means that my friends and I were able to travel up to a baseball game on a weekday night, catch a 7 PM game, and get back to Chicago for work the next morning.  It really doesn’t get more ideal than that.

Sure, their are toll that must be paid on the trip in and out (and those add up), but for a chance to catch your home team steal a victory at one of its rivals ballpark, it is well worth the drive.  Something else that was cool is the stadium itself.  Unlike Wrigley or US Cellular field (or Busch for all those Cardinals fans), Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, is isolated outside of the city and is surrounded by miles of parking lots.  In fact, it almost reminded me of a football stadium with vast stretches of parking and tailgaters.   As a fan of baseball, I like having a chance to get to new stadiums in new cities, and as a fan of Chicago, I like the access to the many cities, stadiums and baseball.

By the way, the Cardinals came back in the 9th inning to win the game, which was a perfect cap to a great evening.

Milwaukee Day Trip

Milwaukee Day Trip

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Having friends with cars in the city is awesome.  Having friends who will take road trips in their car is even more awesome!  Friday, my friends and I randomly decided to head up to Milwaukee for the day.  It’s about an hour and a half trip, which isn’t too bad.

Milwaukee is a super neat city, almost like a mini Chicago.  We didn’t really have much planned, plus it was a rainy day. We ended up going on a brewery tour at Lakefront Brewery, which was pretty interesting.  Afterwards, we went to get some delicious custard at Kopp’s.

Because we were pretty much winging it, we ended up driving around most of the time.  One of my friends has a friend attending UW-Milwaukee, so we met up later that night for dinner.

Safe House is a spy-themed restaurant with Bond memorabilia and gadgets everywhere!  By far one of the coolest restaurants I’ve been to.  You enter from an alley, go up some stairs into a tiny room.  There, you are asked for a password.  Of course, no one in our group knew, so we had to do Ring Around the Rosie to be let.  Then, a bookshelf wall opened up to the restaurant.

The fact that we were able to fit so much in in about a five hour range is super impressive to me.  While Chicago is great, sometimes its nice to get away to some of the other cool places that aren’t so far.