Dad's Visit- Walker Bros, NU & Downtown Chicago

We started out morning with breakfast at Walker Bros with Joan. It's dad's first official day in Chicago, and he excitedly went downstairs to "try the outside temperature" first. He rushed back within 5 minutes with a pale and speechless face- oh ya, he was freezing XD

"I told you! Don't under-estimate the cold in Chicago, and don't believe in the sunshine!" I knew I should not tease Dad, but I couldn't help it while he finally listened to my advice to put his snow coats on.

Generous Joan followed Dad to my apartment within 30 seconds, and then we went to Walkers Bros together. Adventurous Dad ordered one of the most famous pancake- Apple Pancake- and was totally impressed by its real size! Well, I should have warmed him about the servings in the U.S.....

From 081211-1214-Daddy@Evanston for NU graduation

We had great talks about my plan, dad's naval experiences and more about my family at Walker Bros, and Joan loved the gifts Mom and Dad prepared: tie, scarf, VCD and bookmark from National Palace Museum and an aboriginal magnet for Alexie. I also got a pretty purple necklace from Joan as a graduation gift, which I chose to wear on my graduation day. (It looks nice!)

Then, Dad and I started out Northwestern campus tour from the North. Joan dropped us at the Gym and so Dad got the chance to see the welfare to be a wildcat. Not to my surprise, Dad desire to take a look at the "academic" side of NU life, so I decided to bring him to one of the lab inside Tech Building- where Andrew was probably pretend-to-be working hard at :P Guess what? I thought Dad was quite satisfied at what he saw and felt at Tech.

Following along the Sheridan Rd., I took Dad to visit Kellogg building, the NU Library (Mom's great guess! Dad loved to see the library) and of course my department building- where I was pretend-to-be studying hard at. :P We were lucky enough that Prof. Tom Collinger was in his office, so we could talk to him in person for a quick moment and presented him the hard-copy Cheers magazine. I could see Tom's delight upon seeing the real pages. For that short moment, yes, I felt proud of myself!

From 081211-1214-Daddy@Evanston for NU graduation

Also for the first time, Dad hopped on eL and went downtown Chicago with me. We first went to Macy's inside the Marshall Field & Company building to buy Frango- the famous mint chocolate of Chicago- to treat people in Taiwan. Then we walked against typical Chicago wind to visit the Bean, the Pavilion and the Crown Fountain in the Millennium Park. I later took Dad to appreciate the best view in the world at John Hancock Observatory.

From 081211-1214-Daddy@Evanston for NU graduation

"Are those real view?" Mom questioned me upon viewing those photos.
"Indeed! You can see dad in some of the photos, and that proves everything." I replied.
"(speechless and astonished)"
We were really lucky that it was a very clear and sunny day when we headed for the visit. God knew our needs!

This day ended at Giordano's when Dad tried another kind of famous Chicago food- Deep Dish Pizza. I was delighted to find Dad with great appetite and talked a lot about everything. I knew I have to cherish every single moment like this and to pay attention to all those murmurs, because this might not happen too often in the months to come. Seriously, I valued all those moments with Daddy....


Walker Bros Original Pancake House- Wilmette
153 Green Bay Rd.
Wilmette, IL
(847)251-6000

Giordano's
730 N Rush St.
Chicago, IL
(312) 951-0747