G. Daniel Michael '11

It felt great to be back in The Region. After all, a few years ago I practically lived in the Merrillville area—for five years, my mother and I would make the daily two and a half hour trip from Plymouth, Indiana for swim practice at Merrillville High School. As I traveled along U.S. 30, the scenery began to look ever more familiar, and once again I felt at home. My destination was familiar as well. Robert Fozkos, a future fellow Tanker in Wabash and long time Region brother, was hosting me for the night before the greatest day of my life. We had it all planned out. First we would go to The Taste of Chicago Festival, then a Dave Matthews concert.

After a restful night of sleep, Robert and I were ready for an amazing day. He acquired a pair of tickets for the concert, and our seats were just thirty-three rows from the front of the stage! The stage had been set, pardon the pun, so Robert and I, along with our beautiful tickets, set out for Chi-town.

As usual, the infamous Chicago traffic proved true for our trip into ‘the windy city.’ After an hour and a half drive, our appetite was ready to taste and see that Chicago is as good as advertised. We managed to find small town college roots as we parked on none other than Wabash St. The scenery was simply stunning. Soldier Field, The Sears Tower, Admiral Bay, and the fountain equaled and succeeded my expectations. I had visited Chicago once before, but it was in the winter, and I wasn't nearly old enough to appreciate the beauty of it all.

We had walked through what seemed like the Sahara Dessert with temperatures reaching ninety plus degrees, and the humidity coming in a close second place. I saw a large sign welcoming me to a 'Disneyland' for my taste buds. There were large canopy tents set up with flaming grills, swirling ice cream, and street performing artists. As we stepped up to the ticket booth, Robert asked the kind lady how much she thought he could eat (in tickets). She asked if he was hungry (I had to laugh at that one), he said yes, and that's when she advised he buy one strip (11 tickets are in a strip and each strip cost $7). After he made his purchase, I followed right behind him and bought one strip as well. By the end of the afternoon, he and I demolished 5 ticket strips. As we walked around, everything they had to offer looked fantastic. I didn't think it was possible, but the food tasted even better than it looked.

While Robert and I were walking around, we saw a representative for an airline with a loudspeaker, trying to get the attention of the people walking by. The representative was a man, approximately sixty-five years in age, gray hair, and the typical long socks with moderately used tennis shoes. He became a significant part of our day when he started talking in a monotone voice with a slight grin, saying things like, "Party like a rock star," "Hola' at your boy,” and "Pop, lock, and drop-by." This was the much-needed comic relief amidst the scorching temperatures, and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. Our lunch for the day consisted of deep dish sausage pizza, steak burritos, chicken mini tacos, orange sherbet ice cream cones, milk chocolate covered strawberries, a pair of well deserved bottles of water, and a single park bench in the shade for the stomach ache we both shared with big smiles on our faces.

Then, it was Dave time.

Swimmingly,

G.Daniel