Hey everyone! Life is good over here. For Thanksgiving, Megan and I flew down to San Diego to visit my aunt and uncle. My paternal grandparents were there too and my dad flew out from Kansas. I was excited for Megan to get to know my grandparents more since she didn't have a chance to really get to know them when we got married.
We flew down on Wednesday afternoon. I bought the tickets on July 6th. I'll remember this because Megan had been saying how much she wanted to go back to San Diego and I found a one-way ticket for $49 on Southwest. Megan and I had just returned from Toronto the day before and I'm pretty sure I was ticked off to be back at work in Davenport. :)
On the flight, we stopped in Phoenix, but didn't have to get off the airplane. Megan and I moved up to the second row so we wouldn't have to wait for a billion people ahead of us to start moving. In the process, Megan's phone fell out of her pocket. A flight attendant found out and since no one was around, she figured it belonged to someone who got off in Phoenix. We were happy that the phone wasn't lost forever, but Megan was without her phone for 4 or 5 days. I didn't think that was going to be a big deal, but it's hard to contact someone without a cell phone. I would get out of class and think, "I'm going to call Megan to meet up with her." NOPE! It's back now and I'm thankful for the good Southwest Airlines flight attendant.
Wednesday night Megan and I went out to dinner with her trainer who lives in Encinitas. The food was good, but I have a hard time hanging out with rich people. I have always had enough in my life, but I enjoy not being rich.
Thursday was a great day. We went hiking and enjoyed the warm weather. My dad surprised us by flying out. He said he was going to, then couldn't, but then called on Thursday to say, "I'm driving to the airport." Oh yeah, the food was good.
Friday, we went to Orange County. We drove my cousin's 2000 Chevy Impala. We had the oldest car in the whole county. If we had been driving our 2005 Honda Civic, we still would have had the oldest car in Orange County. We ate Chinese food in Irvine. For those who don't know, Irvine is the Chinatown of California. There was an 85C coffee shop there! 85C's are all over in Taiwan, so it was cool to feel like I was back there again.
After lunch, we drove to Newport Beach and walked the pier. We also visited the Newport Beach temple and took pictures from the outside since it was closed. So pretty.
Saturday, we went to the temple for family names my grandparents collected. We did the work for both Mexican and German relatives and had the chance to attend a Spanish session. It seems that we attended the most appropriate session since people did funny things the whole time. Do you think our family members could stand a boring church? No, you have to keep people interested.
Sunday, we flew home, but not before being blessed immensely. We got to the airport and checked in. A message popped up saying, "The flight is over booked, if you don't mind waiting, let your gate agent know." We got through security and I saw a guy standing at the desk waiting for a gate agent too. I thought, "No way this dude is getting what we want." Eventually he got bored and left. I stood there for about half an hour before the lady finally came. She told me someone else was ahead of us in line, but she'd let us know. As it was time to board, she told that other person ahead of us, "Sorry, but we won't be needing your spot." She then looked at me and made a face that said, "Did you hear what I just said?" I was disappointed, but was glad to have a seat. Then the gate agent said to us, "Once I get everyone boarded, I'll print your new tickets." The new tickets came with seating in the exit row! I loved it. On top of that, we each got a $400 credit to book a future flight (Hawaii), plus we got a 50% mileage bonus for the San Diego to SLC flight. Pretty good for only having to wait an extra hour!
All in all, our weekend was a great one.
Sorry this post is so long. My 24th birthday was Wednesday. I had my first accounting group over for my ice cream cake. It's always fun having friends around.
Well, that's it from us!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
An Internship Offer
Ladies and Gentlemen (or just Tayler since he's the only one who reads this, I think):
I have been very stressed out this week as the interviews for tax internships came to an end. First Deloitte sent me an email saying, "Sorry, you were near the top of the list, but the economy sucks, etc, etc." I wasn't too worried as I thought I had Ernst and Young in the bag. I knew so many in the office and they liked me, so I knew I'd get at least one offer. I also interviewed at Moss Adams and knew I didn't want to be there. Yes, the office was nice, but I was looking for a different feel. Finally, I loved KPMG because of all the BYU tax guys. I don't feel like being a pioneer as the only Mormon at Moss Adams, so I was interested in KPMG.
So on Friday, I was so antsy I could hardly sleep. I called the E&Y recruiter and she didn't know if I had a job, but told me she'd be shocked if I didn't. I kept telling myself that even if all of them said no, I'd figure something out. I thought about extending our trip to Asia, but then had a feeling that everything would work out. 2 minutes later (literally) I got an email from E&Y saying "No." I knew that meant KPMG was going to be my offer.
I was at work hanging out with Megan when I looked at my phone for any missed calls with 503 area codes (Oregon). There weren't any, so I put it back in my pocket and my phone started ringing with a 503 number on it! I was so excited! The KPMG partner I met with on Thursday offered me an internship. I am so happy to know that we will be in Portland next summer. I will be working on the 37th floor of the Wells Fargo building (see my last post). The views are awesome and I'm glad to know that there will be other BYU guys there.
All in all, I learned that God is in charge. While I liked E&Y, I know He wants me at KPMG. I don't know exactly why yet, but I can tell people I like that KPMG has 10 more vacation days a year than the other firms. :) Isn't it great to know Someone else is looking out for me?
I have been very stressed out this week as the interviews for tax internships came to an end. First Deloitte sent me an email saying, "Sorry, you were near the top of the list, but the economy sucks, etc, etc." I wasn't too worried as I thought I had Ernst and Young in the bag. I knew so many in the office and they liked me, so I knew I'd get at least one offer. I also interviewed at Moss Adams and knew I didn't want to be there. Yes, the office was nice, but I was looking for a different feel. Finally, I loved KPMG because of all the BYU tax guys. I don't feel like being a pioneer as the only Mormon at Moss Adams, so I was interested in KPMG.
So on Friday, I was so antsy I could hardly sleep. I called the E&Y recruiter and she didn't know if I had a job, but told me she'd be shocked if I didn't. I kept telling myself that even if all of them said no, I'd figure something out. I thought about extending our trip to Asia, but then had a feeling that everything would work out. 2 minutes later (literally) I got an email from E&Y saying "No." I knew that meant KPMG was going to be my offer.
I was at work hanging out with Megan when I looked at my phone for any missed calls with 503 area codes (Oregon). There weren't any, so I put it back in my pocket and my phone started ringing with a 503 number on it! I was so excited! The KPMG partner I met with on Thursday offered me an internship. I am so happy to know that we will be in Portland next summer. I will be working on the 37th floor of the Wells Fargo building (see my last post). The views are awesome and I'm glad to know that there will be other BYU guys there.
All in all, I learned that God is in charge. While I liked E&Y, I know He wants me at KPMG. I don't know exactly why yet, but I can tell people I like that KPMG has 10 more vacation days a year than the other firms. :) Isn't it great to know Someone else is looking out for me?
Friday, November 13, 2009
Portland
I was up in Portland this week for on-site interviews. I visited the offices of Ernst and Young, Moss Adams, and KPMG. All three have amazing offices that definitely beat the crappy Davenport Works Office I enjoyed for three months. Hmm, be on the top floor of the Wells Fargo building and enjoy the colors of the trees in Goose Hollow/West Hills and see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens out the other side of the building or exist on the ground floor of a windowless two story building that would only overlook the parking lot if it had one. Hmm? Let me know guys, which one should I pick?
I really want to know if I have a job next summer. It's kinda killing me to know, but I'll find out soon enough.
Hope everyone is excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to San Diego!
I really want to know if I have a job next summer. It's kinda killing me to know, but I'll find out soon enough.
Hope everyone is excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to San Diego!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
We Are the Champions!
Yeah! First place nationally in the Deloitte Tax Competition! I was so excited when I heard the news yesterday. I often feel like it isn't real. I am glad that everything worked out and we could return honor to the BYU Accounting Program. We were so happy to learn that BYU also got first place in the graduate division! Not too bad at all.
Let me give you a bit of an update on this whole competition. Back in April, my tax professor asked if I wanted to be on the undergraduate team with 3 other guys. I said yes. I studied during the summer, but always felt I should study more. This nagging feeling was in addition to the frustration I felt at work.
Upon returning to school, my group met most Saturday mornings for practice runs with the cases used in previous years' competitions. I hated getting up so early every single day. 8 AM classes Monday-Thursday, 8 AM practice on Saturday, and 8 AM church on Sunday. Geez! Whenever we practiced I felt that we had little chance of winning. Even the night before, a teammate asked, "How do you think we'll do?" I didn't think we'd win, that's for sure. However, the day of the competition changed my mind.
We showed up to the Deloitte office in the Wells Fargo Building and loved the view from Utah's tallest building (I lived in taller buildings in Taiwan, but that's another story). We ate breakfast and started the competition (5 hours). We worked hard and pushed each other and shifted work from overloaded people to others in the group, etc. In the end, I felt that we had never performed as well as we had that day. As my mission president would say, "We left it all on the field." The worst part was waiting 10 days for the results.
They came yesterday: BYU first place. $2,000 to each student, $10,000 to BYU for each time. That means when Choose to Give comes around, I can tell them I gave $2,500 to the School of Accountancy. Don't mind if I do!
I learned several things from this competition: first, wives are awesome. Megan never doubted me or nagged me to study. Encouragement and true love made this possible. Second, good things come out of bad/hard situations. All I heard at John Deere went something like this, "Oh, tax? I hate tax, I can't believe someone would want to do tax." Don't get me started on that. Just remember that I'll be riding elephants in Asia next summer and they'll be working on spreadsheets. Third, surround yourself with positive people and miracles happen!
Life is good, it's as simple as that!
Let me give you a bit of an update on this whole competition. Back in April, my tax professor asked if I wanted to be on the undergraduate team with 3 other guys. I said yes. I studied during the summer, but always felt I should study more. This nagging feeling was in addition to the frustration I felt at work.
Upon returning to school, my group met most Saturday mornings for practice runs with the cases used in previous years' competitions. I hated getting up so early every single day. 8 AM classes Monday-Thursday, 8 AM practice on Saturday, and 8 AM church on Sunday. Geez! Whenever we practiced I felt that we had little chance of winning. Even the night before, a teammate asked, "How do you think we'll do?" I didn't think we'd win, that's for sure. However, the day of the competition changed my mind.
We showed up to the Deloitte office in the Wells Fargo Building and loved the view from Utah's tallest building (I lived in taller buildings in Taiwan, but that's another story). We ate breakfast and started the competition (5 hours). We worked hard and pushed each other and shifted work from overloaded people to others in the group, etc. In the end, I felt that we had never performed as well as we had that day. As my mission president would say, "We left it all on the field." The worst part was waiting 10 days for the results.
They came yesterday: BYU first place. $2,000 to each student, $10,000 to BYU for each time. That means when Choose to Give comes around, I can tell them I gave $2,500 to the School of Accountancy. Don't mind if I do!
I learned several things from this competition: first, wives are awesome. Megan never doubted me or nagged me to study. Encouragement and true love made this possible. Second, good things come out of bad/hard situations. All I heard at John Deere went something like this, "Oh, tax? I hate tax, I can't believe someone would want to do tax." Don't get me started on that. Just remember that I'll be riding elephants in Asia next summer and they'll be working on spreadsheets. Third, surround yourself with positive people and miracles happen!
Life is good, it's as simple as that!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
It's Over!
Hey everyone! Life is great! Today was the Deloitte Tax Case Study Competition at the Salt Lake office of Deloitte. Megan and I got to stay at the Downtown Marriott and go swimming with a couple of our friends. We slept so well on the nice double bed (a double bed has to be smaller than a full bed). The room reminded me of the room we stay in when we visited Toronto. When I woke up this morning, I was reconsidering if I wanted to be a tax accountant. I mean, look at the name of the competition, it just reeks of nerdiness!
Back to the actual competition, we read the case and went to work. We started reviewing the questions and started dividing the work. I worked on a question related to the sale of a patent and how the purchaser would treat the purchase for tax purposes. I finished writing my answer when I read a tiny clause within the Internal Revenue Code (a former professor called them a santa clause) which totally overturned my answer. Oops. At least I didn't submit an incorrect answer.
One cool thing happened during the competition. I had a question to answer and had no idea what to do. I searched for "patent" for the question mentioned above. When the search results came up, Section 83 was among them. I don't think Section 83 has anything to do with patents (maybe another santa clause). I think it was God's way of helping me. I finished all my questions and things went way better than they ever did during our long, grueling practices as a team.
I am so thankful that it's all over. I learned that I was on this team back in April. I was often stressed out that I hadn't studied hard enough during the summer. It goes without saying that after a long, boring day at work, I didn't feel like studying more accounting. I also think it was God's way of teaching me to pass all four parts of the CPA exam before I start working full-time!
I'll find out in 10 days if we won. 24 hours ago, I didn't think we had much of a chance, but after we submitted our answer, I think it's possible! Not too bad. Whenever I do well in tax accounting (like today), I get really excited to start working. Speaking of working, I have an interview on Friday and will get to visit Portland! I am pretty excited, I'll let you know how everything ends up. Hope things are going well for you!
Back to the actual competition, we read the case and went to work. We started reviewing the questions and started dividing the work. I worked on a question related to the sale of a patent and how the purchaser would treat the purchase for tax purposes. I finished writing my answer when I read a tiny clause within the Internal Revenue Code (a former professor called them a santa clause) which totally overturned my answer. Oops. At least I didn't submit an incorrect answer.
One cool thing happened during the competition. I had a question to answer and had no idea what to do. I searched for "patent" for the question mentioned above. When the search results came up, Section 83 was among them. I don't think Section 83 has anything to do with patents (maybe another santa clause). I think it was God's way of helping me. I finished all my questions and things went way better than they ever did during our long, grueling practices as a team.
I am so thankful that it's all over. I learned that I was on this team back in April. I was often stressed out that I hadn't studied hard enough during the summer. It goes without saying that after a long, boring day at work, I didn't feel like studying more accounting. I also think it was God's way of teaching me to pass all four parts of the CPA exam before I start working full-time!
I'll find out in 10 days if we won. 24 hours ago, I didn't think we had much of a chance, but after we submitted our answer, I think it's possible! Not too bad. Whenever I do well in tax accounting (like today), I get really excited to start working. Speaking of working, I have an interview on Friday and will get to visit Portland! I am pretty excited, I'll let you know how everything ends up. Hope things are going well for you!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Back to Provo
Yes, I know it's been a long time. I'm not going to apologize, just expect that we'll blog once a month and no one will be let down. :)
Megan and I left Iowa on August 14, 2009 around 4 PM. It was good to be heading west again. We stayed at my grandma's house in Lincoln and this time Edward was a much better behaved dog. He was so funny when we showed up at her house. It was nighttime and so he started growling and barking at her. Hahaha, oh Edward, it's just Grandma!
We stopped in Denver and then made it to Salt Lake. It was good to see the mountains again. I'm definitely a Western U.S. sort of dude. We stopped in Boise at my buddy's parents house and we slept out in a tent in their backyard. They aren't dog people and Edward would probably die if we slept inside, so we brought a tent and slept with him. Dang dogs!
We drove the rest of the way to Anacortes, WA and loved it. People make fun of the eastern 2/3rds of Washington, but it's really pretty. Lots of vineyards and apple trees. Seattle traffic is nasty, but you get married so you can drive in the HOV lane on I-5 during rush hour, right?
Anacortes is a beautiful little town. We saw some really pretty places and I can't wait to go back!
Pictures anyone?
Deception Pass is so wonderful!
We also went to Seattle and visited Pike Street Market. Yes, it's touristy, but everyone should go. We saw a huge dog there:
Did I say big dog or freaking huge dog? I forgot.
We also visited the Oregon Coast which is beautiful, but cold and windy. Megan and I drove back from Lincoln City up to Tillamook (the cheese town) and then through Beaverton and Portland. So beautiful. I love Oregon. Then we drove back to Utah.
I forgot to mention that we had two oil changes in 12 days. We drove from Davenport, IA to Pittsburg, KS (where we got our oil changed) and back and then from Davenport to Anacortes, WA (another oil change). The dealership sent us a card saying "Isn't it time for your 60,000 mile service?" Hahaha. Nope! We had 70,000 miles on our car! I'm glad we'll end up in Portland. No more driving 3 hours every weekend to prevent insanity. I'm so happy to be back in Utah and back in the West.
Well, there's our update. Hope everyone is happy!
Megan and I left Iowa on August 14, 2009 around 4 PM. It was good to be heading west again. We stayed at my grandma's house in Lincoln and this time Edward was a much better behaved dog. He was so funny when we showed up at her house. It was nighttime and so he started growling and barking at her. Hahaha, oh Edward, it's just Grandma!
We stopped in Denver and then made it to Salt Lake. It was good to see the mountains again. I'm definitely a Western U.S. sort of dude. We stopped in Boise at my buddy's parents house and we slept out in a tent in their backyard. They aren't dog people and Edward would probably die if we slept inside, so we brought a tent and slept with him. Dang dogs!
We drove the rest of the way to Anacortes, WA and loved it. People make fun of the eastern 2/3rds of Washington, but it's really pretty. Lots of vineyards and apple trees. Seattle traffic is nasty, but you get married so you can drive in the HOV lane on I-5 during rush hour, right?
Anacortes is a beautiful little town. We saw some really pretty places and I can't wait to go back!
Pictures anyone?
Deception Pass is so wonderful!
We also went to Seattle and visited Pike Street Market. Yes, it's touristy, but everyone should go. We saw a huge dog there:
Did I say big dog or freaking huge dog? I forgot.
We also visited the Oregon Coast which is beautiful, but cold and windy. Megan and I drove back from Lincoln City up to Tillamook (the cheese town) and then through Beaverton and Portland. So beautiful. I love Oregon. Then we drove back to Utah.
I forgot to mention that we had two oil changes in 12 days. We drove from Davenport, IA to Pittsburg, KS (where we got our oil changed) and back and then from Davenport to Anacortes, WA (another oil change). The dealership sent us a card saying "Isn't it time for your 60,000 mile service?" Hahaha. Nope! We had 70,000 miles on our car! I'm glad we'll end up in Portland. No more driving 3 hours every weekend to prevent insanity. I'm so happy to be back in Utah and back in the West.
Well, there's our update. Hope everyone is happy!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Chi-Town!
Alright, so I promised that we'd talk about our Chicago trip and you also see that neither of us have gotten around to it...until now! :) Well, here it goes!
A little background for you, my dad grew up in Chicago Heights, IL. For those of you who don't know, it's a South Side suburb. Since I am living 3 hours away from Chicago, I thought it would be cool to go with him and see all the places important to his formative years (schools, churches, White Castles, etc). :)
So my dad flew in from Kansas City and went with Megan to the John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline. If you ever find yourself out here, take a tour of the Harvester Works! It's so cool to see how huge $300,000+ combines are made! So they loved seeing that.
Then I got off work and Megan and I drove my dad all around Davenport for a quick tour. Upon arriving home, we watched a little TV. My favorite part was my dad making some joke about the President and then turning on the TV and guess who was speaking? Haha.
So Saturday morning, we drop the dog off at the kennel and start driving to Chicago. My favorite part of that morning was stopping in Princeton, IL and getting breakfast at McDonalds (yes, the McDonalds that is separated from the Wal-Mart by a cornfield, that McDonalds). Megan was frustrated because they didn't have a menu before you actually got to the speaker and took a little longer to order than ordinary small-town folk. Then the Cokes we ordered had some Coke on the outside of the cup. Megan mentioned this to the lady working the drive-thru window and the lady responded, "Yeah, the cups are sweating a little, you know." Since when does sweat turn brown?
Anyway, we got to Chicago and headed straight for Chicago Heights. Dad took us to his high school, Bloom High, which is even older than my 102 year old Jordan High. We went into the gym and found out that Bryant Young of the 49ers came from his high school! Here's a picture.
We also went to the church and were able to get in because of people doing family history research. Dad told us about his first project after getting baptized when he 12. He went around and raised money for the flag pole in front of the church. That flag pole is still there. Also still there? Some furry, padded chairs and golden plate room dividers, here are more pictures.
We at lunch at White Castle with its famous sliders. They were pretty good. They were 48.8 cents each if you bought 10. I'd pay 48.8 cents for each one, but I think 61 cents (the normal price) is a bit high. I enjoyed them and their fries were good. I think my favorite part was the older lady behind the counter with the thick Chicago accent. I heard my dad's accent come back while at White Castle (never heard it before!)
We saw the houses that Dad lived in and he lost all street cred from living on the South Side. He lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, but I'd rather he be from a nice neighborhood than what we experienced driving from Chicago Heights toward Midway Airport. If you ever find yourself in Chicago, I'd recommend never going to or through Phoenix, IL (just a little north). What I learned is that you can tell who owns the houses in a certain neighborhood by the grass. Yellow, dead grass? Government housing! Yellow/Green grass with a few weeds? Rental Properties. Green grass that's been mowed within the past 10 days? Owner occupied.
We drove past a Costco and had to stop! Dang Quad Cities doesn't have a 7-11 or a Costco, so we enjoyed going to Chicago. We were lucky enough to find this Costco because it sells the Ice Cream bars dipped in chocolate and almonds. Megan loves them. The Costcos in Mililani, HI and Chicago, IL sell these wonderful bars. Here's a good representation of how happy Megan was:
We checked into the hotel and took the shuttle to the MTS (train/subway) station. We rode it downtown and walked to the townhouse of my dad's classmate. Her daughter was selling snowcones for a fundraiser. Megan and I really enjoy urban living, but it was totally foreign to my dad. He lives in a town of 16,000 and is surrounded by fields.
Another of dad's classmate talked about Chicago's desire to host the 2016 Olympics. Being from a city, I don't want a corrupt city like Chicago getting such a special privilege. However, my city originated the whole corruption for Olympics scheme, so I couldn't say anything. :)
For the rest of this trip, my planning was inspired by the music video and lyrics of Kanye West's "Homecoming." Watch it if you've never heard it before. I love it. So we went downtown and saw the big bean in Millennium Park along with a billion other people! We went the road the train to Chinatown and walked around. It's not very big, but it smells/looks like Taiwan. I enjoyed the clumps of what used to be cardboard boxes that had gotten rained on and decomposed.
While this Chinatown feels authentic, it seems like everyone there speak English and has lived in the US for at least 2 generations. No one cared that I spoke Chinese (I probably speak it better than some of the kids there!), but it's the best Chinatown in the US that I've been to.
Next, we rode the train back downtown and started walking to Navy Pier. We walked a while and I wondered why we hadn't hit the lake yet. As I crossed the bridge over the Chicago River, I figured out that we were heading south and not east!!! Dang I felt dumb. Fortunately, as we turned around I saw a bus with the words "To Navy Pier" on it. Haha, not so bad. We hopped on and gave our feet a rest.
Once we got to Navy Pier, I was so proud that I hadn't ruined the surprise for Megan--fireworks. Navy Pier has fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday during the summer. I was hoping that we'd be standing around and they'd start and Megan would be totally surprised, but this dude selling tickets for a yacht yelled, "Fireworks Cruise! Last cruise of the night!" Oh well, Megan was still happy and we enjoyed the fireworks. One word to future visitors of Navy Pier: go to the end of the pier to get a better view. We enjoyed them, but getting closer is better!
A couple pictures:
All in all, I really enjoyed Chicago. This was one of my favorite vacations and could see us living in Chicago someday (not right out of school, but if the opportunity presented itself). Too bad Illinois is corrupt and has high taxes (12.5% sales tax on prepared food!) and all that, but I think its a great town with a lot of soul.
Well, that's it. A long post. I have some great news for a future post plus details of yet another trip we just took, but all that will have to wait.
Thanks for reading!
A little background for you, my dad grew up in Chicago Heights, IL. For those of you who don't know, it's a South Side suburb. Since I am living 3 hours away from Chicago, I thought it would be cool to go with him and see all the places important to his formative years (schools, churches, White Castles, etc). :)
So my dad flew in from Kansas City and went with Megan to the John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline. If you ever find yourself out here, take a tour of the Harvester Works! It's so cool to see how huge $300,000+ combines are made! So they loved seeing that.
Then I got off work and Megan and I drove my dad all around Davenport for a quick tour. Upon arriving home, we watched a little TV. My favorite part was my dad making some joke about the President and then turning on the TV and guess who was speaking? Haha.
So Saturday morning, we drop the dog off at the kennel and start driving to Chicago. My favorite part of that morning was stopping in Princeton, IL and getting breakfast at McDonalds (yes, the McDonalds that is separated from the Wal-Mart by a cornfield, that McDonalds). Megan was frustrated because they didn't have a menu before you actually got to the speaker and took a little longer to order than ordinary small-town folk. Then the Cokes we ordered had some Coke on the outside of the cup. Megan mentioned this to the lady working the drive-thru window and the lady responded, "Yeah, the cups are sweating a little, you know." Since when does sweat turn brown?
Anyway, we got to Chicago and headed straight for Chicago Heights. Dad took us to his high school, Bloom High, which is even older than my 102 year old Jordan High. We went into the gym and found out that Bryant Young of the 49ers came from his high school! Here's a picture.
We also went to the church and were able to get in because of people doing family history research. Dad told us about his first project after getting baptized when he 12. He went around and raised money for the flag pole in front of the church. That flag pole is still there. Also still there? Some furry, padded chairs and golden plate room dividers, here are more pictures.
We at lunch at White Castle with its famous sliders. They were pretty good. They were 48.8 cents each if you bought 10. I'd pay 48.8 cents for each one, but I think 61 cents (the normal price) is a bit high. I enjoyed them and their fries were good. I think my favorite part was the older lady behind the counter with the thick Chicago accent. I heard my dad's accent come back while at White Castle (never heard it before!)
We saw the houses that Dad lived in and he lost all street cred from living on the South Side. He lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, but I'd rather he be from a nice neighborhood than what we experienced driving from Chicago Heights toward Midway Airport. If you ever find yourself in Chicago, I'd recommend never going to or through Phoenix, IL (just a little north). What I learned is that you can tell who owns the houses in a certain neighborhood by the grass. Yellow, dead grass? Government housing! Yellow/Green grass with a few weeds? Rental Properties. Green grass that's been mowed within the past 10 days? Owner occupied.
We drove past a Costco and had to stop! Dang Quad Cities doesn't have a 7-11 or a Costco, so we enjoyed going to Chicago. We were lucky enough to find this Costco because it sells the Ice Cream bars dipped in chocolate and almonds. Megan loves them. The Costcos in Mililani, HI and Chicago, IL sell these wonderful bars. Here's a good representation of how happy Megan was:
We checked into the hotel and took the shuttle to the MTS (train/subway) station. We rode it downtown and walked to the townhouse of my dad's classmate. Her daughter was selling snowcones for a fundraiser. Megan and I really enjoy urban living, but it was totally foreign to my dad. He lives in a town of 16,000 and is surrounded by fields.
Another of dad's classmate talked about Chicago's desire to host the 2016 Olympics. Being from a city, I don't want a corrupt city like Chicago getting such a special privilege. However, my city originated the whole corruption for Olympics scheme, so I couldn't say anything. :)
For the rest of this trip, my planning was inspired by the music video and lyrics of Kanye West's "Homecoming." Watch it if you've never heard it before. I love it. So we went downtown and saw the big bean in Millennium Park along with a billion other people! We went the road the train to Chinatown and walked around. It's not very big, but it smells/looks like Taiwan. I enjoyed the clumps of what used to be cardboard boxes that had gotten rained on and decomposed.
While this Chinatown feels authentic, it seems like everyone there speak English and has lived in the US for at least 2 generations. No one cared that I spoke Chinese (I probably speak it better than some of the kids there!), but it's the best Chinatown in the US that I've been to.
Next, we rode the train back downtown and started walking to Navy Pier. We walked a while and I wondered why we hadn't hit the lake yet. As I crossed the bridge over the Chicago River, I figured out that we were heading south and not east!!! Dang I felt dumb. Fortunately, as we turned around I saw a bus with the words "To Navy Pier" on it. Haha, not so bad. We hopped on and gave our feet a rest.
Once we got to Navy Pier, I was so proud that I hadn't ruined the surprise for Megan--fireworks. Navy Pier has fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday during the summer. I was hoping that we'd be standing around and they'd start and Megan would be totally surprised, but this dude selling tickets for a yacht yelled, "Fireworks Cruise! Last cruise of the night!" Oh well, Megan was still happy and we enjoyed the fireworks. One word to future visitors of Navy Pier: go to the end of the pier to get a better view. We enjoyed them, but getting closer is better!
A couple pictures:
All in all, I really enjoyed Chicago. This was one of my favorite vacations and could see us living in Chicago someday (not right out of school, but if the opportunity presented itself). Too bad Illinois is corrupt and has high taxes (12.5% sales tax on prepared food!) and all that, but I think its a great town with a lot of soul.
Well, that's it. A long post. I have some great news for a future post plus details of yet another trip we just took, but all that will have to wait.
Thanks for reading!
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