Spring Break Trip - Day 5

[breakfast at the hotel around 0830 - slow packing and frustrated kids (due to uncertain schedule for meeting up with their friend at Purdue - we finally departed at 1020 - after driving around the campus again, we finally found a parking lot - we walked around near the Student Union and asked for maps and directions there - eventually, we located the Admissions Office - after a brief wait, the Twins got to talk to a counselor - Mollie and I waited for them outside and I looked into tours of Marquette Campus (the next planned visit) - like Purdue, there were no available tours this week, though... - when the kids were done, we walked a short distance to wait for their friend, Connor, at the clock tower - when he arrived, Connor took us on a tour of the campus - he really knew a lot about the place (it is his first year) and the Twins asked him a million questions - Mollie and I tagged along, saying almost nothing - after about an hour of walking, we ate lunch at Pappy's Sweet Shop at the Union Commons (1300) - the food was great and the shakes were the highlight - we said goodbye to Connor and walked back to our car - left West Lafayette around 1330 - drove out of town on I-65 (north) - staying off toll roads, we switched to I-94 and continued west - got gas at TA near Gary (IN) at 1445 - traffic wasn't too bad, but it got worse quickly as we approached Chicago - the kids got a great look at the skyline of the Windy City (amazing weather provided amazing views) - stayed on US-41 after I-94 turned to toll roads and made pretty good time to the WI/IL border (just lights and traffic kept us from getting through quickly) - back on I-94 after reaching Wisconsin, drove into Milwaukee - Brenna guided us to a stop at the Marquette Campus (1700, with the time change) - we parked on the east side of the interstate before realizing the campus was on the west side - found a dorm building and some students directed us towards the main buildings - we had a nice walk around the rather urban campus - still, the school had everything and some areas of calm and green inside the asphault jungle... - we finished exploring at the Union around 1830 - drove south again after taking the scenic route to the Lake (and using I-794 and WI-32) - drove east on Drexel Avenue and then got on WI-38 - ate dinner at Sonic in Oak Creek (WI) at 1855 - it was a fun evening after that: Brenna's GPS kept telling me to turn east to I-94 but I just continued south on various county roads (with letter-names) - the midwest roads didn't let me down and we eventually reached IL-131, which we followed until reaching Waukegan - we stayed the night at Ramada (2030) - it was a bit rainy by that point and we were all exhausted from our road rally to visit two campuses - read and watched some TV before going to bed...]