For my last spring break in college I road tripped with some of my best friends. Starting from our home in Fort Collins we drove to Kansas City, stopping just for the night, then to Chicago and Nashville, driving back through Kansas City for a pitstop. We left on Saturday March 16th and got to Chicago on Sunday which happened to be St. Patrick’s Day. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the river being dyed green and me and Sarah were feeling sick so we didn’t get to go out to bars either but the first night we still walked around the city a bit and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (such a bold restaurant choice I know). Me and Sarah stayed in for the night while Casey and Jordyn went out to some bars with Casey’s friends who live in Chicago.
The next day we slept in a bit, I was still feeling a bit sick while Jo was sick from the alcohol, then we wandered toward the river and found a good breakfast restaurant. I got some amazing pancakes, after eating we walked around the city for a few hours, looking in shops and exploring the Tower Mall. We eventually got tired and went back to the hotel, we watched a movie, ate some snacks and relaxed a bit before heading to Rock Bottom (a restaurant) to get some happy hour drinks and apps. We stayed at Rock Bottom for longer than we intended and I was still feeling kinda bad. At this point I was aware the atmosphere of drinking and interacting with waiters and being in a new city was making me stressed and in turn kinda sick. I didn’t do the best job of managing my stress in Chicago, I was anxious about being in a big city and my friends were enjoying themselves drinking and having fun while I was anxious about drinking and getting out of control or something going wrong. I didn’t drink as much as them, I didn’t want to and it made me feel more isolated and out of place. I thought my friends were pressuring me to drink as I tried to pull away from the activities but after the first night in Nashville and talking to my parents I was able to see the situation better. I was able to drink at my own pace (which I could have done all along) because I told my friends how I was feeling and they didn’t insist on me buying another drink when they did. I still participated in the games and conversations I just stayed a few beers behind.
The second day in Chicago we walked around the park, visited the bean and Navy Pier and went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum was a bit odd but interesting regardless, the main exhibit was a project involving dolls and dollhouses, puppets and ventriloquist dolls all in odd places or situations. We went out to a nice restaurant for dinner that night and got amazing Italian food. We hung out in the hotel that night, playing games and drinking.
The next morning we got up fairly earlier and drove to Nashville. We stopped in Indianapolis to have lunch at a fried chicken place with Sarah’s cousin and got into Nashville around 5pm. We wandered the main strip, Broadway, checking out the bars and some stores but ultimately spent another night drinking in the hotel. I spoke to my parents this night and went for a run in the hotels exercise room while my friends hung out and started drinking.
Our one and only full day in Nashville started around 9am with breakfast and for everyone but me an alcoholic beverage, everyone drank/pregamed for our bar day in the hotel while I napped. Around 11 we headed out to the bars, we got one drink at a few different bars before finding a bar be liked and staying there for a few hours. We ordered food and listened to live music until about 7 when we headed back to the hotel. We had a final drink while watching some firefighters respond to calls about smoke in the building across the street. We watched the entire scene and I can’t tell you what they found, we saw people walking inside and men in gear but no one ever seemed concerned and no fire hoses were ever used. It was a bit of excitement to end our night.
We got up pretty early the next day, got breakfast and packed up the room. We started the drive back to Kansas City and even with minimal stops we didn’t get to the hotel until about 7. We stayed up drinking and playing games until about 1am of course so early the next day we were all tired in the car but it was an easy drive back to Colorado.
I had a great spring break and another amazing road trip with some of my favorite people.
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