Fall Break – Chicago Highlights

As a second year, life is a lot easier when it comes to fall break. First years go on career treks to visit companies, which, isn’t really a break if you think about the early mornings, presentations you have to sit through, and the happy hours after a long day. It was exhausting (but valuable)! Second years, we have 10+ days of break just to relax, given that you’re done with re-recruiting. I was fortunate enough to spend my fall break in Chicago, San Diego, and Los Angeles visiting friends and relaxing.

As my first time visiting Chicago, I had a great experience! Our fellow classmate, Chris, born and raised in Chi-Town, showed us around the city. On the night that we arrived, we went to Cindy’s, a fancy rooftop bar where we took the same elevator as Graham Elliot, Three Dots and a Dash, a tiki bar where their shots look way to extra, and we ended the night at Chi-Town Cafe, a 24-hr Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

Chicago night view @ Cindy’s                          Three Dots & a Dash’s fancy shots + Chris

The next day, we went to the famous Wildberry Pancakes and Cafe. It has 4.5 stars and 7000+ reviews on Yelp! We had to wait more than an hour to get seated. Luckily the famous Millennium Park and the Bean was nearby so we went and took mandatory tourist pictures as shown below (both my classmates were wearing suits because they were chaperoning parts of first year’s Chicago Consulting Trek). Despite the long way, the food there was excellent and lived up to its hype! Check out my Yelp review here (shameless plug).

After breakfast, I suggested that we go to the Lululemon flagship store. I’ve read about the Chicago one online, saying that it is a one-stop-shop with not only the apparel store, but also studios and a cafe. It is a trend in the retail industry that these brick & mortar stores are there to create an “experience” for consumers since more and more people shop online. It was not disappointing but also not as impressive as I thought it would be. I think the articles I read about it hyped it up a little too much. Nevertheless, it was a really cool place. We got smoothies and coffee at the cafe and just chilled there for a bit before we head to our next stop, John Hancock Center Building. We went up to the 95th floor to the Signature Room for happy hour and to enjoy the skyline of Chicago.

It was a great Chicago experience overall. It was even more so because I went with my Tepper fellow classmates. The rest of my trip in California was just me retreating to my old habitat and getting some sun and relaxing in before coming back to Pittsburgh. I feel recharged and ready for this mini!