Beautiful View From Rooftop
My walk began on a warm Wednesday night on September 29th at around 7:00 PM. I started my walk alone outside my dorm, seton hall. I was meeting up with some friends of mine at Ozanam hall. I walked across Fullerton and Sheffield headed west away from the whole foods. The Whole Foods sign had a very bright vivid green, it lit up the sidewalk. On my way to Ozanam hall I saw a photoshoot happening in the front entrance of the quad. They were taking photos of this boy in a graduation gown, so I assumed they were taking graduation pictures. It looked very professional, there two ring lights, a cameraman, and what looked like two friends of the boy graduating. After about 4 minutes, I made it to Ozanam hall where I met up with my friends.
We decided to go to the top of the parking garage just to the left of Ozanam. Being a good Samaritan, I wanted to take the stairs instead of the elevator; I am in a walking class after all. As my friends and I met at the top of the parking garage, we were star struck by the beautiful view of the city skyline. Seeing Chicago at night on a rooftop hit me differently, seeing all those lights gleaming in the distance felt so welcoming. I will never get sick of looking out at the city skyline. Chicago is such a beautiful city we take for granted. My friends and I laid down on the pavement, looking up at the stars, listening to music. There was something really peaceful about being up on top of an empty parking garage above everything.
After hanging out on top of the parking garage we were all hungry, so we decided to walk around Lincoln Park to find some place to eat. We headed east down Fullerton past the station because that is where all the restaurants are. Once we arrived at the intersection, we turned right onto N Lincoln Ave. We stopped at an Italian pizza place called “La Crosta”. As I walked through the door, I noticed there was a DePaul flag hanging on the counter, so I asked if DePaul students got a discount; they did, 15% off. I ordered a small meatball pizza, but it wasn’t small at all. I managed to only eat half of it so I needed a box for leftovers. Overall, the pizza was delicious. It was little crunchier than it was supposed to be and the dough was kind of stretchy, but the meatballs were tasty and the cheese was melted enough to completely form a liquid with the tomato sauce at the time of serving.
After being incredibly stuffed from eating half a pizza by myself, we still walked to a place called “Insomnia cookies” for dessert. It was located about 5 minutes down N Lincoln Ave past La Crosta. My stomach was telling me to stop eating but at the time, I was craving something sweet. I ended up ordering one chocolate chunk cookie. Despite being full from the pizza, the cookie was still amazing. It was soft and chewy, almost bread like. Chucks rather than chips, like taking a hammer to a chocolate bar, and it was fresh from the oven. I like softer cookies that you can bend a little and have a smooth texture. Something about it tasted so good.
As my stomach was aching, we started to walk back to campus with no plans on what we wanted to do. The night was young. It was about 8:45 PM. We mindlessly wondered the city, there were still people and cars out on the streets but there were not as many as in the daytime. There were certainly more lively areas at night, but the streets in Lincoln Park seemed almost deserted. My friends and I were very energetic, we were not ready to call it a night yet, so we decided to go mess around at Jonquil Park. We walked down to the whole foods and took a right, heading north onto Sheffield. The Park was very dark, the lights would flicker on and off. The ambiance was eerily silent and dark. The streetlights were our only source of light. We sat underneath the monkey bars, staring into an empty swing set. We were silent most of the time, saying few words here and there. I was thinking about getting my homework done because it was getting late and I had an early class in the morning. We slowly shuffled our way to the swings where we sat and talked for a little while. We talked about going to see a movie the next day and going for a bike ride. After about 30 minutes of talking and swinging, we decided to head back to the quad. We headed west on Wrightwood Ave then went south down Seminary Ave.
On our way back I noticed an aesthetically pleasing doorway. For whatever reason I felt very at home looking through the door. Through the doorway, there were stairs on the right and a plant just to the left of it. I cannot explain why I found it so appealing, it was very welcoming.
As the night went on, my friends and I headed into the quad. It was around 10:00 PM and the quad was empty, like a ghost town. It was unsettling seeing nobody outside except us. We all crammed ourselves onto a table across from the library. A friend of mine, Asher, was carrying around a deck of Uno cards so we played a couple of games. It was unimaginably fun, we ended up playing for over an hour. Unfortunately, I never won.
Using the iNaturalist app, I learned that there was a Monarch, Danaus plexippus, butterfly on July 9th, 2021 right where we were sitting, playing Uno. I learned that they’re very common in the Midwest. After the Uno game, it was getting late, I was feeling tired, and I still needed to get some homework done, so I said goodbye to everyone and started my final walk back to seton hall. In total, the walk took about 4 hours because we goofed around, talked, and ate a lot. I enjoyed spending time with my friends and discovering more about the city. I had an incredibly fun night.
