St. Louis - Chicago - Ann Arbor, MI

Thursday:
Started our trip around 9 am. We planned to reach Chicago that night, and we figured that it would take about 10 hours to get there. We drove to PA for 17 hours before, so this trip should be okay. But the heavy rain all day all the way to Chicago just killed my mood :S
I had a headache after an hour driving in heavy rain. I guess I'm not used to drive with a blurry view and hearing the car's wipers constantly. We also saw a few horrible accidents along the way, and I kept praying that we would get there safely.


We stopped at St Louis for lunch at Fu Lin House & solat at a nearby masjid.

Amin and his food choice: Schezuan Beef with fried rice.

My choice: Orange chicken with white rice.

Darul Islam Masjid at St Louis, MO.

We left St Louis around 3pm, heading to Chicago. Long 5 hours drive in the rain (& scary too). When we reached Chicago, we went to a Halal KFC restaurant for dinner. We found out that there are three Halal KFC, one at north of Chicago, and two at west of Chicago. But not all the menu are halal, just the chicken. The funny part was that we were so excited we ordered a family meal: one big bucket that had 6 pieces of crispy chicken, one big container of wedges and three biscuits. We only ate some, and the rest packed up to go ;)


Friday:
That day felt like a marathon. We went to Chicago Factory Outlet which was 20 minutes from our hotel. Later that day, we were going to drive 5 hours to Ann Arbor. The outlet opened at 10 am, but we got there around 11am. So we only got like 4 hours to do some serious shopping. Hmm.. with a big outdoor outlet like this, we only had time to find some winter clothes for Amin. I guess I'll do it next time (black Friday shopping maybe?)..

I even forgot to take photos at the factory outlet hmmm... it was a really nice place to go shopping. But the tax was very high, 8.25% !@#!

We left Chicago before 4pm, just before the rush hour started. And it was still raining hmm...
We arrived at our hotel in Ann Arbor at 9.30pm, checked in, then off to get dinner.

We went to a nearby town called Dearborn. They have a huge Muslims community there, I think the biggest in the US. And that is also why their McD is partially halal.

Amin ordered Mc Chicken (very small compared to the one in Malaysia).

While I ordered Honey Mustard Chicken wrap & Ranch Chicken wrap & Chicken nuggets.
I was soo full at the end of the day..

Saturday: GAME DAY!! Horrayy... We met with the other Penn State Alumni during breakfast. They are mostly older couples who have grand kids! My guess is that we are the youngest among them all.

To be honest, I was quite nervous for today's game. Last night, we heard the critics on the ESPN channel said that 'it's going to be an upset alert PSU vs UMich'. The fact that we played at their home stadium and they scored 60+ points last weekend meant a possible loss for us. Hmm...

We carpooled with the other Alumni from the hotel to a golf course near the stadium for tailgating.

Amin snapped a photo while the others were trying to set up our tent.

Proud to be Penn State Alumni :)

Scene from our tailgating site.

At our Alumni tent.

Funny Amin and the football player balloons :)

Munchy munchy before the game.

In front of the Big House Stadium..

Scene after the National Anthem.

So who won? Will post more photos later :) Stay tuned...