Well, there wasn't any actual rain, sleet, snow, or any other storm requirement that took place yesterday, but we did head out to Chicago for an interview at Chicago Public Radio affiliate 89.5FM Vocalo.org. If you didn't get to listen live, you can find an archive here. We don't come in till about 2 and a half hours in, so fast forward a bit haha.
It was a pretty amazing day, which really made me just sit back and reflect on how unbelievable to CollegeKidApp.com experience has been for us all summer long. Really, my entire work day consisted of driving to Chicago with some friends, walking around the city, taking an hour or so to get interviewed by a Chicago radio station, and then grabbing some pizza near Millenium Park (which ended up being free! more on that later). It was a pretty amazing afternoon and one that will really be a highlight of my summer.
The day started off with a quick stop at Wendy's. Our friends Aviral and Jason headed out to Chicago with us, which made the day a lot more fun. It was just kinda nuts to think that a work day could consist of essentially hanging out with friends on a mini roadtrip.
After the 45 minute drive or so to downtown Chicago, we arrived and parked at Navy Pier. If you've never been there, it's pretty much a big mall with rides and tours. It was an amazing day outside, which made the whole "walking around with huge groups of people everywhere" thing a bit better. Once we arrived, we had about 2 hours till our interview, so we decided to head down toward Michigan Avenue.
We would have been horrible Apple developers if we didn't make a quick bit stop at the downtown Chicago Apple Store. We fiddling around with the new 13' Macbook Pros, listened to sweet tunes on some iPods, and really wondered why Battery Go! isn't a demo app on every iPhone in the store (it really should be!). The huge Apple nerd in me finds this to pretty much be the greatest store in the world, so time spent here was a definite treat.
After hitting up Michigan Avenue, Mike and I made our way back to Navy Pier to hit up Chicago Public Radio's office for our interview. As you can see above, we really can't ever get Mike off an iPhone, even when he's taking a day away from programming. The interview went on at about 3:30pm and we had a great time meeting with the people at the station. If you didn't hear interview live, definitely consider listening to the podcast here (about 2 and a half hours in). Here's a picture of Mike in the studio.
We left Navy Pier and heading to Millenium Park to check out the big metal Bean there. While we were walking around, I saw one of those sweet 3D chalkings! It's the first time I've ever seen one in person.
After seeing the Bean and stuff, we went back downtown for some dinner at a local pizza place called Pizano's for some deep dish Chicago style pizza. It was pretty good and got even more amazing after we found out it would be free. We got a large cheese pizza and finished all but two pieces, so our server asked if we wanted it boxed up to take home. We were fine with that, since we're college students and definitely could turn that into another meal. Anyways, apparently somebody dropped our leftover two slices in the boxing process, so the restaurant decided to give us the entire pizza for free. It was unbelievable and absolutely amazing.So to recap; we went to Chicago, saw the Apple Store, got interviewed, ate free pizza, and had a lot of fun. I love CollegeKidApp.com.