Brea Jones

My dad, Calvin, arrived Wednesday, and we’ve spent a lot of today packing and cleaning. We stopped by the Indy Speedway, home of the Indy 500 and took a short tour. I also showed him SPJ’s headquarters where I spent my summer. Tonight we’re headed to Howl at the Moon, a piano bar in Indy, and maybe a stop at the Slippery Noodle, Indy’s oldest bar.

We’ve roughly sketched our trip. The first few days include visits to the site of the Kentucky Derby, Nashville, Memphis and family in Louisiana. Then a we’ll take a trip across Texas to get to Carlsbad Caverns. After that, we plan to go to the Grand Canyon and several other stops in that area before getting to California.

Wish us safe travels and keep reading to follow our trip to Stockton, Calif.

Estimated date of arrival: Sept. 10.

Chicago has a wonderful sense of place. It is cleaner than any city I have ever been to, praised by its residents and its archetecture is interesting at worst, breathtaking at best. I figured this out in a short time – the fewer than six hours I spent outside in the past week.

I was in Chicago for the Society of Professional Journalists Convention and National Journalism Conference from Aug. 22 until Monday. As one of the Society’s interns, I worked hard to help put on the convention. But it was worth it. I had a chance to meet movers and shakers in journalism. I learned a lot about the Web, which will help me in my next job.

After the convention on Sunday, the staff had a few hours to take in the city. I was the only first timer, so many people rested. But I walked to the Sears Tower (1.3 miles from the hotel) and saw a tiny fraction of its archetecture and people.

Later Sunday afternoon, several of us took a boat tour of the city and part of Lake Michigan.
Pictured: Erica, Julie, Brea, Linda and Heather

Speedway

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