A Very Creative Date

Ok, for the non-Cru people (aka non-Campus Crusade folk (aka anyone over 23 who's not on Crusade Staff)), Creatives Dates are when a group of guys - in this case, our guys' Action Group - takes out a group of girls - our partner girls' Action Group - on a group date to show them how much we appreciate them and to let them have a good time. It's also a way for us to get to know our sisters in Christ better and become closer as a project. Being such outstanding gentlemen as we are - and partially because we were late in hatching our plan - we shot for the moon. This is what we did.

First off, we headed to Little Italy, which is just south of our apartments, for appetizers. Along the way, each gentlemen - excluding the navigator, because we have more guys than girls - paired up with a girl to chat and ask questions and get to know each other. We each had a silly question that we had to ask the girl we were with and then, when we reached our destination, we shared their answer with the rest of the group. It was definitely fun getting to talk to all the girls in our group and learn little tidbits about each of them.

For appetizers, we went to Chez Joel, a French restaurant for some reason situated in Little Italy. My good friend Joel Bosque actually picked out the restaurant, which I think is entirely appropriate because it's named after him. At the restaurant, we had a very intriguing salad consisting of greens wrapped in a cabbage leaf. It was covered in a vinaigrette and garnished with dates and what appeared to be a petal of a flower. The salad was pretty good, but I made the mistake of trying to eat the flower thing. It ended up being super bitter and nasty. I had to drink a lot of water to get rid of that taste.

The Salad of Mysterious Green Plants

(From Left to Right) Kristen Jolly, Josh Silliman, and Ben Jenkins

Joel Bosque (who almost always looks at the camera) and Sarah Cline (who makes weird faces)

After appetizers, we traveled to Millennium Park in downtown for a picnic dinner. We spread out on a grassy area near Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest fountains in the world, and ate a dinner of sandwiches, chips, vegetables, and pickles, with drinks of course. The coolest thing about dinner was that right when we got to the park, music started playing over the loudspeakers around the fountain, so we were treated to a nice background of classical and patriotic music while we enjoyed each others company.

Kristen, Allie Black (idk what that face is), and Shayla Mays enjoying the picnic

Adam and Sarah in deep conversation, while Kristen looks on

Ben doesn't know what's up

Caleb Eno being picturesque and Alyssa Sander

Josh Silliman intensely looks up directions on the iPhone

Our next stop was Greek Town for dessert. We went to a nice little bakery and cafe called Artopolis and had a fantastic cake, picked out by Josh Silliman, a fellow Buckeye. It was Chocolate Raspberry Truffle and was so incredibly rich and so, so good. The pieces they gave us were huge, but I made it a goal to eat my entire piece, mostly because it was so enjoyable but also because I wanted to man up and finish all my food. I think the sugar made us all crazy because all the people at my table started laughing at everything, and we had a mini-dance party at one point. I think this was probably my favorite part of the date.

We sat in the balcony at Artopolis

The amazing Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake that we had for dessert

Proof that we were in fact at Artopolis

"The other table", not as cool as our table

For the finale, we headed to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks, or at least part of them. We got a little bit behind, so we arrived at the finale. We decided to chill there anyways and sat at a large table and chatted as a group about sundry things. Everyone agreed that it was a very awesome and fun time. I would say that tonight was the absolute best night I've had on project so far. I doubt anything will top it.

I want to thank Allie Black, Shayla Mays, Kristen Jolly, Sarah Cline, Alyssa Sander, Adam Reneker, Josh Silliman, Dan Seguin, Joel Bosque, Caleb Eno, and Ben Jenkins for such an amazing evening. You guys and gals are the best!