I serve on the board of the Evangelical Press Association, and we had our semi-annual meeting on Saturday in Chicago. I figured I would fly in for meetings, see the inside of a hotel room, and fly home. But it turned out way better than that.

The weekend started with a three-hour flight delay Friday afternoon getting out of Dallas, thanks to congestion in the windy city (so named for gossip, not literal wind). Our pilot likened trying to control traffic in Chicago to trying to fit an eight-pound bowling ball into a four-pound bag. I arrived at my hotel at three minutes ’til six. But hey, we weren’t supposed to meet for dinner until six, so I even had three minutes to spare.

Afterward I turned in around 10:30 and my girlfrien' Kelley (geaux2girl) arrived about an hour later. She had made it into town flying stand-by for a visit with her friend/mentor, Sonya, who moved there four years ago. All the flight delays made it look iffy, but I told Kelley I’d share my room, and she said she wanted me to meet her friend. I can tell you for sure that I ended up getting the better end of that deal.

When my meetings finished at four on Saturday, I called Kelley to see what she was up to. Sonya, transplanted to Bulls country from Baton Rouge, was taking her to the Navy Pier. They invited me to join them, so we bundled up and headed downtown. Sonya dropped us off and went to find a place to park (no easy task), so Kelley and I would have more time to explore the pier. We made our way past Tiffany glass museum pieces to a place where we could stand outside under clouds turning pink and watch the transformation of skyscrapers from long, dark plates of glass to panels of twinkling lights. Sonya joined us there and together we all made the trek back, winding through the pier’s mall and stopping to pick up gifts for the kiddos.

We returned to get the car, which cost $22 for an hour of parking, and I experienced my first-ever traffic jam in a garage, complete with officers directing traffic. What an adventure!

We swung by to pick up Sonya’s husband, Matt, and they treated us to a grand dinner at their favorite restaurant in Little Italy, La Vita. It's this Italian place with intimate lighting and purple velvet-draped French windows where we found neighborhood charm, old-world warmth, and modern European ambiance.

Matt, the consummate host, suggested that we start off eating grilled sea scallops with asparagus and gorgonzola cheese topped with thin onion rings. Then Kelley and I split a salad with more gorgonzola, green apple slices, and toasted almonds. I probably could have stopped there, but I still had room for a bowl of capellini con scampi (angel hair pasta in olive oil and garlic with tiger shrimp), and a bite of the chocolate dessert we all split.

If you were to ask my favorite way to pass a night in an unfamiliar city, I’d say “to share a meal at a favorite restaurant of someone who lives there and loves the place.” And there we were. Now, as if that hadn’t been enough, we'd seen the city reflected in the water on a crisp, beautiful night, and entered into the kind of fellowship old friends share. Talk about showing hospitality to a stranger.

Dante structured his Inferno and Purgatorio as a journey through the seven vices. What interests me about the vices is that to Dante the opposite of both avarice and gluttony—two of the biggies—is generosity. Sonya and Matt treated a stranger like family. Kelley shared her limited time with good friends. And I didn’t deserve any of it, but I came away feeling like I’d tasted a little bit of paradiso.

Photos by Kelley Mathews