I am always up for a quick road trip. When my nephew said he was going to Ball State University to check it out for his Master’s degree program, I immediately included myself in the trip. (Maybe I should have waited until I was asked?)

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Located in Muncie, Ind., the Ball State campus is aesthetically pleasing and unique. Most of the buildings on campus are made of red brick, and no two buildings have the same façade.

While on campus, we visited the Marilyn K. Glick Center for Glass. The 9,000-plus- square-foot facility has large lobby windows to view glass artists at work.

We had lunch at Scotty’s Brewhouse, a small Indiana franchise. I enjoyed their homemade chicken and wild rice soup, followed by a chipotle bean burger on a pretzel bun.  We tried various versions of Thr3e Wise men brews. This seemed to be a cool campus hangout.

For dinner, we loved Vera Mae’s, noted for upscale fusion cuisine. I devoured goat cheese and mango bruschetta followed by the Chicken Brie Raspberry.  Everyone left very full and happy.

Prior to this trip, I did not know much about Muncie, other than it was the setting for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After touring BSU, David Letterman Alley, The Passing of the Buffalo and other interesting sites, we all drove home impressed with the town and the university. If Matt chooses BSU, I look forward to doing some more exploring in this fine city.

As of this writing, Matt still had a few other colleges to visit. I am excited to see new cities as he scouts potential universities. I am encouraging him to do a campus visit to the University of Hawaii, strictly in the interest of gathering information. Of course, I would accompany him again (whether I was asked or not).

— John Wroblewski, online contributor