Chicago: Final post and where we're going next

That's it for Chicago! What a great city. As with the others, we weren't quite ready to leave when the time came.

If you aren't familiar with our evaluation scale or why we've creating our own when so many are available, read this first! While in each city, I've been writing about what we like, don't like, and what we've found to experience. All posts on Chicago can be viewed by clicking the Chicago tag at the top of the page. 

Favorite posts on Chicago:

Chicago: Never a dull moment!
Chicago: Towering views, lively fountains, beaches for dogs, and boat-shaped restaurants
Quick Quotes 38: Chicago
Chicago: Big Nachos, Big Pizza, Navy Pier, and the Blackhawks! 

The Scoring

(1-10 with 5 as average)

 --------------------------------

Chicago

Culture: 9
Environment:  8
Vegetarian Restaurants: 8
Cost of Living:   4
Transportation/Infrastructure: 7 
Climate: 6
People: 8
Pass/Fail: Pass

Notes: A lot of what made Chicago both good and bad was its size. Because of the number of people in Chicago there were more vegetarians and therefore more vegetarian restaurants. The city isn't necessarily more vegetarian than other cities, it's just bigger. Likewise, that many people leads to traffic a majority of the time. It's not that Chicago drivers are particularly bad (like in Dallas). 

What was unique to the city in comparison to the other places was how frequently photogenic, friendly, and nice-weathered the city was on a regular basis.

As with any visit to anywhere, our opinions are skewed by the season and where we lived in the city. We might like living outside of downtown and aren't sure if we would ever want to live there in winter, but for six-months it was a great experience. We'll be back and recommend it as a must-visit for anyone who is considering it.

On to California! 

Chicago: The bad stuff (a post on what I didn't like about the city)

Ruckus from our window

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the traffic, crime, and expense of any decent-sized city without realizing how much these big-city problems vary from a big-city to a really-big city, like Chicago. What I've disliked while living here are the same things people stereotypically dislike about big cities, but the reason I dislike them now and didn't in Philadelphia or Dallas is because of the high level they reach here. For example, if you're going on a trip, in a big city you plan to avoid rush hour, in Chicago you make plans for the few hours during the day when there might not be much highway traffic.

In case anyone doesn't read my blog regularly, I have greatly enjoyed each and every city we've lived in this year (Chicago included. It's a great city!). I do, however, write one post on each city about what I don't like.

Similar posts from previous cities:
Philadelphia: The rough and tumble
Dallas: The good, the bad, and the annoying 

On to Chicago...

Expense

Expensive: Our first night in Chicago, we ordered a pizza from the nearest place we could find and were surprised to pay $60 + tip when the pizza arrived. Come to find out, we had ordered from the legendary Giordano's, but still, the fact that a single Chicago pizza can cost this much reflects a lot.

Everything from street parking to beer is more expensive in Chicago, but it gets worse. Because demand for housing is so high,

Chicago: Downtown kayaking, Chinatown, Bill Burr, Doug Stanhope, Field Museum, and more!

One more month in Chicago! Having stayed longer than planned and with cold weather rolling in, we're ready for what's next. At least two more posts on Chicago including one on what I didn't like about the city, and we'll be somewhere else.

Once again, here is what we've been doing recently for anyone who plans to visit the city, or is interested in what we're up to: 

 

Lincoln Park and Lincoln Park Zoo: While Millennium Park by the loop is more concentrated and filled with museums, art, and events; Lincoln Park with its larger area, trails, and lawns, feels more like Philly's Fairmont or many areas of NY's Central Park. This is the first zoo I've been to where the animals didn't seem depressed and miserable. The zoo is entirely free so it's just a matter of walking in from the other beautifully landscaped areas of the park. If you visit the zoo, be sure to leave the gates to the south for great views of the skyline from the south pond.

 

Field Museum: Museums like this become less worth my time as I get older. They're great for kids and field trips, but if I could learn more browsing the topic online, I'll pass. Glad we went once, but wouldn't recommend if you're short on time. Other museums like the Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute, and the Planetarium are nearby.

Downtown Kayaking: One of my favorite events so far! If you're in Chicago during warm weather and are somewhat active, the views of the buildings are stunning from the river. Paddling out of the way of large tour boats is less

Chicago: Segways, vegan pizza, Radiohead, and scary movies in old theaters

 

It's the first day of fall, but Chicago has been winding down for a couple weeks as temperatures cool, school starts, and the lowering sun is more likely to be blocked by the towers around us. The picture above was taken from Hyde Park on a particularly cold and windy day. It had to be taken with care between waves of spray and mist that threatened to obstruct the view and soak the camera and us.

Here is more of what we've been up to:
   

 

Hyde Park Segway Tour: I've always viewed Segways as a failed invention mainly because of the hype that accompanied their release. Bikes are greener. Segways are often ridden by overweight tourists. At the same time, I always wanted to try one out. Not a convert now, but this Hyde Park Tour from Bike and Roll was definitely worth the price (and shame). We saw so a number of things in a short amount of time and the reduced travel and ease of use meant more time at each stop. They were fun to ride. A couple of the places we stopped are shown below.

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel: One of Chicago's many beautiful cathedral/chapels. Located on the University of Chicago campus, it is unaffiliated with any any specific cult, remaining a place for anyone to come to meditate or pray.

Osaka Garden: This was another part of the Hyde Park Tour. Free, well maintained, strolling Japanese Garden that was originally built for the World's Fair of 1893. This part of Jackson Park was vandalized during WWII and had to be rebuilt. Rockefeller Chapel's outdoor counterpart for peaceful meditation.

Chicago: Blue men and music, street performers, and Miller Beer Tour

We've been in Chicago a while now and I've only made a few posts, but it isn't because we aren't getting out and keeping busy! It's because we spend a lot of time just picking an area to walk to or eat in. We did a lot of the touristy stuff in the first couple weeks and are now just enjoying our surroundings. Here  are some of the more "eventful" things we've found to do in the past few weeks.

Blue Man Group: Despite seeing ads for years in multiple cities and hearing about performances from others, we'd never been! Didn't disappoint! Sold-out crowd on a weekday night. Half price tickets often available on hottix.org for anyone in the city who wants to go.

Wicker Park

Neighborhoods:  We've recently made brief trips to Old Town, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lakeview, Italian Village, and Hyde Park. Chicago is a city of neighborhoods to the extent that it gets confusing. Some of these neighborhoods have a stronger personality and sense of community while others were created for tourism. If we decided to live in Chicago, it would be in one of these neighborhoods, outside of

Chicago: Transit maps

I have an image folder in my phone for transit maps of the cities we've lived in and visited. It's handy for return visits, but I mainly keep the folder for the memories. Looking over a transit map during a moment of downtime, I'm reminded of the city's layout, which lines we traveled on to what stops, and what happened  there.


Public transit maps say a lot about a city, not only by what they show, but by what they exclude to simplify the city for tourists and travelers. There is a great post on this here: The World's Best Designed Metro Maps.



One of the maps I use in Chicago, now:

CTA Mario 3 style!

Chicago: Never a dull moment!

We've been in in Chicago over three months. I've come to identify the city as the most sensational place I've ever been or lived. The city's magnetism as an iconic destination (tourism, filming, money) combined with its geography and architecture creates an overwhelming experience of constant action and interaction. While other cities are similarly busy, Chicago has space created by rivers and Lake Michigan that allows one to step back and admire the diversity and complexity.

Walking east a few blocks, I pass Michigan Ave with its buskers, dancers, and human statues; museums, markets, protest walks, historic buildings, the Water Tower, the Hancock Building, and a couple hundred restaurants before I get to a lake that looks like the ocean. Here, are beaches, beach-front bars, and hundreds of people exercising, playing chess, doing yoga, swimming laps, and enjoying the view.

Walking south I pass the main branch of the Chicago River with its amazing bridges, its kayakers, and architecture tour boats, its barges, and river walk. It's huge buildings and offices with their art installations parks. Eventually I get to Millennium Park

Quick Quotes 38: Chicago

I started collecting quotes on Chicago and realized most of them were negative or at least love/hate. Even after going out of my way to look for positive quotes, the majority of results were negative, focusing on politics, organized crime, out-of-control industry, and cold difficulty. Many historic writers and poets hated Chicago. I have yet to look for quotes on other cities but will be interested to know if this is the case with L.A. and N.Y. or if it's just a Chicago thing. These are a few of the more positive quotes about the personality of the city as I have come to understand it.

“Loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose.”
 -- Nelson Algren

“You know what they say about Chicago. If you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes.”
-- Ralph Kiner

“Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring.”

--Nelson Algren

“I must confess a shameful secret: I love Chicago best in the cold.”
-- Erik Larson

In the States, it takes you a lifetime just to get from Chicago's South Side to the West Side.
-- Luther Allison

I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago... I urgently desire never to see it again.
-- Rudyard Kipling

Chicago still remains a Mecca of the Midwest - people from both coasts are kind of amazed how good life is in Chicago, and what a good culture we've got. You can have a pretty wonderful artistic life and never leave Chicago.
-- Harold Ramis

Chicago: Towering views, lively fountains, beaches for dogs, and boat-shaped restaurants

We've officially explored outward in all directions from our apartment. We have yet to make it to areas further north like Wicker Park and Lincoln Park. We still haven't made it to the ethnic neighborhoods that we want to see like Chinatown, Little Italy, or Greek Town, but we still have time! Here is what we've been able to do recently.

Buckingham Fountain (above): This huge fountain is not only impressively large, it's also refreshing on hot, windy days. You can see in the picture that the wind is blowing the water to the right. We were able to ride the bikes through the mist after miles of biking for a much needed refresher.

 

Willis Tower (FKA Sears Tower): I can't say I ever want to do this again. The lines to get into the tower were around the block (go early!) and the skydeck itself was crowded and disorganized, but I'm glad we did it once. The glass cubes in the picture were added in 2009. Despite One World Trade Center surpassing Willis in pinnacle height, Willis still has the highest top floor, so this is one of the highest urban views you can

Chicago: Big Nachos, Big Pizza, Navy Pier, and the Blackhawks!

 

Having only visited cities like Chicago and New York, living directly downtown for the past couple of weeks has been impressive and overwhelming. It's easy to lump big cities together for simplicity, but looking at the numbers, Philadelphia (5th biggest) has 1.5 million people, Chicago (3rd) has 2.7 million and NY (1st) has 8.3 million. That's quite a big difference!

We've spent a lot of time taking walks, scoping out nearby options, and visiting many of the typical tourist sites like the Cloud Gate, Chicago River, Water Tower, and Buckingham Fountain. Here is some of what we've been able to do the last couple weeks.

Navy Pier: This wasn't high on our list of places to visit, it kind of just happened. We were walking back from seeing World War Z and decided to stop for gelato and a quick Ferris Wheel ride. $6 for a rotation, totally worth it.

Wrigleyville/Boystown: In case it isn't obvious enough, Boystown is Chicago's version of a gayborhood. Located right by Wrigleyville and home of the Cubs. A nice day trip for fun shopping and

Another season, another city. Summer home = Chicago!

Finally fully settled in Chicago!

This move was rough. We were days away from moving and still hadn't found an apartment due to new housing procedures and a Bermuda vacation (like I said, rough). The day before we were to drive to Chicago, Lindsay found this apartment and we reserved it without knowing little more then it met our basic requirements (short term, pets allowed, etc...). Fortunately, it has turned out to be great a choice!

Our building is located in the River North area of downtown, a block from the Red Line. Dozens of restaurants and shops are with-in a block and hundreds more within walking distance. We're adjacent to the National Poetry Foundation building and walking distance from the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and