North Side Wandering
So my cousin had some clarinet workshop thingy at DePaul University yesterday and as my cousin has never had to travel around the downtown area my uncle asked that I escort her. Apparently he has visions of my cousin getting off at the wrong stop or being abducted by aliens if not supervised. Whatever the case I agreed to make the trip as it was easier than arguing him into understanding that an eighteen year old is fully capable of navigating Chicago Public transportation.
Anyway when the old man brought up the maps on his computer the other day to show me where I needed to go he pointed out that I would be in close proximity of the Lincoln Park Zoo. Originally I had planned to just find a coffee shop and wait hour the four hour seminar sipping mochas and reading a John Ringo novel (military SF at its best) but the Zoo brought up a whole new set of possibilities.
The first thing I did, of course, after dropping of the cousin was find a coffee shop. I might have been tempted to follow through with plan A, if the heat hadn't been cranked up to bake everyone inside. The reason it was up was obvious. Trendy north siders don't wear clothing suited to the weather, but rather flimsy exercise outfits suitable for power walking jogging or trips around the neighborhood with ones dog.
Once fortified with Coffee I started to head east, as I knew this was the general direction of the lake and the Zoo. As I walked I noticed that the area is ever so much more vertical than the neighborhoods I've lived in. Every building is at least two stories tall and many are even taller. The sidewalks are closer to the streets as their are no lawns so the homes are also closer to the streets, giving one the feeling of walking down a walled in corridor. In the rare instance that the walls of separate buildings do not kiss up on each other they are no more than three feet apart, creating dark multi story gang ways that one fears to look at and would not even contemplate approaching let alone travel through.
Coming out of the corridor of town homes I entered Lincoln Park. There was a sign with little pictographs of a park bench, a dog on a leash and a giraffe I took to mean the zoo. Of course there were no directions on that corner so I wandered north east for a bit and ran into the lagoon before realizing I was headed in the wrong direction. Heading south I found the conservatory and a view of the Hancock building I wasn't used to seeing. After staring up at the tall buildings for a while I turned left and noticed an elephant. The Zoo was found.
So I'll be putting up some pictures at Everyday Absurd of this trek over the next couple days. Now I must steal chocolate out of the trick or treat bowl.
More Laters
Anyway when the old man brought up the maps on his computer the other day to show me where I needed to go he pointed out that I would be in close proximity of the Lincoln Park Zoo. Originally I had planned to just find a coffee shop and wait hour the four hour seminar sipping mochas and reading a John Ringo novel (military SF at its best) but the Zoo brought up a whole new set of possibilities.
The first thing I did, of course, after dropping of the cousin was find a coffee shop. I might have been tempted to follow through with plan A, if the heat hadn't been cranked up to bake everyone inside. The reason it was up was obvious. Trendy north siders don't wear clothing suited to the weather, but rather flimsy exercise outfits suitable for power walking jogging or trips around the neighborhood with ones dog.
Once fortified with Coffee I started to head east, as I knew this was the general direction of the lake and the Zoo. As I walked I noticed that the area is ever so much more vertical than the neighborhoods I've lived in. Every building is at least two stories tall and many are even taller. The sidewalks are closer to the streets as their are no lawns so the homes are also closer to the streets, giving one the feeling of walking down a walled in corridor. In the rare instance that the walls of separate buildings do not kiss up on each other they are no more than three feet apart, creating dark multi story gang ways that one fears to look at and would not even contemplate approaching let alone travel through.
Coming out of the corridor of town homes I entered Lincoln Park. There was a sign with little pictographs of a park bench, a dog on a leash and a giraffe I took to mean the zoo. Of course there were no directions on that corner so I wandered north east for a bit and ran into the lagoon before realizing I was headed in the wrong direction. Heading south I found the conservatory and a view of the Hancock building I wasn't used to seeing. After staring up at the tall buildings for a while I turned left and noticed an elephant. The Zoo was found.
So I'll be putting up some pictures at Everyday Absurd of this trek over the next couple days. Now I must steal chocolate out of the trick or treat bowl.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 4:18 PM
2 Comments:
i have come to hate the directional signs at parks. the little arrows that don't seem to point toward a road/path. the one in st.louis (forest park) is a major irritation.
mmmm. candy.
the above was me.
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