Loving Where We Live

Mark and I are pretty lucky to be living in Hyde Park. Lord knows I've spent a good amount of time bellyaching about the cost of living, lack of parking, and seemingly never-ending winter. If we grew to love Waco, then there is absolutely no way we could not fall in love with Hyde Park. I feel like I need to make up for all of my complaining by writing up a few things that I love about good, ol' Hyde Park/Chicago.

1. Hyde Park feels close to everything. It doesn't take long for us to get to South Loop/The Loop/West Loop/Gold Coast, and when we need a taste of suburbia we can always drive out to Oak Brook. The transit system is pretty good, too.

2. The food and shopping are killer. If we ever make it back down to Texas, I know we will be missing all of the restaurants, food trucks, and Bloomies.

3. There is a farmer's market in our neighborhood! We spend our Saturday mornings walking to and getting some groceries from our local farmer's market. The market is about twelve blocks away, so our trip makes for a nice morning walk (everything is pretty much organic, pasture raised, sustainably grown, gmo-free, etc.). We love getting to talk to the people who are actually growing, raising, and caring for the food we eat. Yesterday we picked up some eggs, beef, kale (we buy lots of kale), blueberries, tomatoes, and shared a delish, tart, freshly made blackberry jam crepe.

All from the market: breakfast tacos, mini breakfast pie, new potatoes (!), and kale

4. Have I mentioned the food?

Fresh mini donuts straight off the Beaver's Donuts (a food truck)

5. The architecture is so interesting. The city's buildings are beautiful (I, for some reason, only have pics of university buildings...whoops). It isn't just the buildings, though, Buckingham Fountain, the Cloud Gate (the bean), Millennium Park, and so many other cool things can be found around the city.

Inside one of the university's libraries

Gateway to Hull Court

6. There is a wealth of opportunities to soak up culture here. The University of Chicago brings in phenomenal speakers. The Court Theatre has excellent productions, and is praised by one of my favorite critics, Terry Teachout. Museums are everywhere. Music festivals abound. One would really have to try hard to avoid becoming at least a smidge more cultured in Chicago.

7. Lake Michigan is like an ocean, and we live right next to it. The running group in Dallas would drive out to White Rock Lake every once in a while, but if we wanted to run before it gets too hot (we did) then we had to arrive by six (or earlier if we had a super long run). That would be AM, y'all. It took my family about forty minutes to drive there, so I had to wake up at five to brush my teeth, get dressed, and find two running shoes that matched. Now, I wake up and walk out the door and find myself immediately out on the lake with other runners and bikers as the sun rises over the water. If I choose to run due north, I run toward the clear, beautiful Chicago skyline. There's nothing like it when it comes to road running. It certainly beats running through Waco or the usual suburban subdivision.  

8. Also, the food...can you tell that I like the food? Yum.

If you find yourself in Chicago, just give us a holler and we will gladly take you to some great places to eat, shop, relax, or whatever. All of the perks of living in/near the city almost makes the winter worth it. Almost.