Exploring Chicago...

This past weekend the man friend and I headed out to the suburbs. We had a few things on our to-do list - looking at appliances and kitchens. We were pretty successful on both items.

For those Chicago people, we went to Abt Electronics in Glenview. WOW. There were a lot of things to look at. Including a fountain. Their appliance selection was pretty amazing. I had no idea how far dishwashers have come.

We also headed to a home store for kitchen cabinets and counter tops in Aurora. Houses are expensive, but it still beats renting in my book!

On our way out to Glenview we took Milwaukee north from Irving Park, which was an interesting drive. There were lots of Polish delis and other neighborhood spots that you could go for years without knowing.

On our way back from Aurora we accidentally ended up on 290. Per usual, the traffic was horrendous on the way into the city. So, we hopped off 290 at 25th and headed north into Maywood.


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Hopping on to Washington, we headed east toward the city. Maywood proved an interesting community to drive through. Brick bungalows lined the street in a community that seemed quiet. We passed through a brief forest/park and crossed over a river and were suddenly in Oak Park. It was interesting to see the difference a river makes.

Oak Park had beautiful homes that were much larger than the homes we had just seen in Maywood. Each house was on a larger lot as well. With CTA buses and trains in Oak Park, this is one of the few suburbs that I have an interest in living in.

Oak Park's eastern border is the city of Chicago's Austin neighborhood. We decided to take Chicago Ave into the city and discovered a part of Chicago that reminded us of third world countries. I would not make the drive alone or at night.

The street was lined with empty store fronts. The stores you did see were liquor, dollar stores, and the occasional cheap cell phone place. On occasion you would see a fast food style restaurant or a beauty salon. The one thing this stretch of the city has is plenty of churches. There was a store front operation on every other block.

We took this all the way to Western, traveling between Humboldt Park and Garfield Park.

Turning up Western we made our way to Bluebird in Bucktown, our default and one of our favorite restaurants in that area.

Ahh Chicago, you gave us an interesting tour.