Wide Open Spaces

So we have a friend from out of town coming to visit. He's coming from Minneapolis which is about 400 miles away.


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I've driven to Minneapolis from Chicago, and its a pretty boring drive with very little of interest in between (unless you consider forests and farms interesting). Contrast this to the densely populated Northeast corridor where its only 200 miles from Boston to New York City, and there are a few mid-sized cities in between. 400 miles from Boston pretty much gets you to DC, passing through NYC, Philly, and Baltimore along the way.

In the midwest, Chicago is pretty much the undisputed tourist destination when it comes to cities, so luckily we're already here. However, if we wanted to go explore we'd have a 90 mile trip to Milwaukee, 300 miles to St. Louis or Detroit, and the 400miles to the twin cities. These aren't huge distances, but they are much further apart than back east, and make planning for a weekend getaway that much more difficult (especially with a kid).

There's continuous talk about bring high-speed rail to America and Chicago would be the logical hub for the midwest network. The high price of gas should be a strong impetus if we want to plan rationally for the future. If this ever happens in my lifetime I'll be thrilled.

Farmer's Market

Today was the first day of the 2008 Oak Park Farmer's Market. The weather was awesome, 60-70 with a slight breeze, so I took Julia out to the market to take a peek. Being so early in the season, there wasn't all that much produce available, so we mostly strolled around and spent a bit of time listening to the blue grass band that plays every week at the market. I think Julia appreciated the music, although not as much as the choo-choos across the street that she saw.

Traffic Analysis

CTA Eisenhower

We were down in the Oak Park Arts District (formerly Harrison Arts District) last weekend for a street festival. While Kelly was checking out some clothing shop, Julia and I walked around. She heard the sounds of the Blue line el in the background, and wanted to see the "Choo-choos."

We walked over to the embankment and Julia watched the choo-choos and brrrm-brrrms contentedly. I suspect that she shares my interest in transit policy and was imagining plans to upgrade the CTA blue line to decrease auto congestion.

Get'em When They're Young

Marketers and advertisers like to imprint brands on people at an early age. Children's mind are impressionable, and if you get them early you potentionally have a customer for life. If that's the case then Chipotle and Starbucks can chalk up a two year old girl as a loyal customer. We were driving down Lake street last night and as we passed Chipotle Julia said "Chicken!!!" One minute later we passed Starbucks and Julia exclaimed "Coffee!!!" Now we've been to that Chipotle regularly so maybe she recognized the location, but she's only been to that Starbucks once before. Plus she's recognized other Starbucks locations that she's never been inside. I guess this is why companies prize their logos.

Happy Feet

Kelly bought a DVD of the penguin movie Happy Feet recent. Julia just loves the movie and calls all the penguins "duckies."

Kelly and I have come to appreciate the movie too, and I especially like the Hispanic adelie penguins. I'm pretty impressed by the degree of realism that the movie, as it is fairly true to the life cycle of Emperor penguins as depicted in that other great penguin movie, March of the Penguins (well except for the speaking and tap dancing.)

The Mortgage Crisis Explained (in Cartoon)

Here is the simplest explanation of the subprime mortgage crisis I've seen so far, depicted in cartoon format. (Warning: some profanities involved.)

Chicago Drive, part II

Heading into the Loop. Note the Sears Tower on the right.


In the heart of the Loop. Note the el tracks which give the Loop its name. It took me about 15 minutes to go 10 blocks (half a mile.)

Heading north on Michigan Ave. That's the Trump Tower under construction.

Crossing the Michigan Ave bridge with the Wrigley building on the left and the Tribune tower on the right.

At Watertower place on North Michigan Ave. The Apple Store is nearby, and I was tempted to drop by but parking would've been too much trouble, plus it was getting late.

Chicago Drive

Had the day off from work and the weather was really nice outside. Went out for a few errands (bank, diapers, coffee), which would normally take me about 30 minutes since Babys R'Us, Starbucks, and Chase are all within a mile. I ended up on a leisurely drive with the sunroof and windows down and found myself in downtown Chicago. At every stop light I tried to take a picture of the scenery.

The west side of Chicago is quite gritty and industrial. A lot of it is still very run down. These pics are of some of the better preserved buildings.

Fair bit of low-end retail serving the predominantly African-American and Hispanic communities of the west side.

About halfway from Oak Park into the Loop you start seeing evidence of condo-mania. New condos next to old warehouses. Wonder how the prices are holding up?

Trader Joe's Definitely Opening in Oak Park

Trader Joe's in Oak Park appears imminent
Wednesday Journal, May 2nd, 2008

And there was much rejoicing in the land. When we were looking at places to move to, I had a few criteria in mind. It had to have a Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, and a Costco nearby. Yes, I know, I'm a corporate whore, I make no apologies. Oak Park has the first three, and Costco is not too far away for monthly trips. The only thing missing was a local TJ's. Its been promised for years, but the local paper has confirmed that they've finally signed a lease in downtown Oak Park.

Expect to see more cute pictures like this soon.

Spring has Sprung

Well at long last, warm weather is here for good. We had occasional warm days followed by blustery days, but we've now had several warm ones in a row. The grass and weeds are growing nicely, and the flowers are blooming. No bugs yet either. The economy may go into the tank, burst least we've got pretty shrubbery.