Today was another great day in Chicago! (we're kind of on a roll right now) Mid 70s and sunny with, as usual, a chance of rain. I got out of work around 11 (the great thing about my current rotation is when I'm not on overnight call I'm either off or I'm going home early). I took care of a few things around campus, came home and did some laundry and, seeing there was a good chance of rain, I opted for an indoor workout up in our facility in the condo building. After a decent workout, and seeing that the skies weren't threatening, I decided to go for a little impromptu jog. I had expended a good bit of injury with my weights workout, so wasn't sure how far I would be able to go. P.S. I'm not a runner.
Our place is about a mile west of downtown and the lakeshore. It makes sense that when you leave our place to go for a run, you beeline it east and a little north to get to the lakefront as fast as you can. This certainly beats running north and west to the Cabrini Green . I'll save the mystique of that place for another blog, perhaps.
The Chicago Lakefront Trail is easily one of the top five best things about living in this city. It stretches an astonishing 18 miles from somewhere near Evanston (where the Northwestern undergrad campus is located) down to 71st Street. This spans not only a great distance, but traverses the foliage and flowers of Lincoln Park, the beautiful concrete jungle of downtown Chicago, the Field Museum and Soldier Field, deep down into the Southside of Chicago and the grounds of The White City of the Columbian Exposition of 1893. As you can imagine this trail sees not only a change of scenery but a huge socioeconomic contrast.
The best way to get to the lakefront from our place is to head east to Michigan Ave. (The Magnificent Mile) and head North where you can take a tunnel underneath Lake Shore Drive to get over to the trail. Today, more so than any other day, (and maybe because I know I'm leaving in a year) I was completely taken by the beauty of Lake Michigan and the awesomeness of this trail and this city. The fatigue that was with me for the first mile disappeared and I(with the help of Flo Rida) was rejuvenated. The people watching wasn't what I had hoped for, but I'm not sure what I was expecting at 2pm on a Monday. My path took me just north of Oak Street Beach headed north. I continued on towards Castaways/North Ave Beach to the volleyball courts. I then cut over through beautiful Lincoln Park before making the turn to head back home.
This was such a great day to spend the afternoon and will definitely be one of things I miss most when we don't live here anymore.
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