a walk through the neighborhoods

I walked to downtown last weekend. It’s about an eleven mile walk. Not really a far distance when you can drive or even bike. But, when you walk – yeah it’s a long distance. It was a nice sunny Saturday morning and afternoon. The temperature was probably around the mid 80s. A little hot, especially since it has been such a cold summer. We were going to walk the lakeshore to downtown but then decided that we walk downtown under the shade of the trees and we could keep cooler that way. It worked. Couldn’t have done that in the ‘burbs. We packed lightly for the walk – two water bottles and some granola bars and headed out the door.

We went east for a little bit and then followed streets going south until we arrived downtown. We followed mainly residential streets and stayed away from the main thoroughfares with all the loud traffic. We were able to do this for most of the way. We got to see several neighborhoods this way and got an eclectic feel of Chicago that few people ever get in at one time. It was great to see all the different houses, apartments, and condos, and to take in the different personality of each neighborhood.

We were able to walk that far without getting too tired. Well, at least until we got home and realized we had major blisters and aches in our legs. It was well worth the experience of being able to walk downtown and really see what Chicago is for one last time.