Ryan's Journal

So, Chicago. I'd been there for a wedding, another wedding, a college visit (my sister's), and maybe another drive through or two on family roadtrips to Toronto. Despite it being the nearest major metropolitan area outside of the Twin Cities while growing up in Minnesota, I'd not spent much time down that way.

For the first visit as an independent adult on my own - not bad. The metro area is large enough with good enough public transport to sustain a suburbia that's not estranged from its core. Parking's a bit tricky, like cities all are, but being a driver's not horrible. Driving in Gary's kind of amazing; after 5, people don't seem to pay attention to stop lights anymore, which is probably fine since the streets are basically empty. Anyways, DC is the gold (lead?) standard for metropolitan places it's awful to have a car, and Chicago's better.

It being the Midwest, green space is not far off. I'll have to check out whether there are more substantial parks in the area, outside of the Indiana Dunes NP (which, sadly, does not take the NP Annual Pass, only the special alternate versions). There's some snowboarding a few hours north, but there's really nothing worth it off the west coast anyways.

Sadly, they're gentrifying away the blight and the projects. There must be a better way.

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