Chicago Road Trip - August 12, 2006

A road trip is always great fun, even if only a few miles from home. This past weekend we headed into Chicago for some first hand tourism. We landed in what turned out to be the eastern part of Andersonville. What a surprise! We found ourselves in the Lakewood-Balmoral Historic District, a neighborhood rich with beautiful restored homes and meticulously attended gardens. See photos here: PHOTOS This was particularly interesting exploring a historic district in light of my recent zoning rant (July 18, 2006 post). I was glad to find a garage that was thoroughly modern, attached to a renovated historic home. I don't know how they let that happen, but I'm glad to see it.

For lunch we stopped at Charlie's Ale House (5308 N. Clark St.) and enjoyed cold beers and a pizza with a crispy, thin cracker crust.

Our route made no particular sense. We simply went in whatever direction seemed interesting at the moment. It included short-cuts through alleys, exploring the industrial corridor along the tracks that parallel Ravenswood, and seeing lots of renovation completed and in progress. We saw and heard a great deal of renovation in progress.

NOTE: OKO mysteriously disappeared from Blogger about five days ago. I rebuilt the index page this evening. This time I have made a back-up copy!