My Kind Of Town, Chicago Is.....

Being a native New Yorker, the following compliment doesn't come easily for me, but: I love Chicago! I mean, let's face it, I'm from New York, the Big Apple. New York is big time, it's the big Kahuna of cities. New York City is open all night with 24 hour everything. A guy like me can get used to that (in-fact, I have!). But I love Chicago!!

I spent the past weekend in Chicagoland, something I do pretty regularly these days. And this wasn't any old weekend, oh no, it was Super Bowl weekend. And Sunday morning, right after my breakfast phone call, still at Sandy's Restaurant in Highwood, I was predicting (okay, bragging) to the gambling crowd that the NY Giants would win the Super Bowl! Man, they all thought I was nuts!!

Anyway, I had a great weekend!!! Too bad I had to come home.

You see, the more time I spend in Chicago the more I like it! As Sammy Cahn wrote...
"And each time I leave, Chicago is
Tuggin' my sleeve, Chicago is
The Wrigley Building, Chicago is
The Union Stockyard, Chicago is
One town that won't let you down
It's my kind of town"

Of course, each time I leave I seem to exit Chicago differently. That's because Chicago traffic is murder. Chicagoans say that there's really only two seasons, Winter & Construction, and that leads to confusion on the highway. This morning I took I-94 East to I-80 East, another new route.

Getting there was no small feat either. I arrived in the middle of a big snow storm. Maybe not the biggest they've ever seen, but it was big enough to make my life misreable. It dumped eight inches of snow right in the middle of I-294. Hey, for all I know, it didn't snow anywhere else in the vicinity that day, but it made the last twenty minutes a two hour ride! I spent thirteen hours behind the wheel of a twelve hour drive. Clear weather & smooth sailing for eight hundred miles, but as soon as I turned North out of Indiana... bam! Big snow!!

And it didn't let up. It snowed all weekend. It was still snowing last night. You find a taxi in the middle of a Chicago snow storm!

Yeah, but Chicago's great! It's sometimes called America's Second City, but it's really a first class place. Chicago has lots of attractions and a lot that attracts me. And where else can you... what other major city can you go to, and stroll around all day and night, without anyone asking you for money?
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All above: Leica D-LUX 3, 28~112/2.8~4.9 Leitz DC Vario-Elmarit lens, ISO 100