Discovering Chicago is Pretty

Elisse might have known this already, but I just realized back in May that Chicago is actually really pretty! A few observations that contributed to that realization:

• Chicago has beaches! With sand! Of course, they’re on the lake, so the water is cold. But on a hot summer day (like when we were there), hanging out in the sun next to the water seemed pretty appealing indeed.
• Chicago has really nice lakefront, park-side, and waterfront bikeways and walkways. So there are a lot of options for someone looking to take a long walk or bike ride without having to deal with traffic.
• Really talented architects have spent a lot of effort on big buildings in Chicago. Due to the fire that destroyed everything but one water tower in the late 1800s (reminiscent of SF), the city’s large buildings are essentially a history lesson on the evolution of 20th century architecture. And also, due to an old city requirement that more or less forces large buildings to taper towards the top, you can actually see a lot of these buildings even from the ground level looking up. (Thinking of NYC as an opposite example, where the buildings often don’t taper, making it hard to see many of them at once.)
• Someone in Chicago realized that the riverfront could be a big asset to the city if it were appropriately developed. So over the last century (ish?), they’ve hidden the trains that run along the river underground, built walkways along the riverfront, converted some old river-shipping industry buildings into more modern shops and living spaces, and generally worked on making the whole area really attractive.

So all in all, definitely worth a visit. Probably worth a revisit, since the only touristy thing we really did was the river boat cruise, and I’ve heard the museums are excellent. And for us of course, we got to see a lot of family out there, which was tons of fun. Looking forward to the next trip!