Okay, no doubt about it. We've fallen smitten with Andersonville.
About three miles straight north of where we live now, Andersonville is a vibrant community. It contains some great restaurants (we tried Big Jones the other night with our friends Rebecca, Will, Greg and Gaby - delicious southern comfort food!) and delicious chocolates. We walked up and down the bustling Clark Street, exploring the various stores and eateries and generally admiring the neighborhood's character. Not nearly as "glitzy" as Lincoln Park, but fun and comfortable. We could live here. We even peeked in at an open house and were happy to find that the home prices in Andersonville are substantially less expensive than home prices in other neighborhoods.
We biked to our walks today, so we got a good workout. Biked three miles to Andersonville, another three over to Devon Avenue, and then six or seven back home via the lakefront bike path. That far north, the eighteen mile long lakefront bike path is surprisingly uncrowded. It was very relaxing to spend some time on the path rather than the streets - though I'm generally a fearless biker, I still don't like having to weave amongst all of those cars.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Walk #6: Devon Avenue
It's been awhile! We've been travelling and having guests, but we're finally back. To make up for lost time, we combined two walks into one this weekend. The first was Devon Avenue.
The card for the Devon Avenue walk was sorely lacking -- it just told us to walk down Devon between Western and California, and cited no specific stores, restaurants or landmarks. So we had to make our own way. That area of Devon Avenue is the center of Indian and Pakistani communities here in Chicago. Filled to the brim with Indian restaurants (Matt was seduced by the siren song of the lunch buffet all day long), clothing and jewelry stores, and incredible markets. We saw street vendors selling fresh coconut milk and incredible saris. If I wouldn't look like an idiot / poser, I think I'd love to have one.
Parts of Devon are apparently quite Russian, too, though we didn't see much of that. We walked by a Russian bookstore but that was about it. We stopped for a lovely lunch at the Viceroy of India. Now, I know very little about Indian food, so I can't offer you opinions on whether it was authentic or representative. But it was delicious. Isn't that enough?
The card for the Devon Avenue walk was sorely lacking -- it just told us to walk down Devon between Western and California, and cited no specific stores, restaurants or landmarks. So we had to make our own way. That area of Devon Avenue is the center of Indian and Pakistani communities here in Chicago. Filled to the brim with Indian restaurants (Matt was seduced by the siren song of the lunch buffet all day long), clothing and jewelry stores, and incredible markets. We saw street vendors selling fresh coconut milk and incredible saris. If I wouldn't look like an idiot / poser, I think I'd love to have one.
Parts of Devon are apparently quite Russian, too, though we didn't see much of that. We walked by a Russian bookstore but that was about it. We stopped for a lovely lunch at the Viceroy of India. Now, I know very little about Indian food, so I can't offer you opinions on whether it was authentic or representative. But it was delicious. Isn't that enough?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Out of town
Last weekend we were out of town, visiting my dad and his wife in Atlanta. We'll be back with another walk this weekend!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Walk #5: Southport
Though I was pretty tired when I got home from my class reunion in South Bend on Sunday, Matt and I went on a walk near our house: on Southport Avenue between Belmont and Grace. We'd been in and out of this neighborhood to go to a few places, like Take Five (a Michigan bar where all food is $5) and Tango Sur (a great Argentinian beef restaurant that's surprisingly inexpensive and a BYOB).
We stopped at Paper Boy, a paper/card/gifts store that is like a larger version of Two Sided -- my favorite card store. We walked up Southport, stopping at Starbucks for an iced coffee for Matt, and then ducking into Candyality. Candyality is a large candy store with all sorts of fun classics like candy lipsticks and candy cigarettes. They had neat gift baskets of candies from different decades, and also claimed to have fantastic gummy bears. Matt and I bought some, and we agree. The store's gimmick is that it tells you your personality based on the candy you buy -- apparently the gummy candy said we were sensible, the Jelly Bellys said we were creative, and the red licorice said we were loyal folk.
Though the neighborhood was fun and active, we didn't feel any strong desire to move there. Phew. At least one we can cut off of the list.
We stopped at Paper Boy, a paper/card/gifts store that is like a larger version of Two Sided -- my favorite card store. We walked up Southport, stopping at Starbucks for an iced coffee for Matt, and then ducking into Candyality. Candyality is a large candy store with all sorts of fun classics like candy lipsticks and candy cigarettes. They had neat gift baskets of candies from different decades, and also claimed to have fantastic gummy bears. Matt and I bought some, and we agree. The store's gimmick is that it tells you your personality based on the candy you buy -- apparently the gummy candy said we were sensible, the Jelly Bellys said we were creative, and the red licorice said we were loyal folk.
Though the neighborhood was fun and active, we didn't feel any strong desire to move there. Phew. At least one we can cut off of the list.
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