Splooshin'

[mamagotcha]

Splooshin'
Originally uploaded by mamagotcha.

We're taking a break from tearing around Chicagoland to enjoy the rays
at Foster Beach, possibly meeting up with some local homeschoolers in
the process. Gorgeous weather.

Looked at maybe 8 or 10 places yesterday. I'd love to do one of these
snazzy condos, but drums and dog will require a house, I think. Too bad,
because in our price range, we won't be living near anything very
walkable. And it will make Bill's commute significantly longer. I wonder
how much commuting is gonna cost, hadn't thought of that.

Got boys some Giodano's pizza last night... was hailed on Yelp as
transcendent but it was only eh. I'm seeing a LOT of different
ethnicities represented in little mom-n-pop places all over. Not so much
urban decay and boarded up places, but I might be missing those
neighborhoods.

Still no "I wanna live HERE" moments, but we're still hoping to narrow
down our option on this trip.

Drove by DePaul, looks like a nice place!

Comments

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Since we are down to one car, he has to do public transportation (I'll be doing kid-schlepping and shopping; Costco runs are pretty much car-only).... Metra commute train, buses, and/or the El (light rail? in any case, a smaller train than the Metra). I'm confining the search to as short a trip as possible, with as short a walk as possible to whatever stop or station he needs. Many people live car-free here... you have big garage fees with the condos, for example, if you have a car. So when I said commute costs, I meant public tranportation.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

I visited Chicago just the once, but I used more than one kind of transit, so this might be correct: the El is light rail, equivalent to BART, called that b/c it's ELevated. There are commuter trains that sure do look like real trains, equivalent to Caltrain, which might be the Metra.

(When I rode the commuter train out to visit Bean's aunt etc for dinner, it was *very* different from being at home. Every Single Person was dressed up in business clothes. I was the only person I could see in a black leather jacket. That would *not* be true on BART in downtown SF.)