MetLA

We’re on our way to Mackinac, so we flew into Chicago and spent a couple nights with our friends Andy and Corey. They live in the Wicker Park/Ukranian Village area, which is an up and coming artists-hipsters-yuppie area. They have a beautiful new duplex on a cute street near Division. We love the situation many of our friends are in – nice houses, no kids, which makes having houseguests very easy. We had our own bedroom & bathroom – the Hotel Jacobson was quite comfortable! Their place is right near a bunch of cool shops and restaurants. As soon as we got in, Kyle and I took a walk through the neighborhood, up Damen to Milwaukee and back down to Division. We went into a bunch of funky shops with unique clothes, gifts, art, and home items. I’m thinking, where is this kind of thing in LA? Melrose? Silver Lake? Downtown? I don’t think so. Plus, this stuff is half the price. We stopped for a snack at a hot dog place called Underdogg, and got a Chicago Dog, fries, and a bottle of water for $3! I don’t think even Pink’s beats that! Kyle and I start thinking, hey, we could live here – great neighborhoods, great food, cheaper cost of living – but we know that 6 months out of the year it’s freezing! I couldn’t handle it. But it’s a damn fun city to visit. We love the CTA. You can take a train or bus to any location, or walk, which we did a ton of. That’s such a change from LA. We had one problem with the bus – we were waiting for the bus on Division right outside of a Starbucks. We had our suitcases and were on our way to Hertz to get the rental car. The bus came by and passed us without a second look. It just didn’t stop. I guess it thought we were waiting to cross the street on our way to a trendy shop!