everyone knows it’s Windy
i stopped mid-sentence as our plane glided down toward the city. it was…huge. downtown Chicago looked much like one would expect from a prominent urban mecca. i could pick out the familiar sites: Grant Park, Soldier Field, the Sears Tower. but it was the sheer sprawl of of the city i couldn’t believe. streets and buildings and parks stretched for uncounted miles in every direction. it looked like the lake shore just couldn’t accommodate all of the supplicants that wanted to be near it so they camped as close as they could, each creeping slowly nearer to the skyscrapers and docks with every passing year. i have seen many cities, but never anything like this.
i remember smiling as the plane touched down. it feels so good to be back in motion, wandering to adventures and parts unknown. Chicagoland has always been on my list of places to explore but somehow i’ve put it off until now. well no longer- i couldn’t wait to discover what was waiting for me over the next five days.
i grabbed my bags and navigated through O’Hare to the elevated train- of course known famously as the ‘L’. relatively empty at first, the train quickly became crowded. i was trying my hardest to take up only one seat with all of my luggage piled on my lap and squeezed between my knees, but i was failing rather miserably. while this certainly might have been a cause of tension back home, i found that one passenger after another slid effortlessly into the cramped half-seat beside me, not afraid to brush legs or share breathing room with a stranger. i guess personal space is a luxury for the uncrowded. people here seem more relaxed and less hesitant to get close. despite being one of many in a constant crowd (or maybe because of it?) they seem to know who they are.
the L brought me to Wicker Park and to friends. this being my first visit, it was quickly decided that authentic deep-dish pizza was in order. we traveled downtown and i easily made friends with the best pizza i’ve ever encountered. we attempted to walk off the cheese and sauce euphoria with a stroll throughout the city, ending the evening way up on the 96th floor of the Hancock building. content and excited, i sat near a wall of windows with a drink in my hand high above the Windy City. i looked over the lake, the streets, the lights stretching as far as the eye could see. this is what i come looking for. through everything else, it is moments like this that keep my feet moving and my spirits high.
for the Journey,
-louie-