Art, Architecture and a Way Home - Intro

(This is the first of a series of chapters devoted to Chicago.
It's the only way I can think of to tackle our experiences and
impressions.  There'll be 8 to ten of them I expect.)

After a month on the road, we've learned a few lessons!
One of them is this:  If you have to drive into the downtown
of a big city try to do it on a weekend.  So, equipped with
our trusty GPS we arrived easily at our destination.

Thanks to our Lonely Planet Guidebook, we'd found a B & B in a
neat neighbourhood, just outside the downtown core, but right on
the "El" line.  Even better, they had a studio apartment available!
(www.wickerparkinn.com)

So, we spent Sunday afternoon learning about our new digs
and felt very much 'at home.'  This city is so relaxed!  Not like
NYC or Boston or St. Louis.  There's a cafe on every second block -
good coffee and good food. There was one called Filter and another
called The Wormhole.   And even here, outside the downtown
core, there's cool architecture and a sense of humour.  Check out
the store at the bottom of this group of pictures.

Wicker Park's Flat Iron building

It's the boring store!

We were going to go in, but a busload of kids arrived!