Exploring the New 'Hood

We came rolling into Chicago on November 2. Gil had managed to unpack all of the large furniture and all of the books(!) before Charlie and Marin arrived, but there was still a lot to do. Charlie loves all the new space. Our first morning, he wandered all over the apartment saying "this is Charlie's house in Chew-cago."


We live a few blocks from Lake Michigan, which is bordered by a long (five miles long) narrow park called Lincoln Park. The nearest parts of the park for us are a few playgrounds, soccer fields, a golf course, the marina (now empty), and a bird refuge. Marin and Charlie took a stroll through the bird refuge the day after we arrived.

Marin took, like, 200 pictures on this nature walk, and Charlie was blurry in every one of them. He wouldn't stop running. Needless to say, we didn't see any wildlife. (Well, unless you count some very annoyed-looking birdwatchers).

And this is the view at the end of the trail.

In the summer, this is what we'll see as we play at the sandy beach on the other side of this grass.

There is a huge cemetery near our apartment called Graceland Cemetery. Marin and Charlie spent a wonderful afternoon there a few days after we moved in.
Marin has a sick love of old cemeteries. Gil will never understand. She especially loves the headstones that are so old that the names are rubbed out, like big marble hunks of soap.

Charlie loves cemeteries too, but for different reasons.
All in all, our neighborhood--and Chicago generally--is a pretty nice place to be in the fall.