Erika and I have moved a lot lately!
In 2005, we left Houston, Texas and moved to Miami Beach, Florida so Erika could pursue her education as an air traffic controller. In early 2008, when she finished her degree and got an offer from the FAA, we moved back to Houston. Later that year, when she stopped working for the FAA, we decided to move up to Whitehall so she could see snow for the first time.
Amazingly, Erika actually liked the winter. When we visited Chicago, she saw it as the perfect combination of big city life plus winters. I’ve always liked Chicago, and I don’t mind winter in a city (as long as I don’t have to shovel driveways or scrape my car off). We’d originally planned on moving back to Houston after Michigan because I wanted to plant some roots, but Chicago really called to us, and we could see ourselves spending several years there.
So in late September, we’ll be moving into a loft in downtown Chicago’s South Loop. (I’m still learning the terminology – it’s a couple of blocks from the Mayor’s townhouse on Michigan, if you know that area.) I’m really excited at getting back into a big city and checking out the museums, deep dish pizza, and the Chicago SQL Server user group scene.
But mostly the pizza and museums!
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Sounds great! Now those of us who get stranded at ORD have a place to overnight.
HA! Well, we have a two-bedroom place, but the other bedroom will be my office. As long as you don’t mind the hum of servers, you’re always welcome to come crash! (I probably shouldn’t say “crash” and “servers” in the same sentence, heh.)
Looking forward to the inclusion of more pizza into your posts. Perhaps you have will have a new category dealing with the problems you face trying to import Chicago style pizza into your servers. I know with New York style, I never have to worry about exceeding row size limits.
Erika has already given me really stern lectures that I’m not allowed to order pizza too often. She’s worked really hard to help me lose almost 40 pounds, and we don’t want to lose progress!
I understand. My company(belly) is facing the sprawling issues with our infrastructure. Sadly, when ever I attempt a shrink, it gets blocked as the table seems to always be in use.
Congrats and best wishes!
Pizza, Pizza, whatever! Chicago has so much other good food to eat, you wouldn’t even miss it if you gave it up 😛
Looking forward to seeing you two here in the Fall!
Congrats! That is great news. I have always wanted to live in a big city, but with a family it just doesn’t make sense. Maybe when Diane and I are “empty-nesters”.
Oh boy, you are getting closer to Madison!
Dear Yankee,
Please send me you license plate.
JM
Sadly, I checked – I can’t transfer ownership of those to another person. I’d have given them away as a contest prize, heh. They’ll be staying in my office as a souvenir.
But it does raise the question of what plates I’ll be able to get in Illinois…
Welcome to the area. I’ve lived in Chicago about 4 years now and I absolutely love it. As for pizza, deep dish is okay, but the best pizzas in Chicago are the New Haven and Neapolitan style places. Check out Piece in Wicker Park (bonus: microbrewery onsite) Sapore Di Napoli over at Belmont and Southport and Crust in Wicker Park.
Thanks! I’ll try those!
Very cool! So when I drive up from Dayton I can look you two up 😉 Nice apartment, great city…enjoy.
Heck yeah, definitely man! Ping us when you come to town. Erika and I would love to see you again!
Good luck in Chicago Brent. I too would have killed for that license plate. 🙂
Well good–my in-laws are in Chicago. Maybe finally we’ll meet up.
Hahaha, yeah, our paths keep crossing. I don’t have another NYC trip scheduled this year, but if I need more miles to make Elite with Continental, I’ll do a mileage run and fly out there. If nothing else, I’ll come out to take you and the missus to WD50!
wow how exciting! I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog lately and now you are moving to the neighborhood! Hope to see you at the next or maybe the following chi-ssug meeting. And trust me there is more to eat here than pizza.
Renting or buying?
A suggestion, rent for a year or two, before committing to a neighborhood.
Personally, my wife and I lived downtown for 2 years, before decamping to the suburbs (Wheaton, DuPage county). There’s plenty of pizza places out there, and I go to the museuems as often as I did when I lived downtown.
Yeah, but we’re city-walking-people. We like being able to walk to restaurants, walk to parks, etc. If we could live anywhere, it’d probably be South Beach again, but the hurricanes and expenses were too much. I loved having 50 restaurants, the beach, a movie theater, an Apple store, you name it all within a mile’s walk.
South Loop is growing, but for “50 restaurants, the beach, a movie theater, an Apple store, you name it all within a mile’s walk” That sounds more like River North / Gold Coast, which can be pricey. I live at Washington and Wells which is a bit over a mile from the Apple store. And _very_ convenient to most of the train lines.
For me, the best part about living in the city is that I don’t need to own a car. I’ve been car free for 4 years now and I love it. I do the iGo / ZipCar thing on occasion when I’m in desperate need of a trip to Ikea or a hardware store 🙂
Yeah, River North / Gold Coast was outside of our budget. (Ironically, it was much more expensive than South Beach. Odd.)
I’m psyched about being near ZipCar too! That’ll be awesome. We had two cars but we sold one (my Jeep) to reduce our parking costs.
Brent-how exciting. Chicago is a great city. Funny-I don’t miss winters at all! Having spent my first 20 years battling snow and below zero winter temps in upstate NY – you can have them. But one of my fav children’s photographers is in Chicago and makes it look very beautiful. 🙂
Yeah, there’s a ton of gorgeous settings near downtown. I’ve seen several photographers doing shoots in the parks and urban settings around our new place.
Chicago is a great town. I’m proud to say I am originally from there. Your gonna love it. My real question is: am I famous (or infamous) now that my picture is at the top of the page on the left? And I think I took that picture of you on the right. Do I get royalties every time someone hits this page?
I forgot you were from Chicago! Yeah, you’re famous. I just got a call the other day from a modeling agency trying to track you down. They saw your picture here and they said, “DAMMIT, get me that face.” The call should be coming any day now.
By the way, since you and I went sailing, I’ve had two totally miserable sailing experiences (one yesterday). I’m not stepping foot on a sailboat again without you, sir!
I just noticed the pictures rotate. Is that your sneeky way of paying me less royalties? 🙂
skip the thing they call pizza in the windy city, not all it’s cracked up to be!
Hmm – glad I ate it before I talked to you. I love Chicago deep dish pizza!
Man, I love Chicago, and people think I’m crazy, but I absolutely love the El. *wistful sigh* Once you become a Chicago resident, get a library card and then you can check out museum passes from the library and use them to get into plenty of Chicago museums for free.