Our Neighborhood, On Foot

I know I’ve mentioned before how much we walk around our neighborhood – allowing the car to stay in its parking space for weeks at a time. Today, I’ll give you a little walking tour around our frequent haunts.

We have 2 grocery stores we frequent most often. There’s a Jewel/Osco .6 miles away, where N. Broadway and N. Sheridan meet, and a great Whole Foods just .5 miles south on Halsted. We use a backpack, canvas bags, and/or a rolling cart to get the groceries home.

This afternoon, we both have an appointment to get hair cuts at Barberella. Jane’s quirky small salon is .3 miles away on N. Broadway. Just around the corner, ad additional .1 miles from home, is Elite Dental, where we’ve been fortunate to find a good dentist who takes our insurance.

The Uptown branch of the Chicago Public Library is .4 miles away. Today I need to pick up a book I had transferred from the main library downtown. That may be a good excuse to stop at the Bar On Buena – a neighborhood tavern on the same block that grills up a superb burger served with sweet potato fries.

Wrigley Field is an easy .7 miles away. It’s so nice not to have to worry about transportation or parking. When the Cubs game is over, we slip out of the crowd and stroll home. On the way home, we often stop at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Fornello Trattoria, after which we toddle the remaining .4 miles. Or, if we feel like Mexican food, El Mariachi has a lovely outdoor courtyard, and is just .2 miles south on Broadway.

From our front door onto Montrose Beach on Lake Michigan is almost exactly a mile. It’s a little less to the first tee at Waveland Golf Course in Lincoln Park. On a nice day, the 1.4 miles to the Diversey Driving Range is a breeze.

In even the very worst weather, we can bundle up and make it the .2 miles to Dollop Coffee Co. for a morning brew. This eclectic coffee shop is housed in an old pharmacy with exposed brick walls, tiny black and white tiles on the floor, and broken down overstuffed chairs and sofas. We prefer it to Starbucks.

For a reasonably-priced and filling breakfast, we head to Arnolds diner (.1 miles). SOS Cleaners is on the same block; and even though we are infrequent customers, the ever-gracious Korean owner knows us by name.

We got our H1N1 shots at the Howard Brown Health Center (.4 miles). For prescriptions, we walk .6 miles down Broadway to Walgreens. We take a bus downtown when we need to visit our doctor.

There are multiple bus stops within a block of our home that take us just about anywhere we need to go. The closest el station (the Sheridan stop on the Red Line) is an easy .5 mile trip. (It’s the 42 stairs up to the platform that get your heart pumping!)

We love our little neighborhood around Bittersweet Place. Looking forward to spring, when we can enjoy it even more.

These Feet!

One of the things I will always remember about our recent trip to Europe was how much we walked! In four days in Rome, we figure we logged about 30 miles on foot – between our hotel and the Colloseum, through the Domus Aurea, to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican, the Pantheon, Palatine Hill, the Piazza Navona, the Forum Palatine Hill, the Piazza del Popolo, along the Tiber River, up the Via del Corso, across the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and back and forth on the Via dei Fiori Imperiali. In Athens, we climbed the almost 500 feet to the Acropolis. In Santorini, we passed up the tram and took the 600+ steps up 890 feet to the top of the volcanic cliffs above the sea. Oh, these feet!

I loved every minute of our walking explorations. Fortunately, I was smart when selecting footwear to pack. My fabulous little silver gladiator sandals with heels were reserved for a dinner reached by taxi. For all other city excursions, I had my Skecher tennies, Privo boots, or Privo flats. On one eight mile day, I admit I had to stop at a pharmacy for an emergency purchase of a gel toe sleeve, which saved me from what could have been a painful blister. My feet performed admirably, pampered with afternoon naps, hot baths, and foot crème before bed. Not bad for 54 years old, huh?

Walking in an unfamiliar place really gives you time and the perspective to soak up the local atmosphere – the sights and smells, the overheard conversations, and window-shopping. I have happily dodged scooters in Rome, mad taxi drivers on Sicily, and a stampede of donkeys on Santorini. We didn’t always know where we were going, or even where we were, but we enjoyed each day’s journey immensely.

The point of all this is that I am thinking about health, energy, and mobility – three things I am fortunate to have and to be able to enjoy as an early retiree. Traveling on a cruise ship, I saw many people with obvious physical problems requiring walkers and wheelchairs, and some with no more issues apparent than I myself had two or three years ago (unwanted extra weight and a lack of energy).

Let’s all get up off the sofa and move for our futures! Walk, stretch, eat wisely, keep moving, and participate in life’s little daily adventures. You will be investing in your future health and happiness.