Chicago, That Toddling Town

If I were at all content with living in an extremely cold winter climate, I'd think seriously about moving to Chicago. The portions of the city that I've experienced firsthand are fun, unique, and interesting, and from what I've seen since, the city continues to place an emphasis on inventive architecture and art.

Today, the New York Times' website published "36 Hours in Chicago"; Fred Bernstein spends a day and a half visiting some of the venues the city has to offer.

Some sound fun, others sound uninteresting—to me, at least. But reading the article led me to reminisce about some of the enjoyable parts of Chicago that I've experienced in the past.

Back in 1993, my family and I stopped and spent a few days in Chicago, en route to California. My parents wanted to take us to places that would be suitable for a toddler (my brother was only two), and so took us to the Chicago Children's Museum.

It was, in a word, AMAZING.

I wish I remembered some of the particulars better, but I do remember that each exhibit was essentially an educational play station for kids. There was one that contained hula-hooping (I unsurprisingly failed at that one), one that allowed coloring, and one that held Legos (I loved that one).

This place was basically one giant playground, comprised of everything a kid could ever want to play with—at least in the early '90s. I'm slightly curious as to how it's changed over the years; from what I see on the website, there are probably things there that I'd still enjoy, as sad as that is.

Towards the end of my senior year of high school (2004), I returned to Chicago, although this time with a large group of my peers. The trip took us all over the city, including a brief jaunt to The Magnificent Mile and a night at the theater to see The Blue Man Group perform. They are hilarious and fantastic, by the way, so if you ever have the chance to see them...do it. We also visited and went up to the top of the then-Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower) and spent an evening hanging out at the Navy Pier, which is pretty when it's all lit up at night.

So get out there if you get the chance, though perhaps you might want to visit between March and November, so as to avoid the seemingly five hours of daylight and the bone-chillingly cold temperatures. It's a little less exciting to see all the beautiful architecture when it's dark out and you've lost the feeling in your body.

I'd love to revisit this place, if only so I could take photograph after photograph with a digital camera, rather than the film camera I toted around six years ago. But I'll bet re-exploring the city would be pretty great, too.

Carolina in My Mind

I've been daydreaming a lot about other places I want to visit in the United States, so I've created a follow-up to my previous list.

Technically, these should probably be numbered 6 & 7, but if looking at all seven, I'd want to rearrange their order and expound on my previous five entries. So I will stick with 1 & 2.

1. Wilmington, North Carolina

As I've mentioned before, I've loved North Carolina since I was young. It's a southern state without being too far south, parts of it are charming and beautiful, and it's got great weather, without being too extreme in either direction. The aggressive humidity could take a hike, though.

Wilmington is located in the southeastern portion of the state, about an hour from the coast. It's a fairly small city, but is absolutely gorgeous.

It's been a relatively long time since I was last in North Carolina, but one of the things I remember about the state is the gorgeous greenery everywhere—Wilmington is no exception; look at that Spanish moss!

Wilmington seems like a wonderful place to live—it's not overwhelmingly large, it's beautiful, and if the line about southern hospitality is to be believed, the people are polite and kind. I like small cities and the cost of renting in Wilmington has got to be dirt cheap. It's near the ocean as well as a river (and I think the Riverfront is so charming and picturesque).

Of course, my rationality always rears its head, and I tell myself that I could never realistically live here, as I don't think the job market in this particular area is all that great.

I think it'd be relatively easier to find a job in the Raleigh-Durham area (the latter being one of the cities on my first list). So maybe one day I'll live in North Carolina and spend long weekends visiting Wilmington and the surrounding areas. That would be glorious.

2. Charleston, South Carolina

Don't be fooled; I am not in love with the South, though this list seems to indicate otherwise. I balk at a lot of Southern traditions, and the general conservatism that tends to inundate the area isn't something with which I can easily identify. I doubt I could ever live any further south than North Carolina. But living and visiting are two very different things.

I always imagine Charleston as comparable to Savannah, both in look and feel, although I have nothing to back this up beyond Google Images searches and the occasional internet article.

Whenever I picture either city, I imagine antebellum buildings and homes, a style that I always perceive as the visual embodiment of the South. And it's a nice image to have: the wide porches, long columns, and stark white color are beautiful, and are so reminiscent of the Greek and Roman structures that influenced this particular style.

But Charleston's culture and architecture is diverse, so while there's overall a sort of pristine look to the city (made stronger by the large number of churches), Charleston is more than rows and rows of similar-looking buildings. That would probably be a little boring, visually speaking.

Charleston is also said to have some of the strongest historic preservation in the country; many of the historic buildings date back to the Civil War. From what I read, the city's residents also exemplify the charm, friendliness, and courtesy associated with much of the South, too.

I'm sure there are some interesting places to visit in Charleston, but honestly, all I want to do is walk around, take a bunch of pictures, and soak in the uniqueness of the city, aesthetic and otherwise.

Also, the New York Times published "36 Hours in Charleston" on their website yesterday. Check it out.

Hopefully one day I'll be able to cross at least one (if not both!) of these places off my list. For now, I'll just have to settle for fawning over pictures of these cities. I got a little heady just looking at pictures of Wilmington and Charleston. Seriously. Give it a try—they're insanely gorgeous.

On the Streets of Philadelphia

Despite having grown up within an hour of Philadelphia, my visits to the city have been few and far between over the course of my life. I think I've been into the city more times since my high school graduation than I did in the seventeen years prior. So every trip I take into Philly tends to be a new and unique experience.

I had dinner in Philadelphia this past weekend and La Fontana Della Citta, a quaint Italian restaurant located on Spruce Street (which means close to nothing to me, as I know and understand very little about the setup of the city).

Since I am a carb lover, I always enjoy bread baskets. Italian restaurants, in particular, generally create an olive oil and pepper/spices dipping plate for the bread, but this restaurant did not. Instead, we were forced to play around with the olive oil, pepper, and salt containers to create our own delicious (though atrociously messy) plates.

After fawning over the different menu options, I finally decided on the Gnocchi Sorrentina, which is a fancy name for gnocchi that is served in a "light pink sauce" (and which I found to be similar in taste to a vodka sauce). The dish was delectable, though I found myself wishing that it was made with regular pasta instead of gnocchi, if only because I'd have been able to ingest more of the meal without becoming so abysmally full.

Several of the other girls around me also ordered the gnocchi (and also loved it immensely), while others had dishes such as the fettuccine alfredo and risotto, and everyone's opinion of the food seemed to be favorable.

Other things of note:

The wait staff was both friendly and polite, particularly considering the fact that they were waiting on a fairly large-sized party.

The restaurant is BYOB, which tends to be helpful and cost-effective when dining with large parties (or ever, really).

While I'll certainly keep this restaurant in mind as a good place to eat, I doubt I'll ever actually return, if only because my trips to Philly are so few and far between, and usually so distinctive. But it's definitely worth checking out, if you're looking for a good Italian meal in the city.

Take a Look, It's in a Book

In light of the recession, families everywhere are opting to take "staycations," a vacation that takes place close to or in one's own home.

In a New York Times essay, Joe Queenan discusses his own nerdtastic, literary staycation—visits to a few towns in eastern Pennsylvania, all of which have some sort of literary relevance.

As he says, "The idea was to combine local color and cuisine with a visit to the old stomping grounds of...three very different American writers."

Pretty awesome, pretty geeky, and thus, pretty much something I adore.

So I got to thinking: If I could plan my own literary staycation, where would I choose to go?

Cities such as New York and San Francisco are obviously rich with literary history; in addition to hosting movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and the Beat Generation, so many authors set their stories in these particular regions. So how could you possibly begin to narrow your trip down to just a few places? (I would, however, really like to see some of the Beats' stomping grounds some time.)

My pure adoration for Pablo Neruda makes me want to go to Chile, but I'm pretty sure that trips to South America don't fall within the jurisdiction of a staycation.

I'd be interested in exploring Pittsburgh, too, as it relates to Michael Chabon. Chabon went to college at the University of Pittsburgh, and his first two novels (The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys) are set in this city.

And one of the literary loves of my life, Jeffrey Eugenides, was born and raised in Detroit. It's also the setting for a large portion of his second novel, Middlesex, while his first, The Virgin Suicides, is set in Grosse Pointe, a Detroit suburb. I'd be interested in exploring the city with the knowledge that it's clearly a region that he finds both familiar and inspiring. Additionally, since the Michigan portions of the novels are set in the '60s and '70s, respectively, I think it'd be fascinating to see how much of the city has changed since then, and how it differs from the picture I painted in my head after reading his works.

I wouldn't mind visiting the old homes of writers, the ones that have been preserved and added to the NRHP. For example, Walt Whitman's house is in Camden, New Jersey (although I have no interest in roaming that city without several bodyguards) and e.e. cummings' is in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As you can see, I can hardly plan a concrete trip around these places, as they are located all across America. While I'm sure I could find literary significance in many places, I think part of the trick is finding literary significance in which you're interested, or at the very least, with which you're familiar.

My inability to select a location comes as no surprise. I am notoriously indecisive when it comes to making very simple decisions, such as "what should I wear today?" or, more commonly, "what do I want to eat? Because everything looks delicious." Give me a more complex decision to make, however, and I'll tackle that in a methodical, time-effective way.

I'll just stick to visiting literary locations when I'm in the area, though it's probably something I should tackle either alone or with fellow nerds. I forced my family to comply with my request to visit the Folger Shakespeare Library on a trip to Washington D.C. about five years ago, and I think my brother fell asleep just listening to me talk about going there. It was fun, though, and I bet a lot of these literary locations would be, too.

Nerd Alert: The title of this post comes from the Reading Rainbow theme song. I watched this show ALL THE TIME as a child, so I suppose I've been cultivating my geeky side for a long time.