Monday, June 6, 2011

Foiled by Public Transportation

No pictures because I didn't want the extra weight of a camera.  I should have pack it because I saw all kinds of great stuff once I got down to the loop on Saturday.  I say ONCE because I was stuck on a Metra train for about an hour and forty five minutes.  I was headed downtown to take a free Zumba class at Millennium Park.  The friends I was meeting were kind enough to hang out a little after the class so I could say hi when I finally made it.  The Avon Cancer Walk was taking place this weekend so I saw groups of women in pink walking around the city.  I read later they started very close to my house and walked all the way to downtown.

After saying and quick hello and then walking them to the blue line, I walked down to the Printer's Row Lit Festival.  It was a super hot day with full sun.  The Lit Fest is a lot of book sellers with tables of books for sale.  I don't buy a lot of books so I made a quick circle of the booths and decided to head to the nearby library.  The cool interior of the library was a welcome relief from the hot sun.

The main reason for the visit was I didn't want to get on public transportation again without something to read for my commute back home.  I made a wise decision.  While waiting for a bus to take me north where I wanted to do a little shopping the national "Slut Walk" came marched by.  This was a huge walk that after about 5 minutes I decided to walk past and headed north on foot.  I walked all the walk to the brown line to get a train since I didn't know how much longer I would have to wait for the bus.  I lucked out with a brown line approaching just as I reached the platform.  Smooth sailing until Belmont, then we sat in the station for a good fifteen minutes.  I ended up making the correct decision of grabbing a book because I would have gone crazy waiting a second time in one day.

Once the train was moving again I decided to get off at Montrose and stopped for lunch at First Bite, a great little cafe in the local arts center.  A delicious ginger iced tea and barley salad revived me enough that I decided to walk down to Clark Street.  Clark had been my original destination when I was waiting for a bus.  Just north of Montrose on Clark there is a strip of wholesale stores open to the public on Saturdays.  I had been in one a while back and saw a sun hat I really liked.  Of course I didn't buy it at the time and have thought of it since.  They didn't have the color I wanted so I continued on and started the short walk home.

Lesson learned for the day:  Always have your iPod and a book because you never know how long it's going to take you to get where your going.  A camera might be a good idea too.

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