first time in Chicago proper

Like many people, I'd been to Chicago many times before, but I'd never left the airport, so this week marked the first time that I'd actually visited Chicago, the city.

I was staying with my brother, and he lives in a pretty convenient area (south end of Gold Coast) so I was able to walk to lots of places: the Magnificent Mile shopping district, our Chicago office (somewhere in River North), and from there to Millennium Park, Lake Michigan, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

As I was walking around, I discovered I actually quite liked the way the city felt. I was lucky with the weather; the first two days were gorgeously sunny, at a temperature of around 70 degrees, and not too windy. The last day, it poured rain for several hours in the morning, but then cleared up beautifully by lunch.

Anyway, the buildings are somewhat reminiscent of Manhattan in that they are sharply vertical and have a lot of largeness and presence, but everything is much cleaner, and there are parks and boulevards lined with flowers (lots of tulips) everywhere. Streets are wider and everything looks newer than on the East Coast, but Chicago feels like a real city, compared to Los Angeles (which is basically just an overgrown suburb), or San Francisco (although I love it, it's small in both area and population).

Chicago is busy but not hectic, and it has character but isn't dirty. Pedestrians jaywalk in orderly fashion, people hang out in sidewalk cafes and restaurants after work, and both taxis and subways are convenient and accessible. I definitely wouldn't mind going back for another visit sometime. (Especially if it were for free.)