It was 60 degrees in Chicago today. Posey and I took a casual stroll in our neighborhood, and I was reminded of one of the city’s charming quirks: Garbage. Everywhere. Our jaunt down Fullerton was full of swirling Wendy’s bags and empty tequila bottles. We love the city, but ever since Posey was born, I tend to see more of the negatives than the positives.

That being said, Beef and I are beginning the overwhelming task of deciding where our family will settle down– eventually. Since I grew up in the area north of the city, I am pretty much only well versed in those towns. Over the next several months, our goal is to explore some new ‘burbs, which I will chronicle here.

Up first: La Grange (23 miles from downtown)

Something about the name is so ugly. It reminds me of gangrene.  It sounds like a place fun-loving youngsters go to become mangy. Then we went to visit last Sunday… and you know what? It wasn’t half bad.

Pros:

• Super-cute downtown with places we’d totally go
• People walking around that didn’t scare us away
• Houses that have personality and are far from the cookie cutter sub-divisiony things I feared
• Easy access to highway, making it pretty accessible
• Close to Beef’s work

Cons:

• Far away from our parents
• Far from downtown (but not as far as a lot of other places)
• We don’t know anyone that lives there

Overall impression: I could picture us there. Beef can’t. But then again, he did have a really hard time adjusting after our last big move. Which was exactly 1.5 miles away.