Branching out in Lincoln Park
Simply walking down the streets of Chicago is an easy way to escape the world of stress or a short solution to forget about everything that’s going wrong. When walking around without looking at a phone, you have no where else to look beside your surroundings. You begin to see the beauty of the streets and soon enough you experience things using your five senses. Once you hear, smell, touch, and see the outdoors, a person really becomes alive. Another thing with walking in a city that is familiar, you have connections or memories tied to a street or place which can give off emotions. For example, Greenview is a street that makes me think of my childhood, living on that street two times and how my mom would take ten minutes putting on gloves, boots, a scarf, and a coat on me for a three-minute walk during the cold icy weeks of February.
4:50 pm, My walk begins walking south on Stockton Drive, I look to the left and see all of the green grass and then tilted my head upwards to see the old huge trees that populate Lincoln Park. I hear a faint sound of children laughing and I can smell the freshly cut grass.
4:55 pm, turning on to Lincoln, I discover a park with the theme of the zoo seeing children climb over statues of a lion, a money, and a hippo. I then look ahead spotting two toddler twins racing on their scooters, successfully escaping the park with both Mom and Dad chasing after them.
5:10 pm, I walked into R.J Grunts as a resting place but also to eat dinner because why not and I’ve heard good reviews about the food and milkshakes.
5:15 pm, Right as I entered, I’ve notice the place was really crowded, had a lot of art on the walls; unable to make any room for more. The menu was like no other than I’ve seen before. Looking through the pages each description made me smile on how the writer made it as if you asked the most honest person for advice. I ended up getting a wrap and decided on a peanut butter milkshake after debating between that or Oreo.
5:20 pm, Shortly after getting my milkshake, I realized that I will be coming back again for more. The place was warm and cozy and that with how the restaurant is layout, you feel like one big family being inches away from other tables. Hearing the mix of conversations coming from one side of the room to the other, it gets to a point where you can’t hear your own thoughts, out of no where a woman drops her glass and shatters as it hits the floor. Everyone became very silent until one person behind me says “Opa” followed by a couple of giggles.
5:50 pm, I exit the restaurant making my way back towards the zoo. I notice the sun beginning to set and the area quiet.
6:10 pm, As I made my way back to the garden in between the zoo and the conservatory, I noticed this sign with a historic picture of the formal garden and compare it to present day.
6:15 pm, Walking into the garden it was hard not to notice to plants and sunset so I decided to take a picture that gives you both at the same time. Standing here I felt the heat of the sun and the sweet smell of the flower’s scent.
6:17 pm, At the middle of the garden it this fountain as you can see above and as a kid, whenever I visited the zoo, I would always find a way to get here and get the chance to toss a coin in and make a wish. Looking down at the bottom closely you could see all kinds of coins and maybe even some euros.
6:24 pm, Making sure to look at people in the area, at the end of the day this couple stayed in my mind. I made up a story that they were parents who hired a babysitter for the night and after going out to eat, they came here to sit next to each other to enjoy one another’s company and have a couple of moments of silence before heading back home.
