Day 5: Chicago, IL

Image of the day: A self-portrait in front of the Bean, the new sculpture in downtown Chicago. Some of the skyline is reflected in the background.

Trip meter at start of day: 1,006.0 mi (on the Sentra)
Gas: None bought today

After waking up in my cousin's apartment in the South Loop of downtown Chicago, I needed to go to my sister's apartment in Lincoln Park. Any sensible person would have taken the El train system to travel 5.6 miles. I walked.

Walking is a dirty word in America. People drive three blocks to the grocery store just to pick up a gallon of milk. Even people without a car wouldn't be caught dead walking. Any decent American city-dweller depends on the subway and bus system; to walk more than a mile in a city is either an adventure or a hassle, depending on your outlook. It is almost never, however, a matter of habit. There should be no question as to why Americans are some of the fattest people on the planet. When I told my cousin and sister last night that I would walk to Claire's in the morning, they took out a map and desperately tried to persuade me not to go. I wouldn't listen; Friday, I was going to walk, and nothing was going to stop me from using my God-given two legs. Clearly I was in the grips of madness, but my cousin and sister let me go.

As I headed north, I was amazed by one sight after another, some of which I had forgotten since my childhood: the Chicago Public Library downtown; the old Water Tower; the recently constructed Millenium Park, complete with a large fountain area and the Bean, a three-dimensional fun-house mirror that reflects the skyline on the outside and distort images of yourself on the inside. I walked through the Lincoln Park Zoo, which I had forgotten was free, and saw lions, a jaguar and seals. I picked up a copy of the Onion, found out the Art Institute of Chicago is free on Thursday and Friday evenings, and gave five bucks to the American Civil Liberties Union. (After working as a door-to-door fundraiser in 2004, I try to support canvassers with small donations. It turns out that the guy who was working for the ACLU was working for the same organization that I had worked for when it was contracted in 2004 to the Democratic National Committee.) I walked along the lakefront, found two ATMs for my bank, ate an Italian beef sandwich, and scouted out my sister's new neighborhood for good stores and restaurants.

Yes, it took me three hours to do all this, but there was no need to rush; remember, I'm unemployed and on a trip. I could have taken the El and gotten there in a half-hour, but then I wouldn't have seen so much of the city. My feet are a little sore, but that's a small price to pay for a full day of exploring the city.