Oak Park!

It’s oaky, it’s parky, it’s Oak Park, our final destination on the Amazing Epic Eastern Road Trip of 2012. I guess Oak Park is considered a suburb of Chicago, but it doesn’t resemble a suburb in the way I think of suburbs – planned communities with houses made of ticky tacky. It compares more favorably to Brooklyn, a smaller city/borough within a larger metropolitan area.

In a word, Oak Park is totally and completely awesome. Ok, that was more than one word. I could envision living there except for the insane cold and wind in winter. Otherwise, they’ve got all the good stuff – shops, restaurants, walking city, art, history, easy access to Chicago. But, best of all, Good Friend Deborah lives in Oak Park.

We stayed in, perhaps, the only hotel in Oak Park. With the “L” right around the corner, Chicago was but a short-ish train ride away. Hi-ever, we didn’t even venture into the Bean madness because Oak Park had so much to offer.

Like, cool retro signs and architecture…

Groovy city art…

Beautiful, tree-lined streets with amazing, colorful old houses complete with porch dog…

And the lovely Deborah who met us at Poor Phil’s for some brew and noshing. Poor Phil’s has one hella beer selection, in bottle and on tap and is one of the restaurants connected to the Carleton Oak Park, pretty much the only hotel in Oak Park.

You may know that Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked in Oak Park at the beginning of his career. Yes he did.

Category: Bars, Drink up!, Friends, Illinois, Oak Park, Signs