Exploring Evanston

I live in Evanston, Illinois, which is a college town just north of Chicago. It has a population of just under 100,000 people. Most of it is densely populated, much like Chicago. South Evanston in fact looks almost exactly like Chicago.

Evanston is a beach town. That statement may seem strange to someone who hasn’t been to Chicago before. Lake Michigan, the body of water east of Evanston and Chicago, would be called a sea in any other country. It is can be a rough body of water, and there have been many shipwrecks over the years. It can be very choppy, and much of the coast is rocky.

Surfing in Lake Michigan is probably never as satisfying as surfing in California or Hawaii, but people still do it. The water is very cold, even in the summer. You don’t have to worry about sharks, just three-foot carp brushing against you (and the rocky shore).

Northwestern University dominates Evanston. It existed here before Evanston, and the town itself is named after John Evans, one of the founders of Northwestern. Here you can see a large part of the campus. Most of the visible campus buildings in this photo are on Northwestern’s lakefill, which was built out into the lake in the 1960s.

Here’s another shot of Northwestern. You can see how choppy the lake is-this day was not very windy, and I have seen the lake much choppier than this. The weather this week has been great, with the high usually in the mid-80s Fahrenheit. This is a real contrast to last week’s 100+ degree temperatures.