I’ve spent the majority of my days the past two years in Lincoln Park on the north side of Chicago, working on an education certificate and blogging in local cafes during my spare time. I’d generally have classes both in the morning and the evening, so I’d have a lot of time to kill during the afternoon.

My solution? Blog for a while, then head to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The zoo is a 15 minute walk away from DePaul, just far enough to get out of the harried student atmosphere and into a world of fuzzy animals.

I’ve spent a disturbing amour of time at the zoo, wandering around up to five days a week during the fall, winter, and spring. There’s something funny about writing snarky blog posts and then headin out to talk to the giraffes, but I love it and am kind of sad that I no longer have much reason to hang out in this neighborhood.

One cool thing about Chicago is how much nature there is close to downtown. Lincoln Park, Grant Park, Millineum Park, and numerous assorted city parks are scatteredd around the city center, making it easy to go chill out in nature during a long day.

Evanston is still home to me, with considerably more green places to hang out block-for-block, but Lincoln Park ain’t bad either!