In case you haven’t experienced Door County and can’t imagine that Wisconsin would be a Cape Cod-like destination, here are a few photos to quash that doubt:

This snowplow (!) and these cars have been stuck sine at least 9 pm last night (photo taken at 8 am). This is after seeing people outside trying to shovel.

The wind is so powerful at this intersection that I was barely able to keep upright when walking home from the bus last night. About 2 hours after I got home, I saw a bus get stuck as well as numerous cars right at this intersection. Finally, a few cars got stuck for good.

I can’t get a good shot of Lake Shore Drive (just outside my window) due to the snow, but I saw the tops of many abandoned cars in the northbound lanes.

More scenes:

Lake Shore Drive during a break in the snow:

You can’t see the abandoned cars in this photo, but they’re there. The reason or the bald patches in the park and some roads despite the 18 inches of snow (so far) is due to the 60 mph winds. This is leading to some significant drifting down here.

If you look closely, you can see two cars that have spun out and been abandoned over the night. It’s calm up here in the air, but the wind is amazingly punishing out there, making it almost impossible for any vehicle to move on the streets outside my building:

The snow just started picking up again, burying that snowplow and taking visibility way down:

Luckily, these two guys (and my wife) are up here with me, and we’re enjoying a relaxing snow day. They don’t seem to care too much about the storm:

Hopefully this storm will pass and like can go back to a quasi-normal state tomorrow.

Over the years, I have enjoyed my own long walks through various areas of metro Chicago. I frequently walked from my former Rogers Park apartment to the Loop via the lakefront, and while living in Evanston I would walk all the way up to Wilmette. Now that I live in Hyde Park, I’ve been exploring the south lakefront of the city both by bike and on foot.

I decided to try out walking from my place in Hyde Park all the way up to DePaul University in Lincoln Park, which clocks in at about 11 miles. I had to teach a class at 6 pm that day, so I decided to leave around 1 pm, knowing that I could always hop a train once downtown if I wimped out. Though it was the middle of November, this particular day was sunny and around 70 degrees, making for particularly pleasant walking weather.

I used the 51st street Lake Shore Drive overpass to access the lakefront. Here’s a shot of my neighborhood (South Kenwood, which is technically not Hyde Park, though I live on the dividing street between the two neighborhoods). Having this overpass right next to my building is a huge plus for living in this area.

This stretch of the lakefront bike path is significantly less crowded than the stretch from McCormick Place up through the Loop and Lincoln Park, and I was in relative solitude despite the warm and sunny day. The city skyline is clearly visible in this shot, and I knew that I’d be passing all of these buildings before arriving at my destination.

At 47th Street, the trail splits for a brief stretch, and you have the option of either climbing the hill or taking the flat path near the lake. I opted for the low road.

I love the art deco high-rises contained in South Kenwood. The Narragansett and the Powhatan provide real architectural interest amongst the plainer 1960s and 70s high-rises of the area.

Oakwood (41st Street) Beach was completely silent as I walked past, save for the pack of seagulls chilling out on the sand.

McCormick Place emerges from the horizon as I continue north as do Prairie Shores and Lake Meadows, the mid-rise buildings along Martin Luther King Boulevard.

A large swath of the parkland along the south lakefront is being converted to a natural prairie habitat. I saw a coyote wandering along this stretch of land back in the summer.

As I rounded the curve by McCormick Place, I saw that all the boats had (sadly) vanished for the season. Soldier Field and the new South Loop skyline are visible front-and-center in this shot.

This stretch of trail around the Shedd Aquarium has got to be one of the most drop-dead gorgeous views of downtown Chicago.

Though I was now on the south end of Grant Park right in the heart of the city, most of my companions consisted of seagulls.

Traffic on the path started to pick up a little as I crossed the Chicago River.

I was starting to get pretty seriously fatigued as I neared Oak Street Beach.

As I neared North Avenue, where I would cross under Lake Shore Drive and chug through the city the last mile or two to DePaul, I paused for a look back on the John Hancock Center and the Mag Mile, a view I was extremely familiar with after all my gig commutes downtown from the North Side.

North Avenue was a piece of cake. On my walks from the north side south to this area, I always felt like I’d “arrived” when I hit this stretch, which is the border between the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park. This day, I also felt that sense of arrival.

As I hit the corner of Belden and Halsted, it dawned on me that I’d now have to teach a two hour class–not a fun prospect after walking for nearly four hours! I stopped off for a burrito and about a 1/2 hour sit (collapse), then got my creaky bones over to the music building, where I taught a very mellow class before taking the train home.

Click here for a video of an actual octobass in action.

Justin Kern | A Slideshow | The University of Chicago

http://picasaweb.google.com/jonas.lohse/Bass2010#

This room is always filled with sunlight and is great for either getting work done (like I am now) or just hanging out. you can see Lake Shore Drive, Promontory Point, and the Museum of Science and Industry, and the big park is Harold Washington Park, named after the great Chicago mayor and home to a flock of green monk parakeets (I kid you not!).

Though from the mid-1970s, my buildings have a certain sense of grandeur, particularly at night. Here’s a shot from the train stop–mine is the illuminated building in the center right. Since we’re on the top floor, I can always tell from very far away if Courtney’s home or not based on the lights (our corner is dark here, hence no Courtney).