Hyde Park

Since we are all settled into our apartment, we've been exploring our new neighborhood, Hyde Park. We're located about seven miles south of downtown and a short jaunt from the lake.

At first glance, Hyde Park is mostly residential, but we've found pockets of activity. Most notable is the University of Chicago (where Grace starts classes in two weeks!!).  

We've had a chance to explore around campus a little...  Grace was highly entertained with the weird water fountain in front of the Law School Library.

There's a Frank Lloyd Wright house right smack in the middle of campus!

We visited back in the fall and were really impressed with all the cool old buildings on campus.  Some of the newer buildings (like Grace's building, which was built in the 60s) don't quite fit in with the older architecture.

Harold Washington Park, beyond the trees is the "Model Yacht Basin".

Kozminski Elementary School, across the street from our apartment building (we can hear kids playing outside before and after school hours).

Promontory Point Park juts out into Lake Michigan. We saw a lot of bikers, joggers, picnic-goers, and couples holding hands (which was to be expected as this is one of the "best places to kiss").

You can see the skyline in the distance from Promontory Point. We'll have to come back at dusk to see it all lit up.

Grace didn't know Chicago had sandy beaches, so we had to check it out.  It's getting too cold to do too much swimming this year (this is as far as Grace would go), but we'll definitely get back here a lot next summer.

Another view of Lake Michigan, we saw some people swimming from these large rocks even though there was a sandy beach down the way

Another staple of Hyde Park is the Museum of Science and Industry, just a mile from us.  We headed there on one of their "free-days" only to find out that we showed up 30 minutes before the museum closed!  So we just checked out the gift shop... We'll have to get back here when we have visitors.