magnificent geekery in chicago (iii)

So from Spring, I headed southwest. After a stop-off at Loyola medical center, I went to Stickney. It's a really nice little 'burb out in southwest Chicago area. I was surprised at how much open land there was in the form of forest preserves. The land is dotted with them. Here's one maybe 10 min up the road from Lunicka's den --



It was the first forest preserve I saw, so I was so impressed I pulled off the road to take pics. Later on I realized these things dot the land in that area *LOL*

This is a lovely tree from that preserve:



Here are some pretty little townhouses in the area:




This is getting near the commercial center of the Stickney area. TBH the suburbs in Illinois are so different from the ones in California. All in all I feel like Illinois is much less populated than Cali. Chicago is a BIG city -- bigger than SF, I think -- but it feels so much more empty!

Anyway, commercial center!




That's Highway 43 around 36th st or so. Interestingly, Highway 43 is actually a stretch of Route 66. I didn't realize that!

I think this is Highway 43 and Ogden:




And just past that, I saw this!




I just happened to be dying of thirst right then, so I pulled over and went shopping:



It was actually a really nice supermarket inside, all well-lit and well-furnished. I tried to surreptitiously take a pic by nonchalantly leaning my elbows on a french bread rack, but I think I just looked even more suspicious *LOL*



After that, I headed over to the den. I overshot 40th street, so I ended up going up 41st or 42nd first:




Nice little burbs. Tiny houses, but well-kept and safe-looking :) I came up Oak Park Ave, where I found the local library:



Unfortunately, just across the street was a cemetery. Yeech! Who the hell builds a cemetery across from the library? It was a very nice cemetery, but still.

As I was maneuvering my way toward 40th, I saw this on Oak Park and 40th:



Daw. It's not even a town. It's so tiny it's a village!

From there, I finally got onto 40th and started heading toward the den. This is still 2-3 blocks off:



You're gonna see a lot of tree-lined streets like this. We don't have a lot of trees in Cali, so I was very amazed by the presence of trees.



About a block and a half from the den, I passed this nice little playground:



Annnnd next up: den + surroundings, and Czech Kitchens!