Memorial Day at the Beach (And thank heavens there is a beach!)

Here in Chicagoland, this has been a colder spring than usual – so I am told. Thus I was thrilled to find out that we’d have a sunny, clear, thunderstorm-free Memorial Day of 91 degrees. Yahoo!

Of course, 91 degrees is HOT. And what does any sane person want to do on a day such as this? Go to the beach, of course. Now, I’ve lived on the West Coast and on the East Coast and so the beach is a viable option in either of those places. But now I live in the Mid-west, nowhere near an ocean. But to my very pleasant surprise, the shores of Lake Michigan feel very much like an ocean. You can look out at the water and see no signs of land, so far and vast is this expansive lake. Up to this point, however, I’ve only seen Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. And while the waterfront is beautiful, it’s no beach. There isn’t a sandy spread to lay out a beach towel and an umbrella.

But the locals informed me that if one moves beyond Grant Park, you can indeed find sandy beaches downtown. And, in the northern suburbs, there are some amazing beaches. So James and I decided to go check out the beaches in Evanston. This is a great town north of Chicago, where Northwestern is located. It has great shops, restaurants, parks, bookstores, and, beaches. James and I were thrilled as we strolled the paths along the water…and the beaches were hopping for Memorial Day! Volleyball, massive family BBQ’s, sandcastles, soccer, ice cream, and everything that makes for a good summer day.

So my plan is this…hit the beaches as many times as possible this summer, to store up on some Chicago lovin’ before I hit the winter again. Because man, I really hate the winters here. But I do love beaches, and Chicago, it turns out, has a lot of them. Thank heavens.