For someone that has grown up his entire life in the northern suburbs of Chicago, I haven’t spent much time downtown in my lifetime. In fact, in the time span of almost 30 years (boy, that number’s starting to scare me), I’ve probably spent a grand total of 7 days downtown. Sheesh.

Well, with not much to do this past Sunday, we decided to hop in the car and take an afternoon drive downtown, and of course, I had to bring my camera. We found ourselves at Belmont Harbor, just north of all the major sights and attractions like Navy Pier and Soldiers Field. We walked around for about a half hour and I was able to take a few dozen photos while we were there. It was such a beautiful day out temperature-wise, albeit overcast, for the first weekend of November, and there were quite a few people out there on bikes, roller blades, or just their running shoes and man’s best friend trotting along side them.

Most of the day after that first stop was spent driving around and getting familiar with where everything is. We cruised Lake Shore Drive mostly and took a view side trips to see if we could get lost. 🙂 For whatever reason, I’ve always had a weird stigma about driving around downtown Chicago, but I think this was a good step forward for me (as childish as that sounds).

After this initial trip into the big city, we’re certainly going to be planning a few more visits in the coming weeks. It’s always a magical sight in Chicago during winter when the streets light up, shopping down Michigan Avenue becomes a battle against the elements and the crowds, and everyone is in such a jolly mood. I look forward to capturing many of those moments in my photos.

Until then, you can check out my newly created Chicago photo set on Flickr and be sure to check back for more photos in the coming months.