A Visit With Eric And Family – The Area

Eric and Ann moved to Naperville, IL (southwest of Chicago) a couple of years ago and we had yet to make it up for a visit but things finally fell into place and we recently drove up for a long weekend.  In addition to seeing them and the grand kids and seeing their home and Naperville, we wanted to do some food things – eat a deep dish pizza, eat a Chicago hot dog, eat some ethnic food, and visit a sausage maker.

They live in a nice neighborhood which is now seeing its second generation of young owners and is typical of homes built around the early 60’s.  They have a shaded lot backed up to a golf course and a split level home that has a very similar floor plan to the one I spent my late teens living in – a plus for me was the need to negotiate stairs (good knee exercise) many times a day.  Here is a shot from Google Earth – no tree leaves when we visited.

Naperville is both a bedroom community for Chicago and a thriving college town with a fully functioning historic downtown area, which is a blend of specialty shops and restaurants – like most places, the primary shopping is mainly in malls.  

While the kids were in school and Ann worked, Eric, Bev, and I went to breakfast at Egg Harbor where we had three different and delicious meals – San Antonio Skillet, Popeye Crepes, ham & egg sandwich.

Then we wandered around town - I didn’t take my camera into town so here are some shots from the web.

We made several stops including a couple of clothing stores and these:

NaperNuts & Sweets for candy and popcorn.

Then we went to WAR Chest Boutique which is the retail arm of the non-profit organization Women At Risk.

Then it was on to VomFass which sells gourmet oils, vinegars, whiskey and wine.  I actually got my wallet out here.

It was a good day spent in the nice downtown area and while I made it sound like a nice little town (which downtown is) thanks to expanding borders, Naperville has a population of around 150,000 and is the 5^th largest city in Illinois.  It has also been voted 2^nd best place to live, best city for early retirement, wealthiest city in the Midwest, and one of the nation’s safest cities.  I believe I could live there if there wasn’t so much traffic and it was way further south, of course.

I’ll post about our eating adventures later.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

3/24/17 Event Date