fifty things

in honor of my 50th blog post (wow, that went fast!), and our first three months in northern california, here are 25 things that we miss about chicago and another 25 things that we've learned about the bay area.

mark and i worked on these together, and it was fun to see what we could come up with! thanks, honey, for your help.

what we miss about chicago:

1. our families


2. our many wonderful friends, especially our brunch club ladies and poker buddies


3. being able to get together with them on a moment's notice - now it takes a lot of planning (and a plane trip)


4. our church family, and singing with the choir and praise ensemble


5. driving down lake shore drive in the summer with the windows rolled down to let in the mist from buckingham fountian settle in


6. seeing that gorgeous skyline (san francisco has NOTHIN' on chicago)


7. the amazingly beautiful lakefront


8. how easy it was to find a beautiful place to run


9. watching the air and water show from the rooftop of our family friend's marine drive condo building. let me tell you, those blue angels came awfully close


10. balmy summer nights, where you can sit outside without fear of getting chilled


11. seeing the leaves change into the gorgeous colors of autumn. feeling the seasons change.


12. knowing that we won't have even a dusting of snow at christmas. what will i do with my wool coat, or mark with his favorite leather jacket?


13. walking around old orchard. or any mall for that matter. we haven't been in (or found) a single we've moved away


14. side streets. around here, there's often only one way to get to where you're doing. you get pretty tired of the same two lane road after 19 miles


15. especially when the radio stations don't come in clearly. mark misses V103 and tom joiner in the morning. i miss my good ol' country, US99


16. all the wonderful food choices, including:


17. the greek islands - opaa!!


18. hecky's bbq (and to be honest, this is a substitute for mark's all-time hole-in-the-wall south-side bbq favorite - dds)


19. jimmy johns (seriously - there's no better sandwich, and we miss you)


20. portillos (beef-n-sausage sandwiches don't even exist in the bay area)


21. giordanos pizza (and although the bay area has something similar to offer, its just not the same)


22. having jamba juice and potbellys right next to each other in evanston. we've tried jamba and quiznos, but its just not the same


23. okay, enough about food. we also miss good ol' chicago sports


24. da bears don't show up quite frequently enough on the cable around here (although after this weekend's game, that just might be a blessing!)


25. and, of course, we love the bulls and the white sox, too

ah, sweet home, chicago.

things we've learned about the bay area:

1. the drivers here are terrible


2. apparently, the use of turn signals and heeding the right-of-way aren't standard driving procedure, and tailgating at 70mph is the norm. please tell me why WE have to take a driver's test in order to get a california licence?


3. motorcycles drive in whatever bit of space they manage to find between cars - much like i saw when i visited botoga, colombia a few years ago


4. if you want to get through rush hour quickly, make sure you have 2 other people with you - carpool lanes here even faster than chicago's express lanes


5. there is a $4 toll to cross any bridge (and $5 for the golden gate). that's a minimum of $8 for us to travel into san francisco or head to palo alto! and it costs at least $4 to get home from east bay. there are a total of 6 bridges in the surrounding area - kinda hard to avoid. thankfully, mark's trip to school is toll free.


6. whereas the traffic isn't worse that chicago's when driving within san francisco, getting there is a whole 'nother story. i spent almost 3 hours (and $8) driving to the airport one morning.


7. u-turns are allowed at almost every intersection


8. there are hills everywhere. and they're tough to run.


9. we have been reminded of God's spleandor and nature's beauty again and again. just today, on his trip home from school, mark was struck by the awesome beauty of the mountains meeting the water.


10. and how about the weather? it really doesn't rain here in the summer


11. on the flip side, though, summer in san francisco is truly cold. as in, 55 degrees, cold. as in, foggy, cold. as in, i-need-to-wear-a-fleece-jacket-in-the-middle-of-july, cold. good thing we live inland, where the sun shines and the temperature is a comfortable 75 degrees.
    in fact, as soon as the thermometer falls below 60, the winter coats come out (including down and fur. really, now.)


12. driving on snow and ice is viewed as a horrific experience


13. and we've been asked more than once about having to put chains on our tires to make it through the winter :)


14. with napa valley a hop skip and jump away, you can buy wine just about anywhere. even at some coffee shops, i've heard.


15. unfortunately, as great as they are at making wine, they CANNOT make giardinera. we had a craving for italian beef last week, and could only find a "napa valley company" giardinera at the local grocery. much to our dismay, it was large pieces of carrots and cauliflower, soaking in vinegar! where were the peppers? and the oil? so disappointing.
    
16. oddly enough, sticks of butter are shaped differently. they're fatter and shorter here


17. and milk and eggs seems to costs twice as much


18. green is the color of choice! as city-wide bans on plastic bags are being discussed, we've seen reusable fabric bags pop up in many local stores.


19. interracial couples are notably common - especially the combination of black and asian:)


20. there are no blue police surveillance cameras monitoring for crime in the neighborhood or gunshots to wake us in the middle of the night, both of which we experienced near our most recent home in chicago


21. and as opposed to having different "sides" of the city to avoid due to their high crime, there's only one truly dangerous area in the bay, which it is much easier to avoid at all costs


22. "banged" hats - those cocked slightly to the side - appear on teens everywhere, and don't symbolized any gang affiliations


23. vendors do an excellent job of preventing theft by asking to see your license with every credit card purchase


24. and interestingly enough, the main "wildlife" we see roaming around are stray cats. its a funny reminder to us of our 5-year anniversary trip to jamaica last year, and the "don't feed the cats" signs :)