Two men are punching each other until swollen and often bloody. Everyone is just standing around, but no one is doing anything to stop the violence.  Then one of them falls to the ground, seemingly knocked unconscious or nearly dead.  Did they get arrested? Was it on the evening news? Yes, but in the sports segment.

I went to my first boxing match in Chicago recently.
Before I even went, I started thinking about this ‘sport’ and asked my friend about it.

“But isn’t it barbaric?” I asked. “Two men just beating each other to a pulp, hurting their bodies?”

“In some ways yes,” Mark said, “but it’s also like the most real sport…just man against man and nothing else.”

I understand his point, but I personally don’t really like it…just watching two men beat each other up. Yes, I know there is intense training and strategy involved – I mean I have seen Rocky and more recently, The Fighter (“Head, body, head!”). But it still seems nuts to me.  But I do think it’s still not as bad as any kind of chicken or dog or bull fights where the animals don’t even have a say in the matter.

My friend Elizabeth, who was taking boxing lessons, invited me to watch her trainer fight in a Chicago tournament.   Since I’d never been to a boxing match, I figured ‘what the hell.’

The Chicago Golden Gloves boxing tournament has been held since 1923. Over the years, a few boxers, whom you may have heard of, have won the prestigious “Chicago Golden Gloves Champion” title including Cassius Clay, Joe Louis, Sonny Liston and numerous other U.S. Olympians.

Chicago Golden Gloves Charities believes “that training in boxing instills a sense of self-respect and accomplishment in the youth of our community who, at this impressionable age, are choosing their path in life. Thousands of young men, and now some young women, have learned discipline, self-esteem and how to realize goals through daily training at various boxing clubs throughout greater Chicagoland.”

Here’s my video from that night.
Click through to You Tube and select Full HD for best quality

What do you think? Is boxing a good sport or too violent/barbaric?

One of my favorite things about Chicago is all the quaint side streets with cute homes of all kinds — big, small, brick, wood, old, new, modern, funky, crumbly.  There are big yards, small gardens, and tiny nooks to hang out in and enjoy a good book on a sunny day.  Because of the variety, the neighborhoods are filled with undeniable character and charm.  It is the opposite of the cookie cutter look that some suburban subdivisions can take on.  I can ride my bike down any street and have trouble looking straight ahead as I gape at the various styles of architecture and designs to my left and right.  Recently, I took a stroll down Grace Street in my neighborhood of Lakeview.

View Grace Street, Chicago in a larger map

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain

Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job and traveling?  Running off and escaping the 9-5 to sit on a beach? Or just taking a longer break to live and breathe and enjoy life for once?  I have met dozens of people in the last five years who have told me this is their dream and they ‘wish they could do what I do.’ Well, if you are a regular reader of this blog – you know it really is possible – without a trust fund, without a partner, and…without a ‘net.’

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Chicago is a one of the largest cities in North America.  In this city of four million people, there is something for everyone whether you live here or are just here on a visit to tour Chicago: world-class theater, professional sports, cutting edge restaurants, fortune 500 companies, and arts of all kinds.  And then in addition to all that…we are lucky to have this huge body of water right outside our door, virtually creating one big park and beach as the front yard of the city.   Lake Michigan’s surface area of 22,400 square miles, makes it the world’s largest lake within one country and the fifth largest overall.  When you stand on the beach in Chicago, it is impossible to see across the lake to Indiana or Michigan.  Sorry, coastal folks, but we have our own virtual ‘ocean’ without the seaweed or the salty burning-eyes and it’s pretty damn cool.

The Chicago Park District’s nine lakefront harbors stretch from Lincoln Park in the northern part of the city to Jackson Park in the south. When you think boating, you probably think Miami or Southern California or even Seattle. But with accommodations for more than 5,000 boats, the Chicago Harbors surprisingly constitute the nation’s largest municipal harbor system.   That’s right…Chicago.

I’ve been out on the lake before in various tour boats and even a bit above it in a 4-seater plane, but this summer I got to enjoy the lake from a friend’s sailboat.  My friends Christine and Bill invited us out for a day on the lake. I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough.

“I’m on a boat!”

Take a look at this short video of our day:
If you can’t see the embedded video or would like to see it in sparkling HD, please go here – it’s worth it!

Riding my bike out to Montrose harbor made me more aware of this whole lake/boating culture here in Chicago that I am SO not a part of.  It’s a whole other world out there.  Just walking onto the dock felt like we were in Margaritaville.  People with Hawaiian shirts milled about.  Reggae music was playing out of at least two stereos.  Folks were wheeling their big plastic coolers in and dockside grills were being cleaned for the day.  There was a whole other ‘feeling’ in the air. It was like we weren’t in a big city anymore. We were in a beachside or island community.  The only thing missing was the clangy sound of steel drums.  These regular boaters are out here every weekend, enjoying the Chicago summer days, some never even taking their boat out, but just hanging out all day in a couple beach chairs on the dock.

The day could not have been more perfect.  We took the boat out. Got a semi-crash lesson in sailing by Bill. Cooled off (it was a very hot day) by jumping in the 77-degree lake (warm for us!) not far out from Foster Avenue beach. Enjoyed a tasty vegan lunch of quinoa salad, hummus, veggies, fruit, chips, homemade guacamole, and some cold beers of course (I am not vegan, but have been eating less meat and love all this stuff).

Then we spent the rest of the day sailing around, chatting, and just soaking up the sun (a little too much sun).  Just another perfect summer day in Chicago and another reason to love this city.

I love walking around residential areas of cities and checking out homes and architecture.  Much of Chicago’s wealthy Gold Coast neighborhood was originally a Catholic cemetery adjacent to the city’s cemetery at North Avenue which is now Lincoln Park.  In the 1860s, the graves were removed, but it was difficult to remove many of the remains.  As recently as 1998, construction in the park has revealed more bodies left over from the nineteenth century.  Creepy…and cool!

Soon after the cemetery was relocated, the Chicago Catholic Archbishop built a mansion for himself right on the corner of Astor and North Avenue.  By the early 1900s, many prominent Chicagoans moved to the fashionable north shore, and the Gold Coast was born. The area’s fascinating Astor Street, which features Art Deco and other design styles, as well as the former homes of Chicago’s most prominent families, gained landmark status in 1975.

Astor Street itself was named after John Jacob Astor, a German fur tycoon who moved to America at the end of the Revolutionary War.  According to Forbes, by the time of his death in 1848, he was the wealthiest person in the United States and was worth an estimated $20 million. Adjusted for inflation, his fortune is estimated to be worth anywhere from $1 to $100 billion dollars in today’s money.

View North Astor St., Chicago USA in a larger map