The North Shore has almost everything. No need to belabor the point. Although, in a moment, we’ll probably do just that.
But first…
Every once in a while, you find yourself obligated to leave home and go on a trip whether you want to or not.
You try to be positive about it. Once you’re settled in, your belt is clicked and you take off, travel time is usually only about an hour and forty-five minutes.
While en route, with your seat tilted back a bit, you regret that you had to schedule your departure at workday’s end, the busiest time for travelers. But such things are often beyond your control.
As you sit suspended in time, your mind wanders to the point you made earlier: the North Shore has it all. Why leave?
There’s every kind of restaurant. Big, little, plain, fancy. There are pubs for fun, and also gourmet spots for those with adventuresome palates.
The North Shore even has Broadway-quality entertainment. A newly updated theater in Glencoe is said to be one of the country’s best. Hotels around here have great meeting rooms, banquet halls and congenial bars.
Nevertheless, sometimes your travel plans cannot be delayed or denied. So there you are, amid the sound of droning engines for the estimated, unavoidable one hour and forty-five minutes.
Yes, you’re creeping along the Edens. Then the Kennedy. Eventually you reach an off-ramp. The word “ramp” makes you think of air travel.
And the thought hits that this car ride to Chicago’s Loop takes the same time as a flight to New York would.