City of Villages: Albany Park

Whooops! I haven't really been keeping up with the blog; too busy living my life to write about it which is a lovely feeling indeed. But I am still exploring my new home; determined to find every cheap, good restaurant in the city.

This weekend we traveled to the far reaches of North Chicago to explore the Latino book fair at NE Illinois University. Although the book fair was kind of a bust (unless everybody poops in Spanish is what you are searching for) the neighborhood was cute, almost suburb like; a haven of the middle class 70's lifestyle preserved in Chicago and then surrounded by Mexican restaurants and 5 for 10 buck panty shops. Yes you read right; 5 for 10 bucks.

So after the bust of a book fair, we wandered into a random mexican restaurant and order the staples, tacos, tortas and horchata. It was perfect. After satisfying our mexican food cravings, we enjoyed the walk back in the almost 80 degree sun to the kimball brown line stop.

From kids in tricycles to university quads to cool and quiet mexican restaurants, Albany Park isn't the bustling metropolitan hub that one envisions Chicago to be. It is quite the opposite, a mix of middle class families from all different backgrounds coexisting on the peripheral of the city. awww warm fuzzies.



the albany park public library