A few scenes from earlier this month in Chicago, walking downtown into the Loop from River North, later walking to the Van Buren Street Metra station, and scenes from my visit to the Chicago suburb of Homewood, Illinois.

I liked Homewood a lot from the brief time I spent there. Its character reminds me of the Philadelphia suburbs, particularly Main Line towns like Narberth. Though you do not see freight trains and commuter trains coexisting like Metra and freight do in Chicago. Seeing double decker Amtrak trains, Metra trains, and freight on that trip brought me back to my 2011 Amtrak cross-country trips which were a very slow but richer way to travel and really encounter the people and places of the land you’re traversing.

On the ~45 minutes or so on the way out from the Loop to Homewood, I sat on the upper level of the Metra car. A stop or two after Van Buren, a whole crew of construction guys got on and sat around me. I had my laptop and was working, but enjoyed being around them mainly because there was no pretension. They talked openly about their family life, plans for the weekend, retirement schemes, etc. as a few of them nursed beers from their Busch Light six pack. They probably have something like the same conversation every day; at least I took some kind of comfort in being around them for it and thinking so.