I thought it would only be fair to publish the other side of the story – the reasons we miss living in the city of Chicago. As you know, Chicago is an amazing city – and there are millions of reasons we love it, and why everyone should love it. But here’s some of the top reasons that we miss living there.

1. The restaurants.
2. The culture.
3. Our friends who live in the city, and being able to make plans with them at a moments’ notice.
4. We miss being able to say we live in Chicago. Now, we’re just another boring couple from suburbia. I guess we miss the cache of saying that.
5. The lake, beautiful, freezing-cold-year-round Lake Michigan, just down the street.
6. The takeout available at all times.
7. The sense of the city never closing – everything closes early in the suburbs. And a lot of things are NOT OPEN ON SUNDAYS. That is a very irritating reality of the western suburbs.
8. Having a 312 home phone number.
9. For me, living 5 minutes away from where I work. But now Robert doesn’t have to commute, so it all evens out.
10. The tourists. Oh, wait, we don’t miss that.
11. The lights of the skyscrapers at night, and the moon rising over the skyline.
12. The fun shops and stores we used to visit regularly, like Uncle Fun, and Paper Boy, and Paper Doll, and CB2.
13. All of the Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants.
14. The parks, especially Millennium Park.
15. The holiday celebrations – and the holiday lights and trees, and festivals, and fairs, and just general fun stuff to do downtown.

The good news about the majority of this list is that most of what we miss about Chicago is just a short train or car ride away. We just do NOT want to become one of those suburbanites who never go into the city, ever.

I don’t think that will happen to us. At least, I hope it doesn’t.