In Graffiti Alley

Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that I haven’t left the city for months. With so many diverse neighborhoods, a huge public transit network, and millions of people, it’s amazing to remember that we are all part of the same city. Chicago is so vast that you rarely need to leave, and if you don’t have a car, it’s rare that you’ll need to unless you plan a real getaway.

This past week I’ve been traveling with my husband across the US and into Canada. Our first stop was in Niagara Falls, New York where we laid my grandmother to rest alongside my grandfather. Although she passed in fall of 2013, right after I started the program, because our family lives in various places across the country, we waited until now to inter her ashes and say goodbye. I hadn’t been back to Niagara Falls in nearly twenty years since my grandmother moved south.

The Falls (Canadian Side)

It’s been strange retracing old steps and trying to match up memories to the current version of things. My grandmother’s old house along the Niagara River is barely recognizable, and places I remembered from when I was a kid were nowhere to be found, despite there being a vague sense of familiarity.

View from the CN Tower

Following our time in New York, we crossed the border and drove up to Toronto for a few days. I’d never been to Toronto before, and I wish I had more time here to enjoy this wonderful city. So far we’ve visited the CN Tower and had dinner at the 360 Restaurant—a restaurant 115 stories up that lets you enjoy spectacular views of Toronto and Lake Ontario as it REVOLVES around the tower—the famous “graffiti alley,” Kensington Markets, eaten some amazing food including a place that specializes in TACOS AND BOURBON called Grand Electric and explored downtown. It’s been a blast, but I wish we had a little more time to slow down and enjoy.

CN Tower and Downtown Toronto from the Ground

Tomorrow we start heading back to Chicago, but not without a short stop in my hometown in Northeast Ohio. It’s been years since I’ve been back, and as it’s been a recent focus in my writing concerning the passage of time and collapse of Midwestern towns, it’s only right to take a look around and see how things look with my own eyes, not through accounts of those who still live there or pictures online. I’m excited to reconnect with old friends and to take it all in, and I wonder where it might take me in my writing.

Although it’s been great to get out of the city and explore, we’re looking forward to getting back to Chicago where we have exciting things ahead, like moving to a new apartment and preparing for my last fall semester of graduate school.

Canadian Countryside

Until next time, farewell from the land of maple syrup and a million Tim Hortons!