Angelo DeMarco

EXPL 390

The walking tour that we went on started at Chase bank and went North, all the way to

Pratt. During the walk itself, the only thing that was uncomfortable was the rain. Other than that,

it felt like a pretty standard walk up the street. The blocks that we were assigned are highly

trafficked by students. Since we’re familiar with the blocks that we walked on, our views of the

blocks did not change. It was interesting to intentionally pay attention to all the businesses we

passed.

The thing that surprised us most during the walking tour was the amount of ethnic food

places in the short distance. There are many fast food restaurants in the area, but there were also

many specialty places to get certain types of food. For example, there are Chinese, Korean, and

Japanese restaurants all within two blocks. This makes it easy to find special and authentic food in

this area. We agreed that we would try more restaurants North of Loyola. There was not any genre

of restaurant that appeared most often.

Although it was hard to hear each other sometimes, it was nice to talk about our spring

breaks as we walked and talked. We haven’t talked outside of class, yet the conversations were

not strained. It felt nice to have someone to talk to while we either said we knew about a place or

both were surprised by a business we never saw before. We also had the opportunity to go into

the businesses together, which is less intimidating than if we were doing the walk by ourselves.

There weren’t many convenience stores as we walked, but we did go into a few restaurants to

grab a menu. We agreed we could have done the walk alone but preferred having someone else

around because it’s always nice to have company. It was fun to share stories about our

experiences with the businesses we passed.

We also enjoyed how a busy street like Sheridan is situated within also a residential area

to the West and beach/water to the East. We said that we would visit Armadillo bookstore next

time we are in the area. The architecture is pre-modern, and the store is enticing to readers of any
Angelo DeMarco
EXPL 390

kind. We walked in and agreed that the space is a nice place to study. After the tour, we agreed

that we would both like to know which businesses were founded first in this area. Some

architecture is old, yet the businesses seem modern. The contrast between new and old is

interesting.