After watching the Marathon...

...for about an hour yesterday morning (that's mile 18, above, on Taylor Street in my neighborhood -- I couldn't get enough of it!), my son and I took a long walk, from the LaSalle Street Blue Line stop to the Granville Red Line. (According to Google that's almost nine miles, although I'd bet it was closer to ten with all the twists and turns we took.)

It was a beautiful day in Chicago -- gorgeous, actually -- with temperatures in the mid to high seventies and sunny. (As you can see, it was also a good day for taking pictures of old signs.)

We started up La Salle Street, aka "Money Canyon," and I figured we'd get about as far as North Avenue before we stopped to eat lunch and head back.

But no. We crossed North and just kept going. We walked through Lincoln Park Zoo and up past all those cool high-rise condo buildings along Lakeview Avenue and Sheridan Road. (I'd kill to get a look inside one of those.) 

I kept asking my son to let me know when he wanted to stop, and we finally agreed to turn left on Irving Park Road and head for Byron's, the first place I ever ate in the city almost 35 years ago.

Fortified by a couple of Vienna hot dogs, fries and drinks (a root beer for me and a Mountain Dew for my son), we felt newly energized and decided to press on. (There's very little a Vienna hot dog can't fix.)

It was actually my son's idea to continue walking, but I was thrilled. After all these years I finally have a walking buddy!

We turned up Clark Street, through Uptown, and into Andersonville (boy, has that neighborhood changed!) before we cried "Uncle!" and turned east to the Granville el stop, just south of Loyola University in Rogers Park.

The whole trek took about five hours or so from start to finish (including the el rides), and we felt satisfied that we had made the best of one of the last nice days of the year.