Look, we bought the baby a house!

Yeah, I wish. This is one of the many beautiful houses in Oak Park, IL. Wes and I have visited there twice now just to walk around and look at the community. We envision ourselves living there if we stay in Chicago after Wes finishes residency. It's known to be mixed-race, mixed class, with good schools, and it's only 8 miles from Chicago and accesses public transportation. It's got a cute downtown with some boutiques and some mass market type stuff, a Dominick's grocery store, and a great public swimming pool. You can walk from one side of town to the other in less than 30 minutes. Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway both hail from Oak Park, and Wright's houses (in addition to his own home and studio) can be found around town -- though a bit outside our price range.

There are other places, of course, within Chicago city limits, that we just haven't found or visited, but it's nice to know there's something "neighborhoody," somewhat within our price range, and not too generic for Wes where we can live if we stay.