And here I go…..

Something I realized on this last trip to Illinois was the joy of having nothing on the agenda, so I have time to lollygag around, wander around the city without a particular destination in mind.

This trip was sort of a last minute replacement for a trip I had intended to do to Israel, but then a war broke out, so I ended up going to Illinois instead.

For the Israel trip, I had all sorts of activities and tours lined up, which I had to cancel with short notice once I realized that I was not going there. For Illinois however, I had nothing lined up. There are the standard stops that everyone visiting Chicago needs to do, such as the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art. However, other activities, such as visiting Wrigley Field, which I had wanted to to this year, had to be put off as it’s not baseball season yet. I had planned to do this trip in May or June, but it got moved up under the circumstances.

Instead, I ended up with a hotel room in Wicker Park with essentially nothing to do. So, I went out and wandered around the neighborhood, taking in the sites, visiting various bars for a drink, and generally meandering without a direction.

A big reason to travel and take time off is to get away from the stresses and plans of one’s ordinary life. However, if one has a trip with a bunch of associated plans, sure, you accomplish more on your trip, but one ends up keeping the stresses of their normal life. Instead of meetings to go to, you have tour groups you have to go to, and travel can end up being just as stressful as everyday life.

Hence I make the case to make plenty of time for lollygaging during trips. To spend time being aimless. That could include just hanging out in the hotel room, but I find that gets boring eventually hanging out in a 300 square foot room for an entire week. Seems that would be fun for about the first 10 minutes.

I guess the fun part about Wicker Park is there are a lot more neighborhoods establishments to wander to than there would be in say, Downtown Chicago, where most of the space is office buildings, not really good for lollygaging. An added plus for this neighborhood, I actually know it pretty well being where I spent my late 20’s and early 30’s so I had a rough idea of where all the neighborhood hangouts were as well as what the train and bus routes are, which I suppose I would not have had in most neighborhoods.

Lots to see and do while lollygaging on this trip, and coming back from the trip, I was actually relaxed for once. This is something that I should probably do more of going forward.