Living in Chicago

[Pete Zicato]

I think that far north, you shouldn't have any trouble commuting from Waukegan to Libertyville. But I'm not sure why you would. I think Libertyville is supposed to be pretty nice.

I like Metra a lot. I commute from the western suburbs in to downtown. If I time it just right, I can make it from door to door in ~40 minutes. Plus I can read or play games on the train. But again if you're working in Libertyville, you won't need to commute very far.

The one thing you are probably not going to like is the highway system. It's crowded most of the time.

I think you named the only two places that have a higher cost of living than Chicago. I remember my first introduction to Chicago being mostly sticker shock at the home prices.

Chicago has some great food. Pizza, Italian Beef, hot dogs, etc. We have some of the best bread. Lots of ethnic food here.

Depends on what part of Chicagoland you're in, of course, but a lot of Chicago has a neighborhood feel to it. We never lived in the norther suburbs so I don't know how different that will be.

In closer to the city, there are a lot of preserves. Land that is left pretty natural excepting the bike/jogging paths. You might like those. And from where you're going to be up north, you won't have to go very far to be out in the woods anyway.

One thing - it's a big city spread out over a lot of area. I had to get used to that.

It's a mix of a wide range of cultures and economic levels. The nice part of that is that you can find just the neighborhood you want here.

You're going to be pretty far from the city proper in Libertyville or Waukegan. So you're not going to get the big-city life out there. Dunno if that's what you're looking for.

Mostly people here are really nice, but you do run into the high-income 'privileged' folks as well.

Hope some of that gives you a picture.