A few weeks ago, a stop sign went up at Armitage and Bissell. I have to say that at first I did not like the new barrier and I felt that some of the local drivers were also thrown off. People would hesitate and I saw a few cars blow the stop sign on a few occasions. During rush periods, eastbound cars would get backed up from Bissell all the way back to Starbuck’s causing a crunch at Sheffield.

Since I spent 90% of the time transversing Armitage and Bissell as a pedestrian, I approve of the new stop sign. I have found it much easier to get across the intersection during rush periods. I don’t have to dodge cars and almost spill my ice cream from Annette’s when attempting to make it across the street.

Now, I wonder where the stop sign came from as I have a rule that no stop sign can be created or destroyed – like matter…

Last weekend I saw an independent film about Urban Exploring. It documented adventures of people in Iowa, Chicago, Detroit and even Paris exploring abandoned steam tunnels, insane asylums and even the catacombs under the city of Paris.

I’ve done some urban exploring of my own. This weekend I ventured over to the end of Armitage. This is a location where high-rises dominate the scene and the Armitage CTA bus route stops. We can only assume that a Armitage bus explodes at the end of the route.  Clearly, there must be a bus factory somewhere East of Clark.

Below are some pictures from the end of Armitage Ave.

No power on my street in Lincoln Park still. I fled to Wicker Park last night so I could power my BlackBerry and answer some emails.

I was traveling northbound on Milwaukee during rush hour in my car and I got stuck in the intersection of Milwaukee and Evergreen while trying to get past North Ave. Traffic was barely moving since all the hipsters were mulling about at the Triangle (Milwaukee-Damen-North) causing only a few cars to get though a green light.

After I got caught in the intersection, I started a left turn onto Evergreen to get out of the intersection. As I started to accelerate in first gear, a barrage of hipsters on rusty bikes came at me from the left. One dirty blonde, smelly T-shirt wearing girl was cut off as I completed my turn and gave me the finger. “Get out of the way! Get a job!” I politely yelled out the window as I sped down Evergreen and past Wicker Park.

Note to all Chads: watch out for incoming fleets of rusty bikes when travelling in Wicker Park. They seem to travel in packs of three to five and carry groceries from organic places or acoustic guitars that their fathers once owned. These items may damage your Jeep or BMW so use caution when traveling near Hipster Triangle.

 The LPCS Executive Committee began the Sheffield Garden Walk in true Lincoln Park fashion by fueling up at CBA for a busy day of Trixie hunting, Chad networking and, of course, Blue Moon drinking. A round of Xandu on wheat bailey washed down by B-Relaxed Jackfruit with vitamin B Vitamin water. After CBA we stopped at Starbucks to get a round of iced grande sugar free vanilla non-fat lattes.

Our consultant Trixie took us to the “West Armitage” shops such as Out of the West, Rugby, and Barker & Mewosky, just to name a few. After a quick visit to the West shops, we headed East while Trixie shopped in Lush, Kiehls, Active Endavors, Paul Frank, American Apparel, United Colors of Beneton. On the North Aldo, Metropark, Club Monaco and of curse Barneys Coop. We then stopped at the Starbucks at Webster and Halsted for another round of iced grande sugar free vanilla non-fat lattes since we had worked though the previous round.

We walked down Dayton and viewed the Garden Walk houses.  Post-mating Trixies had moved beyond battling for top status with expensive purses and were now instead dukeing it out with extravagant gardens.  Her husband, likely by this age a partner at the firm, can do nothing but sit back and fund the whole experience while relaxing with another beer.

Next on the list were lunch, dinner and beer at Minnie’s on Halsted. After four hours of gluttony, watching the sun set, making friends with our server and getting a free round of beer and shots, we were ready to hit Kelly’s Pub.

The LPCS Executive Committee whole heartily endorses Kelly’s Pub. During the Garden Walk, they setup a large outside tent under the ‘El’ tracks, which provides for a wonderful Chicago experience. We marked our territory by taking control of a table. As the El cars passed overhead, our beeramid grew. By the end of the night it was five tiers high, until a drunk Trixie’s huge bag toppled our monument to debauchery.