West Randolph Street

On Chicago's near west side, just west of the Kennedy Expressway, red brick buildings along Randolph Street that were formerly home only to wholesale food vendors now contain trendy restaurants with sidewalk dining mixed in with the butcher shops and wholesale produce sellers.

On warm summer and fall evenings, red coated valets hustle to find parking spots for diners at Red Light, Dragonfly, Vivo and Marche. Only blocks away from Harpo Studios, home of the "Oprah Winfrey Show", West Randolph Street offers an array of dining options with views of the Sears Tower along with a neighborhood feel.

Where's Waldo?

Chicago's Wacker Drive exhibits a split personality. One section paralleling the Chicago River runs east/west past the Marina Towers, Seventeenth Church of Christ Scientist, Trump's construction project, the Merchandise Mart, along with several hotels and restaurants. The street then curves into a second section which runs north/south past the Sears Tower, the Lyric Opera, the Merc and numerous skyscrapers housing corporations and businesses.

The east/west section pictured above provides a great location for afternoon photography as the open space and lack of skyscrapers to the west permits the sun to shine brilliantly.

Afternoon rush hour on a weekday can be a madhouse on any Chicago street. Place a few taxis, an el train, a city bus, several pedestrians, a double-decker tour bus, numerous cars and a motorcycle on the same street and voila!, "Where's Waldo?".