Well, if you must, you could try walking there* and taking the bus back, that way you get some walking in but don't have the return haul.

* somewhere 20 blocks away

I have to say, ever since we moved to this new area of Chicago at the beginning of April, I find myself walking several miles a day. It's been wonderful (and especially so since I quit smoking).

The only time the car ever gets used anymore is for suburban ventures, road trips, and whenever we need to buy more than we can carry from a store.

Hey, I told my friend smallerdemon to say hi yo you, but I don't know if he had a chance to. In addition to being fully awesome, he's a huge MST3K head, and should be in your city in a year or two. My gut thinks you guys would get along., but only one way to tell eh?

Does Chicago have any incentives like Seattle does to reduce car use? These hippie left coast cities continually impress me with their hand-holding, cuz, you know, I'm a commie pinko green party type.

How long does it take to walk around the lake?

It's not far, like 2 or 3 miles. I should go walk the lake with my pedometer and then look up the trail length and verify calibration from there.

Your around-the-lake looks to be about 30% longer than ours.

There's another aspect to it too, insofar as around the lake is pretty much flat, but anywhere that's not around the lake involves varying degrees of hilliness. Hills don't slow us down much anymore, and in some cases we even intentionally pick up the pace and power up them. The soreness from going up and down hills all afternoon feels great!