Ten Reasons to Love Chicago Summers

1. The fountain is on at Millennium Park.

Millennium Park had a troubled reputation for a while, as delays and budget problems kept the park from being universally loved. Chicagoans are coming around, though, because no one can deny how cool it is to see kids in the summer playing in the water jets. Seriously, families put their kids in bathing suits to go play in the super-modern fountain. It's a free, community-building thing that just sort of happens during Chicago summers.

2. Summer music festivals. All of them.

When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs, Lollapalooza never showed up in my backyard. Chicago also hosts the Pitchfork Music Festival, a gospel music festival, a jazz festival, and several neighborhood-specific summer music festivals. I've got a sunburn just thinking about them all.

3. The air conditioning on trains and buses is free!

Hey, air conditioning costs a lot of money to run. Thankfully, Chicago's public transportation system doesn't charge extra (yet) for that chilly blast on a scorching summer day.

4. The Soupbox reopens the Icebox.

The Soupbox is this little restaurant that makes the best soup in the universe, and it's a block away from my apartment. They have bread bowls, offer several vegetarian and vegan options every day, and they deliver. In the summer, they make really neat Italian ice (with real fruit chunks!) and they keep making soup. Aren't Chicago summers amazing?

5. The library isn't crowded.

The Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago is absolutely amazing. It has every book I've ever needed for school, even some hard to find out of print books. It has gargoyles on the roof, and a winter garden on the seventh floor that's beautiful and calm in the middle of all the city chaos. With the kids out of school for the summer, it's the best time to go to the library because there are no crowds and no lines.

6. Other people's dogs are really cute.

On the first warm days of the year, everybody seems to be going somewhere with a dog. I love Chicago for being such a dog-friendly city, and I love the constant dog parade that goes on all summer in my neighborhood. Heck, I even see several dogs a day being walked in the Loop.

7. You get to see your friends' tattoos for the first time.

Chicago summers are as hot as the winters are cold. Which means people wear very minimal clothing for three months out of the year. You can have a friend for months and not know about her amazing body art until the sun comes out and the layers of wool come off.

8. Tourists

I know that as an official "city person," I'm supposed to loathe tourists. They move slowly and inefficiently and make themselves painfully obvious in crowds. But tourists serve a valuable purpose: they remind me to constantly re-look at things I'd otherwise take for granted. No matter how jaded I get, skyscrapers should still be amazing, right? I often wonder how many tourists' snapshots and videos I've anonymously appeared in.

9. The best things in life are free.

Chicago summers bring tons of free events and random opportunities for entertainment. Just yesterday, I walked by people shooting a commercial with a Slip-and-Slide, and then I saw a portable "chess stand" where strangers could play chess with each other on the street. There's a violin player in my neighborhood who plays traditional Celtic music at night by the ice cream shop, and every neighborhood screens free movies in parks. Not to mention the countless art fairs, gallery walks, and outdoor concerts.

10. It's not winter anymore.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Chicago summers remind Chicagoans that we've survived another brutal winter. After spending months standing in slush waiting for busses and lamenting how dirty everything looks, it's finally warm enough to open some windows and let in the breeze. Then we secretly pat ourselves on the back for making it so long without getting frostbite or pneumonia.