I’ve been doing a bit of searching for cool/crunchy places in Chicago. I found a pretty good handful of resources, so I thought I would pass them along (in case anyone is contemplating following Josh and I on our move!).

Be By Baby is an attachment parenting shop. They offer some really neat monthly groups (for free!) and some really awesome weekly classes (for a fee).

A Fresh Squeeze (Chicago Edition) is a website that compiles information for green and simple living in the city. A lot of the articles and information on a Fresh Squeeze are Chicago-specific, but they also have a hearty handful of green ideas for people living all over.

“Newleaf Natural Grocery is dedicated to providing an affordable alternative to overpriced organic produce by offering weekly organic produce boxes at the lowest cost available.” This grocery store looks really great, and according to googlemaps, it’s only 5.7 miles from where we will be living! If I need to work while we’re in Chicago, I would love to get a job at New Leaf.

We’ll be shopping at Urbanimal for the fur-kids. This place offers a ton of high-quality animal food. We’re going to switch the boys over to Solid Gold cat food since we can get it at Urbanimal.

iGo Car Sharing might be the coolest idea since sliced bread. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but being able to get rid of our car is one of the things I’m most looking forward to with this move to Chicago. That being said, I think it’s inevitable that we’re going to need a car every now and again. With iGo Car Sharing, you can rent a low-emission car for a few hours (or a few days-you pick!), and you don’t even have to pay for gas! You don’t need to join any club or anything, and their rates are really reasonable.

Finally, the Noble Tree coffee house. Josh and I went to the Noble Tree when we visited Lincoln Park in April. This place is really neat, and it brews really good coffee. I’m really looking forward to making this place one of our regular haunts.