When I first moved to Chicago I REALLY missed St. Paul, MN, as I lived in a shitty (at the time in 1992) neighborhood in Edgewater at the end of the lakeside path. The only way to go was south and back, whereas I had endless varieties of routes to run in St. Paul and Mpls, and much lighter traffic on side streets.
One route in particular I'm fond of because I had the best workout of my life. We ran 4 miles to Lake Como, and did two 2 mile tempo runs around it. I felt so good, at about 5:05 steady pace (significantly faster than my XC prs), and felt like I could go faster.