Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
224
playground and spray pool and an indoor swimming pool. P ark hours ar e M onday
through Friday from 8am to 9pm and S aturday and S unday from 9am to 5pm. Also
recommended for their ex cellent kids ' basketball pr ograms ar e
Oz Park,
at 2021 N.
Burling in the Lincoln P ark neighborhood;
Portage Park,
4100 N. Long A ve. on the
northwest side; and
Independence Park,
at 3945 S pringfield Ave. in the I rving Park
neighborhood.
You can walk in to any
YMCA of M etropolitan Chicago
and use the gym to play
basketball for a small fee. The most centrally located YMCA in the do wntown area is
New City YMCA, located at 1515 N. H alsted, at Clybourn (
&
312/440-7272
). For
more information, see www.ymcachgo.org.
BIKING
Biking is a gr eat way to see the city , particularly the lakefront, along which a bike path
extends for more than 18 miles. The stretch between Navy Pier and North Avenue Beach
gets extremely crowded in the summer (you're jostling for space with in-line skaters, jog-
gers, and daw dling pedestrians). I f you're looking for mor e wide-open spaces, I r ecom-
mend biking south fr om Navy Pier—once you're past the M useum Campus, traffic on
the trail is light, and you can cruise all the way to Hyde Park. If you want a more leisurely
tour with good people-watching potential, head nor th (thr ough the cr owds) and be
patient—once you pass Belmont Harbor, the traffic lets up somewhat. It's possible to ride
all the way to Hollywood Beach, where the lakefront trail ends—a great workout.
To r ent bikes, tr y
Bike Chicago,
which has locations at N avy P ier (
&
312/595-
9600
), North Avenue Beach (
&
773/327-7206
), Millennium Park (
&
888/BIKE-WAY
[245-3929]), the Riverwalk (Wacker Drive and Columbus Street—take the stairs down
to the river;
&
312/595-9600
), and at the north end of the lakefront bike path at Foster
Beach (
&
773/275-2600
). O pen fr om 8am to 8pm M ay thr ough O ctober (w eather
permitting), Bike Chicago stocks mountain and touring bikes, kids' bikes, kids' seats and
trailers for any kids too y oung for a bike, str ollers, and—most fun of all—quadcy cles,
which are four-wheeled contraptions equipped with a steering wheel and canopy that can
accommodate four or five people. Rates for bikes start at $8 an hour ($6 for kids' bikes)
and range up to about $34 a day (higher for high-end r oad bikes), with helmets, pads,
and locks included. You can also rent bike seats for kids and wagons (the covered version
that you pull behind your bike). If you'd like to cycle your way past some Chicago land-
marks, guided tours are also available.
Both the park district (
&
312/742-PLAY
[742-7529]) and the
Chicagoland Bicycle
Federation
(
&
312/427-3325;
www.biketraffic.org) offer free maps that detail popular
biking routes. The latter, which is the pr eeminent organization for cy clists in Chicago,
also sells a much larger, more extensive map for $6.95 that shows routes within a seven-
county area. They sponsor a number of bike rides thr oughout the y ear, including the
highly enjoyable
Boulevard Lakefront Tour,
held in mid-September, which follows the
historic circle of boulevards that had their genesis in the Chicago P lan of 1909. It starts
in Hyde Park at the University of Chicago campus.
A word of caution:
Locking your bike anywhere you go is a no-brainer. More impor-
tant, though, is never heading anywhere on the city's streets without first strapping on a
helmet. Chicago M ayor Richard M. D aley is an avid cy clist himself and has tir elessly
promoted the addition of designated bike lanes along many main thor oughfares. But,
that said, most cabbies and driv ers tend to ignor e them. B ike with extr eme caution on
city streets (you can get a ticket for biking on the side walks), and stick to the lakefr ont
path if you're not an expert rider.
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