Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Shore Drive—although this minute spot aggravates some dog owners because
it's situated in a harbor where the water is somewhat fouled by gas and oil from
nearby boats. Tip: Try the south end of North Avenue Beach in early morning,
before it opens to the public for the day. (Also consider that, in off season, all
beaches are fair game for dogs.)
Beaches are officially open with a full retinue of lifeguards on duty beginning
about June 20, but swimmers can wade into the chilly water from Memorial
Day to Labor Day. Only the bravest souls venture into the water before July,
when the temperature creeps up enough to make swimming an attractive propo-
sition. Please take note that not the entire lakefront is beach, and don't go doing
anything stupid such as diving off the rocks. Be extremely careful with your kids.
The lake has drop-offs at points along the shore, and kids can easily get into
deeper water than they bargained for. Lake Michigan can develop large waves,
too, so exercise the same caution you would at the ocean.
Oak Street, North Avenue, Loyola, Osterman, Montrose, South Shore, and
Rainbow beaches are wheelchair- and stroller-friendly—they offer specially
designed mats that create a path over the sand to the water. For questions about
the 29 miles of beaches and parks along Lake Michigan, call the park district's
lakefront region office at & 312/747-2474.
2 Green Chicago: City Parks
Thanks to architect Daniel Burnham and his coterie of visionary civic plan-
ners—who drafted the revolutionary 1909 Plan of Chicago in the aftermath of
the Great Chicago Fire of 1871—the city boasts a wide-open lakefront park sys-
tem unrivaled by most major metropolises. Downtown Chicago has two exten-
sive downtown parks: Grant Park on the southern end of Michigan Avenue, and
Lincoln Park, starting at North Avenue.
GRANT PARK
Modeled after the gardens at Versailles, Grant Park is Chicago's front yard, com-
posed of giant lawns segmented by allées of trees, plantings, and paths, and pieced
together by major roadways and a network of railroad tracks. Covering the greens
is a variety of public recreational and cultural facilities (although these are few in
number and nicely spread out, a legacy of mail-order magnate Aaron Mont-
gomery Ward's fin de siècle campaign to limit municipal buildings in the park).
Incredibly, the entire expanse was created from sandbars, landfill, and Chicago
Fire debris; the original shoreline extended all the way to Michigan Avenue.
Grant Park is the major venue for festivals in the city, but although it's beautiful,
it has fewer attractions for families than Lincoln Park (see review below).
The immense Buckingham Fountain, accessible along Congress Parkway, is
the baroque centerpiece of the park, composed of pink Georgia marble and pat-
terned after—but twice the size of—the Latona Fountain at Versailles, with
adjoining esplanades beautified by rose gardens in season. Throughout the late
spring and summer, the fountain spurts columns of water up to 165 feet in the
air, illuminated after dark by a whirl of colored lights, and building toward a
grand finale before it shuts down for the night at 11pm. New concession areas
and restrooms have also been opened on the plaza.
A popular summer series of outdoor classical music concerts is staged at the
Petrillo Music Shell, at Jackson Boulevard and Columbus Drive, by the Grant
Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. If construction goes according to plan,
the symphony will be performing in the new Millennium Park at the north end
Search WWH ::




Custom Search