Bike Ride in Chicago

I have to say the most favorite thing I did while in Chicago was go bike riding! I think it was partly the lovely cool weather. I rented a bike and it was a really nice one, easier to ride than my own. Geoff rode his own bike. It was also pretty much flat the whole time, which is also easy and enjoyable. And there is lots to look at. I had to rent the bike at Navy Pier as every where else had already closed for the evening. Navy Pier's bike rentals are open until 10pm!

We started along the lake. There is a nice bike, walking, roller blading path along the lake. It was Sunday evening and there were quite a few folks out and so you had to do a bit of dodging.

It looks a lot like the ocean doesn't it?

There were a couple of places I wanted to find. Over by Lincoln Park there was a conservatory. And not too far from that was a place called Oz Park. Frank Baum, who wrote the Wizard of Oz, had lived in the area and so they made a park to commemerate him. We found this neat Lilly Pond near the conservatory.

The Conservatory was closed for the day, but there was a lovely French style garden in front, with a great view of down town. And this is me with my rented bike at the lily pond.

Then we found Oz park. We had to ask quite a few folks before we found it, but we finally did!

Here is Dorothy and Toto, red slippers and all!

The Scarecrow and the Tinman. We didn't really look to find the Cowardly lion, but I am sure he was there somewhere.

And here is Geoff with his bike.

There was a section of the park that was a really nice garden. They called it the Emerald garden. We stopped there and had an Orange Julius.

Afterwards, we road back down city streets. There were some really beautiful buildings that I did not get photos of. We stopped for a minute to look at the Cardinal's Mansion (Catholic). In the grass, in front, in the middle of the city, was a bunny rabbit. Not a jack rabbit, but a little flop eared bunny. I didn't get a good photo as it was pretty dark. It was amazing to see though. Geoff said they have raccoons, bunnies, foxes, coyotes and such in the middle of the city. And I don't mean playboy bunnies, although this is where Hugh Hefner started his whole Playboy Mansion, etc. We saw that too.Then we rode our bikes right up Michigan Avenue to go back to Navy Pier. Michigan Avenue is really busy and I can't believe I rode a bike up it! It was a Sunday evening and maybe wasn't too bad, but it was a little nerve wracking for me. The whole experience was quite delightful overall!