Family outdoor fun, on a dime (almost)

Mindful Metropolis, July issue

Ten ways that you and your family can enjoy the outdoors in or near Chicago this summer, without breaking your bank in the process

The economy is bad — actually, it’s awful — and your stock portfolio, your personal piggy bank, and your cash allowance for events on the town are probably all screaming “uncle” by now. But don’t worry. You don’t have to cough up astronomical, Wrigley Field-ticket-price sums just to enjoy the great outdoors this summer.

Chicago is the third-largest city in America and boasts a vast skyline of steel and concrete on its lakeshore, with industry and grit further inland. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the outdoors all around you — and learn about local ecosystems. Parks, gardens, concert festivals, outdoor museums and street festivals beckon this summer. Or, just load up the picnic basket with fresh, tasty goodies, hop on your bike, and head toward the lake.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Located a hop, skip and a jump from Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton Avenue, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park is the perfect venue within the city limits to study nature. At $9 for adults, $7 for seniors over 60, $6 for children ages 3-12 and free for those under 3, the museum’s costs are doable.

This summer the museum is showcasing two exhibits that examine interactions between humans and nature here in the Midwest. Finding Walden: Photographs from the Chicago Park System, which will run until August 2, showcases Bill Guy’s images that capture the beauty and diversity of Chicago’s neighborhood parks. Finding Walden is the Nature Museum’s contribution to the Burnham Plan Centennial Celebration, a citywide program that pays homage to architect Daniel Burnham’s plans that shaped Chicago for the past century.

And Paradise Lost: Climate Change in the North Woods, which runs through August 15, is the culmination of a project by artists, scientists and educators who met recently in Wisconsin to consider ways that art could increase public understanding about climate change. Paradise Lost is an environmental art exhibition, featuring paintings, quilts, puzzles and music, exploring the roots of climate change and encouraging mass action to preserve the environment. Each piece of artwork reflects the effects of climate change in Wisconsin’s north woods.

Lincoln Park and Garfield Park Conservatories

These two conservatories, featuring tropical palms and ancient ferns in a lush, humid setting, are even more necessary for your mental and physical health during the dead of winter, when Chicago temperatures painfully plunge below zero. But no matter the month, a mock-visit to the rainforest can do you good. Step inside and take a deep breath of this wonderfully moist air. Both conservatories boast tropical flower displays selected for their colorful foliage until late September, including a lush backdrop of assorted tropical plants featuring begonias and hibiscus.

The Lincoln Park Conservatory is located near the Nature Museum, also at Fullerton Avenue, open from 9 am-5 pm every day of the year, and offers free admission. Garfield Park Conservatory is at 300 N. Central Park Ave., just off I-290 or the Green Line train on your way to Oak Park, open from 9-5 and 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. As Mary Eysenbach, Chicago Park District Director of Conservatories, says, “both conservatories offer visitors a chance to escape the concrete, urban environment and reconnect with nature.”

Biking in Chicago

Chicago may not be an Amsterdam or Copenhagen when it comes to biker-friendly metropolises. Vast swaths of the city offer no bike lanes, and ghost bikes — memorials to the fallen — are sober reminders of what can happen when bikes and cars meet. At the same time, we’re a far cry above New York or Los Angeles in terms of bike-ability. The lakeshore trail, and many streets on the near north and west sides have lanes for two-wheeled warriors. So put on your helmet, clip on your lights, wear clothing visible to cars and locate Milwaukee Avenue, or Cortland or Armitage, on your map, and enjoy the ride.

Seriously, what better way to enjoy the outdoors in Chicago this summer than pedaling through this grand city on the lake — and for free! Remember all the anger over the city privatizing parking meters, meter costs rising, and those metal beasts eating up your time? Well, if your car model is a Schwinn or Redline, then that issue doesn’t concern you. Just roll on by. Get to know that Active Transportation Alliance (formerly the Chicago Bike Federation), www.activetrans.org, the best urban biking resource in town.

Museum of Science and Industry

Head down to Hyde Park and check out what might be Chicago’s greenest home, part of the Museum of Science and Industry’s “Smart Home: Green & Wired” exhibit. No, it’s not exactly nature, but it is ecological living within the city. Take a tour of this three-story modular and sustainable house in the museum’s backyard. You’ll learn about the latest innovations in reusable resources, smart energy consumption, healthy-living environments and easy ways to go green.

The home, designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and powered by ComEd, includes a “green” baby nursery, a space-maximizing hallway office, new cutting-edge technologies, wind power and earth-friendly landscaping ideas. Other new and unique home technologies are on display at the museum through the end of 2009, courtesy of WIRED magazine. Also explore the home’s updated landscape, which offers techniques for urban gardening, including vertical gardens and EarthBox planting. Tickets to the “Smart Home: Green & Wired” exhibit cost $22 for adults residing in Chicago and $14 for children ages 3-11.

Street festivals

It often seems like Chicago has a thousand different neighborhoods and a million different ethnic groups within its city limits. Almost every group and almost every ‘hood throws their own party at some point during the summer, and if you were to make an appearance at every single one, you’d traverse the globe, from the alleys of Istanbul to the barrios of Puerto Rico, while merely going a few stops on an El train. The best street festivals are free, they represent a distinct neighborhood or a distinct ethnic group (as opposed to the gluttonous, drunken Taste of Chicago) and they feature small business owners.

This month, check out the African-Caribbean International Festival of Life in Washington Park (Hyde Park), July 3-5, the Thai Festival Chicago, July 8-10, the Chinatown Summer Fair, July 19, and Celebrate Clark Street Festival, July 26, just to name a few. Space them out, mind you. The cuisine will differ greatly from one festival to the next. Or a swish a little water around in your mouth — as if you were wine tasting — between the Thai peanut sauce and the Swedish Lingonberry sauce. Otherwise they’ll clash.

Veggie picnic

Let’s say you’re really broke, and all you can afford — or all you care to eat — are veggies in a meal prepared at home. Going out to eat, in that case, means packing a picnic, jumping on the bike, and heading to the beach. Given that it’s July, you’re in luck. This month yields a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables that will look good, and taste good, in a salad, a sandwich, or in your breast pocket.

And if you wear your thrifty hat to the Green City Market or any other farmers market, these foods won’t set you back a paycheck: beets, peppers, celery, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, lettuce, onions, summer squash, tomatoes, apples, blueberries, peaches and raspberries are all abundant this month. How about making a cold pasta salad with snap beans, garbanzo beans and cherry tomatoes and packing it into your panniers with a side of beet salad and local berries for dessert?

Chicago Botanic Garden

Take the Metra train north to Glencoe, Ill., and the Chicago Botanic Garden trolley will pick you up and deliver you straight to the gardens for $2 per person (parking otherwise costs $20 per vehicle). Once there, you can stroll through 385 lush acres of display gardens, lakes and three natural habitats, which are situated on nine islands and border native Midwestern woodlands.

Admission is free, and the gardens offer a bounty of family activities during the summer, including “Dancin’ Sprouts” children’s early evening concerts on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, and “Hot Summer Nights” on Thursdays from 6-8 pm for adults who enjoy music and dancing from around the world. These live entertainment events take place on the Esplanade, where picnicking is allowed.

Volunteers give away plants every Wednesday and Saturday, so kids can plant their own gardens at home. In the fruit and vegetable garden, volunteers also teach the little ones about bees, tools, herbs and composting. And at the English Walled Garden, volunteers share seasonal highlights with visitors and help them identify the variety of plants growing in the garden. For a calendar of free activities at the Chicago Botanic Garden, visit www.chicagobotanic.org/events.

If you’re thinking of making a habit of visiting the Botanic Garden, buy a $100 membership, which includes year-round parking for two cars, a 10-percent discount at the Garden Shop, a discount coupon for the Garden Café and free admission to the Model Railroad Garden and Tram Tours on Wednesdays.

Ravinia

Not far from the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Ravinia outdoor concert series near Highland Park hosts many big names every summer, from Femi Kuti, to the Beach Boys, to Lyle Lovett, to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). But enjoying those sweet sounds doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. You’re encouraged to bring your own picnic, with food, drinks, tables and chairs and find a spot on the lawn. You’ll need to sit in the pavilion (and pay big bucks) to actually see the performers, but loudspeakers are set up throughout the picnic area, so open a bottle of wine, cuddle up with your sweetheart, close your eyes and instead just listen. Lawn seats cost $25 for adults and $5 only for kids.

Ravinia offers a bounty of special deals: pavilion seats to CSO concerts cost $25 on July 12, 15, 19 and 30; free lawn passes are available to college students for most Martin Theatre and CSO concerts; kids five and under get free lawn access to all CSO concerts. Ravinia also offers a special kids’ program book at its kiosks, which includes coloring pages, information on music and word finds. You can take the train from downtown Chicago to the festival grounds for only $5 roundtrip, leaving from the Ogilvie Transportation Center three times between 5:45 and 6:45 pm.

Morton Arboretum

The Lisle, Ill.-based Morton Arboretum, about 25 miles west of Chicago, boasts 11 imaginative new “Animal Houses,” which are designed to help visitors understand how trees provide habitat to animals, and to reinforce the importance of appreciating and protecting trees. Explore every nook and cranny of these enormous animal houses — all of which are built to human scale.

In the wetland near Bur Reed Marsh you’ll find the Pollywog Pond, Beaver Lodge, Skunk Den and Great Blue Heron Rookery. At the Schulenberg Prairie, youngsters can crawl into the Spider Web, Ant Colony and Coyote Den. And the 24-foot-high Raccoon Den, Fallen Log and Squirrel Drey all await you in the woodland near Big Rock Visitor Station. The Guest House near the Visitors Center offers an introduction to the exhibition along with some hidden neighbors that share our backyards.

Visitors to the Arboretum receive a map of the Animal Houses, and an Adventure Guide with word games and animals hidden in pictures, and a ballot to vote for their favorite Animal House. On certain weekends you can get up close to live bats, coyotes and other animals as visitors explore the ways in which animals rely on trees as their habitat. The 1,700-acre outdoor Arboretum even offers animal-related merchandise and animal-themed meals.

The Animal Houses are open from 7 am to 7 pm and are free with Arboretum admission, which costs $11 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for children ages 2-17 and free for anyone under two years old. Wednesday is a discount day. Visit www.mortonarb.org for more information.

Starved Rock

Driving 94 miles west on Interstate 80 may be a haul, but you’ll be glad you made the trip to Starved Rock National Park, which is located along the south side of the Illinois River. Starved Rock is best known for its rock formations, primarily St. Peter sandstone, laid down in a huge shallow inland sea more than 425 million years ago and later brought to the surface. The park boasts 18 canyons formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion, which slice through tree-covered, sandstone bluffs for four miles.

Starved Rock features sparkling waterfalls, vertical walls of moss-covered stone, hiking and nature trails, spectacular overlooks and recreational opportunities for picnicking, fishing, boating, camping and horseback riding. Nearby Starved Rock Lodge offers a $95 “Land of Lincoln Getaway” package, including overnight accommodations for two and a $15 breakfast voucher.