Page 48 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guides - Chicago

46 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Parks and Beaches

Millennium and
1
Grant Parks
As well as a center for world-class
art, music, architecture, and
land scape design, Millennium Park
offers winter ice-skating, interactive
public art, alfresco dining, and free
classical music concerts and film
screenings. Together with the
adjoining 19th-century Grant Park,
which hosts many festivals (see
pp66–7), it constitutes one of the
finest, user-friendly green spaces
in Chicago (see p72).
North Avenue Beach
2
Chicago’s most popular beach
attracts a broad range of urban
dwellers. Its lively ocean-liner-shaped
bathhouse (including umbrella Kid’s playground, Maggie Daley Park
rentals, shower rooms, snack
Maggie Daley Park
vendors, and a rooftop restaurant) 4
makes it family friendly. Beach Maggie Daley Park marks
volleyball courts and a seasonal the north eastern boundary of Grant
outdoor gym are a big draw (see p89). Park. Named for the former first
lady of Chicago, the park offers a
range of diversions, including a
seasonal ice-skating ribbon,
climbing walls, and an elaborate
playground for children. There are
also tennis courts, picnic tables,
and a garden dedicated to cancer
survivors (see p52).
Jackson Park
5
MAP F6
Laid out by the famed landscape
designer Frederick Law Olmsted
Volleyball at North Avenue Beach for the 1893 World’s Columbian
Exposition, Jackson Park, along
Oak Street Beach
3 with its Museum of Science and
Industry (see pp20–21), is among the
MAP L1
At the foot of the chic Gold Coast few developments still remaining
shopping lane, this beach reflects its from that World’s Fair. The South
environs. Though just next to North Side park includes a Japanese
Avenue Beach, you won’t see many garden with waterfalls, colorful
children here. Oak Street is usually lanterns, and a bird sanctuary on
filled with toned bodies and tiny an island in a peaceful lagoon.
bikinis. The crescent-shaped strand
Montrose Beach
is the closest beach to the Magnificent 6
Mile (see pp32–3) and makes a great MAP C3
place to stop and dip your toes after Chicago’s largest public beach is
some serious shopping. popular with families. Great for

046-047_Top_10_Chicago.indd 46 18/08/2016 12:54