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Old 02-18-2010, 05:52 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia PA
8 posts, read 15,348 times
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I am planning a family reunion and one of the choices is Chicago, specifically downtown Chicago or near it. What are some things to do in Chicago as far as entertainment, historical venues, etc? Also which parks would be appropriate for a picnic?
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Old 02-19-2010, 02:29 AM
 
3,695 posts, read 4,960,337 times
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Maybe someone could help you, but the main park downtown is grant park and during the summer there are a lot of fests like taste of Chicago, blues, gospel and jazz. Downtown Chicago is a great place to vacation but not so sure it would be a good place to have an family reunion(i.e. Lots of people needing lots of space). If I were you, I would look into doing it in one of the forest preserves in the burbs or a park elsewhere in town and maybe staging a tour or two to downtown from there. Hotels in the burbs might also be cheaper.

Grant park is the main park downtown and it is a very nice one near the lake. However you are going to have to check and see to make sure your reunion does not overlap with a fest. Going to a fest as part of a family Reunion might be fun, but trying to picnic in a crowed park is a problem. The other big issue with downtown is parking or rather the lack of free parking. If family members are driving in this is a big issue. The cheapest parking downtown is around $20 a day and it fills up fast. Most parking starts at 30+.

Maybe Lincoln park would work out better. It is on the north side of Chicago, not sure about the parking(parking in the neighborhood is bad but around the park might be better and the park is bigger than the neigborhood. Also it is near the lake like grant park.). The Chicago park district is who you need to contact for information about city parks. The forest persevere are run by the county(cook county forest persevere).

Downtown chicago is very public transit friendly but not very car friendly.
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Old 02-19-2010, 09:17 AM
 
Location: Chicago
4,688 posts, read 10,059,048 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mztrish85 View Post
I am planning a family reunion and one of the choices is Chicago, specifically downtown Chicago or near it. What are some things to do in Chicago as far as entertainment, historical venues, etc? Also which parks would be appropriate for a picnic?
12th street beach would be a nice place, plenty of grassy areas and some picnic tables, and nearby some nice vistas which are where the majority of Chicago skyline shots are photographed.

Also has lots of parking nearby.

However, like chirack said, if many people plan on driving in, parking throughout the weekend will be expensive.

In terms of things to do, that has been rehashed many times. My suggestion is to go to the library and check out a frommers book on the different cities you are considering.
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