Chicago on a budget ... a paradox? Not really. Moving close enough to spend a Saturday or Sunday in Chicago is a dream come true. So, living one hour, fifteen minutes away via a train and $8.50 fare - doable. But what happens once in town with pricey Michigan Avenue eateries, theatre, concerts, and sports venues -- low budget seems out of the question. Thats the presumption most would make, but the city of Chicago runs rampant with many free events and tantalizing places to grab a nosh or a meal on a dime, or at least with a $20 bill. Loving the mountains and spending each weekend hiking, biking, or skiing, it was a huge leap to give up the serenity and beauty of the Appalachian Mountains to return to the Midwest. But passion for culture and the energy of a thriving metropolitan city, is equally appealing! So, emerging out of the majestic mountains to a new awakening and the opportunity to explore different trails, an artistic, broadening experience, called Chicago!
If you are budget-minded and love the idea of visiting Chicago and experiencing the cultural side, too, read on! This is the first of a six part series of articles identifying amazing, free places to visit in Chicago. This first article in the series gives an overview of the five free adventures; then, each article that follows, gives an in-depth look at the must see adventure! Youll first stop at the Chicago Cultural Center to take an hour Chicago Greeter tour around Chicagos Loop. Then, back to the Cultural Center to experience the latest art exhibit, and other art and architectural finds.
On to Millennium Park, to have some fun outdoors and a classical concert before heading to the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon arrival, you will visit the latest special exhibit and then meander around the world from the lens of the master artists, encompassing many centuries along the journey.
Finally, to the Lincoln Park Zoo where you will enjoy one of the nations oldest and most beautiful zoos. Youll visit the animals, the beautiful gardens, for free, and its open 365 days a year! Dont worry about the order of events here ... the beauty of the written word -- it is timeless! Plan your trip, though around hours of operation; of course, and experience Millennium Park during the day and into the night.
Taking poetic license to paint the landscape of Chicago from the vantage point of someone who just moved to the area, and on a limited discretionary budget, enjoy the free advice offered regarding the best part of each of these five free adventures. With graduate school, a modest paying job, and the price of gas, the need to discover these wonderful Chicago finds was very important. Lets begin with the citys Chicago Greeter tour, and find out what this adventure entails.
The Chicago Greeter tours are free and a perfect way to familiarize yourself with Chicago! Tours begin at the Chicago Cultural Center Building (inside lobby) on E. Randolph Street, Friday-Sunday. "The key to budget travel is to approach onward. When it happens to family trips, globetrotting, well-deserved vacations and/or going to see new spots we have never been before, the reality of expense and budgeting is generally in the back of our thoughts. Arranging and expending our travel budget properly is a main concern for most families. Reducing expending and costs, while still taking pleasure in your vacation to its fullest, is the key to guaranteed achievement and fiscal liability. Your pocketbook and family will thank you! The thinking regarding protecting money while traveling is simple: Even if your personal budget is extremely tight, you can still take a break and enjoy life! Simply put, life is just too short to never step out of the door or departing the homestead! Also remembering that while traveling, whether on a budget or not, even the smallest of things can all add op to a big vacation or travel expenses!..". Either take one of two Instatours (no reservation required), or if you have time to plan in advance, neighborhood tours (representing 25 different neighborhoods), and 40 special interest tours are available. The special interest tours include history buff tours, art/architecture tours, food tours for the epicurean, family friendly destinations, and Ethnic Chicago, to name a few. These require a 10 day, advance reservation and are 2-4 hour tours, depending upon your destination.
Instatours are one hour and either travel along Chicagos Loop or tour Millennium Park. The Loop Tour begins at the Chicago Cultural Center and travels down Michigan Avenue to the business, financial, and shopping districts. You will walk away knowing more about the Chicago Cultural Center, Carson Pirie Scott Building and Louis Sullivan its architect, Marshall Fields Department Store and the clock (a beacon to Chicagoans for decades), the Marquette Building and the rich history of Jean Marquette, one of the first explorers of the territory, and the Board of Trade Building with the faceless goddess adorning the top.Millennium Park Tour gives the history of the park, Crown Fountain, Cloud Gate, five-acre Lurie Gardens within the park, and the amazing Jay Priikzker Pavilion.
Favorite Instatour? The Loop... along the route, you encounter world renown art, Chagalls Four Seasons mosaic mural, Picassos 50 foot horse, The Picasso, for example! More earth friendly art, as well ... a tree with a sign proudly explains that each tree planted in Chicago gives back $40.00 worth of environmental protection! You realize, this great international city is green friendly, too! Your eyes travel a 360 on this memorable tour ... when you want to do it all again, thats a great sign youve found an A-List adventure! Going to head back soon and take a group of friends, next time, native Chicagoans at that! They can hardly wait based on the sensational review by this new transplant! For more information on the tours visit: www.chicagogreeter.com.
Chicago Cultural Center
When measuring the value of an experience, sometimes you reflect on how it appealed to one of your five senses, most often the sense of sight, or perhaps whether you think about the experience a day, a week, a month, or even a year later, or maybe you measure the value by how it made you feel at the time, did it bring a smile, an intrinsic reward ... for all of these reasons, the Chicago Cultural Center is 1 on the list by this travel writer!
Originally, Chicagos first library, what a perfect transformation to metamorphize into Chicagos Cultural Center, greeting people from all over the world in a globally-inspired building. Great writers from around the world in many different languages capture ideologies through the inscriptions inlaid in marble panels upon the walls of the third floor, outside the rotunda, which houses the largest Tiffany dome anywhere in the world. This masterpiece covers 1,000 square feet and 30,000 pieces of glass create this breathtaking splendor. Gazing up and seeing the reflecting light glistening on the mosaic walls leave you in a state of quiet appreciation for the magnanimity of the transcendent glory of this rotunda, of this gentle strength that its walls provide as you stand protected, insulated by the warmth of the art, architecture, and wisdom of the inscriptions by the great thinkers of the world. You stand in silence, in anticipation of what epiphany this surreal experience might impart.
Remembering that the Chicago Cultural Center provides over 800 free events each year including classical concerts, literary readings, plays, dance performances, film screenings, lectures, art discussions, and special art collections, you know that this will become the haven, the calming influence, the inspiration you seek for many years to come, or at least for the time you have in Chicago! For a schedule of current events contact: www.chicagoculturalcenter.org
Millennium Park is a 24.5 acre area in the heart of Chicago and it is second to Chicago Cultural Center, hosting 525 free events each year! How can one keep up with all the free events Chicago offers? Striking architecture and art pervade this outdoor mecca. The Jay Prikzker Pavilion, designed by Frank Gehry, stages performances by grammy winning Grant Park Orchestra and the Grant Park Chorus each summer from mid-June until late August, The pavilion itself emerges as a cutting edge structure of brushed stainless steel ribbons with steel pipes carrying the sound system across the 4,000 fixed seats to the lawn beyond with the capacity for another 7,000. This is a perfect place to come for a blissful distraction any Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday evening with a picnic basket in tow. Bring a bottle of chardonnay, boursin, baguette, and fresh fruit (dont forget a blanket) and you are ready for a divine evening of classical music in this beautiful outdoor park! Grant Park Orchestra -- phenomenal! How can this possibly be free? Love you Chicago!
Another sterling art form in Millennium Park is Cloud Gate by British artist, Anish Kapoor. It is affectionately known as, The Bean. Its stainless steel surface reflects Chicagos skyline and the images of those standing in front of it. The Bean is huge -- 66 feel by 33 feet. Definitely, take a look at your reflection and see it change as you walk around this bean-shaped wonder.
Every great city park should have a fountain for the kids to play in. Millennium Parks is innovative and inspiring for any age! Crown Fountain is a 50 foot glass block where water endlessly flows down its surface onto a shallow pool below. Interestingly, video images from a cross-section of 1,000 Chicagoans, continuously flash across the face of the fountain, and periodically shoot water out of their mouths, likened to the mythological gargoyles, sculpted with open mouths, to allow water, the symbol of life to flow out (explorechicago.org).
From Chicagos outstanding outdoor art mecca, we go indoors to the Art Institute of Chicago (interchangably called the Chicago Art Institute) the second largest art museum in the country! If you are an Illinois resident (if not, a great reason to become one), the first and third Wednesdays of each month offer free admission! Otherwise, this is truly the very best $18.00 you will ever spend. The museum displays 30,000 works of art from around the world, from every period and from every medium.
The Chicago Art Institute provides an interactive guide, What to See in an Hour, for those under a time crunch. Twelve greats from their collection are included and you match the numbers of the piece to the floor plan. Great idea, but you wont want to leave once you begin!
Opening May 16 is Pop artist, Roy Lichtensteins A Retrospective. The event is described by the Art Institute as a dazzling array of color and dynamism, traversing art historical movements, magazine advertisements and comics, nudes, and heroes, sea and sky. With the latest trend of graphic novels (wonderful reads with cartoon storytelling structure), cant wait to see this exhibit to visually see the historical influence of this new relatively new genre of writing. Plan on spending an entire afternoon or day at the Art Institute ... how else can you travel around the world for less than $20.00? For now though, on to the final of the Chicago on a Budget: Five A-List Adventures for Free
Bless the beast and the children, at the Lincoln Park Zoo! Think back to when you were a kid and you loved visiting the zoo? Maybe it was something about the imagination of a child, thinking you were in the wild on some dangerous escapade to study the jungle or the land of the planet of the apes and you were embarking on a quest of danger, peril, and absolute fun!
Its never too late to experience the zoo through a childs eye ... the Lincoln Park Zoo is the oldest zoo in the nation and free, 365 days a year! The zoos landscaped gardens, public art, and over 1200 species of animals including big cats, bears, birds, gorillas, reptiles, and monkeys will keep you or the entire family entertained.
One little known fact is the Lincoln Park Zoos global outreach. Since 2003, the zoo has given rabie vaccinations to over a million dogs in Tanzania to save endangered animals in Serengeti National Park, according to the Associated Press. Chicagos funding to this zoo is evidently put to great use (www.lpzoo.org)!
Think about it. What better way to spend a Saturday or Sunday (or both) experiencing any of these five awesome, free Chicago adventures? May you find them as fulfilling as the author and include in your repertoire of exhilarating experiences!
The next article focuses on a detailed, en-route tour of Chicago Greeters, The Loop, a free, one hour tour discovering Chicagos business/shopping districts surrounded by the El train and embellished with the richness of history, architecture, and art that Chicago speaks! With great enthusiasm and certainty that the tour will awaken all five senses and provide an urban adventure matched in beauty to the Appalachians, go enjoy!
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