I
added to my zoo "collection" with a visit to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, one of
the country's oldest (note - it's free!) I checked out my favorites - the
big cats (though I'm not a fan of house cats) and the monkeys and apes.
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| Visit to one of the country's oldest zoos- Lincoln Park Zoo |
As I walked a
few blocks to the Old Town section, I noticed everyone on bikes, especially the
same baby blue model. These were the rental bikes that are popping up in
different cities, including New York and DC, and some city-suburbs. The
concept: pay a fee to rent a bike from a stand, ride it to or close to your
destination, park it at another stand, and go about your business. Chicago's
brand is Divvy Bikes.
The rental fee
for Divvy Bikes is $7 for 24 hours, as many rides as you want, under 30 minutes
each. Over 30 minutes, its a couple dollars more per ride.
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| Find a stand with blue Divvy bikes & ride! |
At first I
thought - do I want to ride a bike seeing as I didn't really know where I was
going? But then I reasoned: I didn't know where I was going anyway, so at least
on a bike, I'd get there faster.
I grabbed a
bike and breezed through the city. (Apparently, there's no helmet law in
Chicago, which all my Maryland friends asked.) Chicago, surprisingly for being
such a busy city, turned out to be an easy biking city. The landscape is pretty
flat, there are clearly marked bike lanes, and where there aren't, drivers are
pretty good at giving bikes the right of way, or at least not running bikers
off the road - though they will honk if you don't move when the light turns
green.
I road from
Old Town through downtown to Millenium Park, about a 2 mile distance, according
to Googlemaps. The fun part - traveling faster, I definitely went further than
planned and came upon some entertaining surprises. There was a running waiters
race on one square and a soft-serve ice cream truck on another. I
wandered through the park, checking off some of the Chicago landmarks, like
"The Bean," and caught a little bit of Edward Scissorhands as the
movie being shown out on the lawn. I picked up another bike, then rode back to
the hotel, the Hyatt Regency, where there was a bike stand a few feet from the
door.
How do you
know where you can get a bike? There's an app! (But you knew that, right?) This
came useful when I was ready for dinner - I read a review for BellyQ, an Asian
fusion restaurant that was a few miles from the hotel in the Old
Loop. Looked on the Divvy site at the map and ta-da there was a bike stand
a block from the restaurant. Perfect. I picked up a bike a block from the hotel
and rode straight to the other end of town in about 15-20 minutes.
Dinner by the
way, was quite delicious. I had Crab Rangoon, Coconut Grits, and Hamachi
(ceviche). And a drink called "Kill Bill." So.... I took a cab back
to the hotel. Don't drink & ride!
I got a bike
again another day, taking my own riverside and city tour. I saw a book at the
Art Institute, Chicago Then & Now, about the architecture and history of
Chicago. A read through something like this is useful to develop your own tour
through the city.
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| Interesting look at the architecture of Chicago pre-Chicago fire and since. |
There are a few
drawbacks to rental bikes (like own-your-own bikes):
- Rain. I was going to get bikes one day with friends, but it was unpredictably raining and what we didn’t want to do was get caught in a downpour with bikes.
- Broken bike. One of the bikes I got, I couldn’t adjust the seat. And I didn’t want to go thru the process of getting a new code for a new bike, so I rode it, with the seat lower than I would like. Then I understood why other’s adjusted the seat before getting the bike.
- Empty bike rack. Every now and then, there’s a bike rack with no bikes on it. Walking a couple blocks to the next bike rack can throw a wrench in your plans, if you’re on some kind of schedule. Otherwise, it’s a minor annoyance.
The rental bikes
are fun, inexpensive, and flexible. I could see them being a quite useful mode of
travel in your home city, and it’s a great way to see the city on vacation.
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