Other stories in "Bicycling"

• Bikes, birds and bogs
  Wisconsin's Great River Trail is a happy mix of wildlife and civilization.
• Wisconsin's bike trails: a guide
  The state that pioneered rail trails isn't resting on its laurels.
• Spokes, sneakers and shops
  She likes to shop and he likes to sweat? No problem.
• Bicycling Minnesota
  Across the map, new trails are connecting the dots.
• Languid in Lanesboro
  In summer, head for lovely Lanesboro and go with the flow.
• Bicycling the Bunyan
  A long trail cuts through the heart of Minnesota lakes country.
• Bicycling in bluff country
  In southeast Minnesota, the Root River Trail brought swarms of tourists.
• A trail for Old Abe
  On Wisconsin's Chippewa River, a bald eagle paves way for bicyclists.
• Mankato meander
  To see the best of this low-key river town, hop on a bike.
• Rolling through the Iron Range
  The long Mesabi Trail reveals many surprises.
• Red Cedar ride 'n' glide
  Along a popular Wisconsin trail, a hardy tourist can take in the sights by water and by land.
• Sightseeing on $20 a day
  See the best of the Midwest from seat of a bicycle.
• Bicycling eastern Wisconsin
  On a burgeoning network of trails, a bicyclist can cover a lot of ground.
• Walk 'n' roll
  Thanks to a bike trail, backtracking on the Superior Hiking Trail is a thing of the past.
• A slice of cheese country
  On Wisconsin's Badger Trail, bicyclists bite off as much as they can chew.
• Grand Rounds
  In Minneapolis, bicyclists soak up the scenery along a breathtaking national byway.
• Hitting the trails in Trempealeau
  There's lots to do in this Mississippi River hamlet.
• Bicycling to Lake Wobegon
  In central Minnesota, cyclists enter a storied land.
• Bicycling the Central Lakes
  In western Minnesota, a 55-mile trail is a window onto the natural world.

Spin City

On a bicycle, visitors can explore every inch of Chicago's lakefront.

Everything that’s worth doing, you can do along Chicago’s lakefront.

Seniors in Speedos climb out of Lake Michigan after swimming laps. Chess players hunch over boards in a 1957 pavilion that looks like the Jetsons’ carport. College girls fumble with kayaks in the shadow of yachts, and boys play beach volleyball.

Overhead, a biplane pulls a flapping beer banner through the sky.

Is this Fort Lauderdale? No, but you couldn’t tell from the string of beaches, golf courses and marinas.

On fine summer days, the city and all its tourists converge on Lake Michigan and its bright Listerine-colored water, dotted by white sails. In its parks, people skate, bike, jog, fish, fly kites and play tennis.

When we were in Chicago one Labor Day weekend, we saw the whole thing on bikes, riding the 18-mile Lakefront Trail from end to end. Mayor Richard M. Daley is an avid bicyclist and plans to make Chicago “the most bicycle-friendly city in the United States.’’

The first afternoon, we rented bikes at Millennium Park and made our way to the lakefront, passing gourmet picnickers with hibachis and tourists clicking away at Buckingham Fountain. Crossing the Chicago River, we threaded our way through crowds heading to Navy Pier and rode into Olive Park.

At an overlook, we gazed across the water at elegant high-rise apartments on shoreline that was underwater until a character named George Streeter paid contractors to dump their debris there and then, with his new land, seceded from the city. Many of the parks — Lincoln, Grant, Burnham — also were created from landfill.

From Ohio Street Beach, we rode to busy Oak Street Beach and Lincoln Park. Amid a stream of skaters and bicyclists, we passed the Chess Pavilion and Theater on the Lake, where local troupes stage plays in summer. At Belmont Harbor, we circled the marina and stopped to watch dogs playing on a spit of sand. We found a bird sanctuary amid the dunes at Montrose Harbor and fly fishermen casting lines from concrete risers. But on the other side of the point, we lost sight of the downtown skyline and turned back.

Back at Belmont, the dogs had jumped into the water. At Oak Street Beach, the lifeguards still were out in rowboats, keeping an eye on swimmers bathed in golden light.

“With all these beaches, Chicago looks like Los Angeles, the Los Angeles of the Midwest,’’ my husband said.

Even at dusk, Millennium Park was jumping. Crowds still circled the mirrorlike Cloud Gate sculpture, popularly known as the Bean, and from a distance, it looked as if a squadron of ants was marching across its silvery surface. In its reflection, the sky had turned a deep midnight blue, and the city lights had multiplied into a galaxy, but most onlookers had eyes only for themselves.

Returning the next morning, we rented the last two bicycles and headed south. We passed the Field Museum and then rebuilt Soldier Field, whose old Doric columns hug new blue stands for Bears fans.

At the entry to Burnham Harbor, alongside McCormick Place, we stopped and sat on a ring of limestone blocks, watching the little dramas around us. A little boy dropped his fishing pole from the seawall into the lake. Geese goose-stepped across the trail, trying to stay ahead of speeding cyclists. In the water, a young man gunned the engine of a ridiculously phallic cigarette boat, and we snickered as a svelte sailboat slipped easily past him.

The grounds of McCormick Place, called “Mistake on the Lake,’’ also have been redone, and now a waterfall courses down its monolithic flank. Department-store magnate Montgomery Ward spent 20 years fighting the city and his fellow businessmen to keep this lakefront open to the public, largely succeeding through the 1909 Burnham Plan; the convention complex was seen as the most notable betrayal of his legacy.

We pedaled south, past more beaches and children’s “playlots’’ to Promontory Point. In a handsome stone park house with a round tower, three young women discussed plans for a wedding. Water-skiers circled the point, and a sunbather stretched out on the limestone seawall, framed by the hazy downtown skyline.

We stopped to eat Polish sausages and freshly squeezed lemonade at 57th Street Beach, then rode on to 63rd Street Beach, which included a palatial Arts and Crafts beachhouse. Past the tree-shaded Jackson Park golf course, we rode through landscaped gardens up to the door of the South Shore Cultural Center, a 1908 Arts and Crafts manor with crystal chandeliers, French doors and bas-relief ornamentation.

Chicago loves its lake, obviously. Compared to this, our beloved Chain of Lakes in Minneapolis seemed like millponds, and its circling streams of joggers and skaters like gerbils on a tiny wheel. Chicago had more water, more views, more cool pavilions, more of everything.

“Well, our river’s better than theirs,’’ my husband said.

Looking at our map, we saw we could use bike lanes to get within a few blocks of Indiana if we kept riding. But we turned back, stopping to watch cormorants diving for fish and retrievers fetching rubber bones. At the Field Museum, we bought a Popsicle from a cart, near a long line of people waiting for the water taxi to Navy Pier.

We couldn’t bear to return our bikes until we had to, so we rode back to Lincoln Park and took the North Avenue underpass to Old Town, where we ate seafood cavatappi and cannoli on the geranium-bedecked sidewalk outside Orso’s.

Chicago has come a long way since 1904, when muckraker Lincoln Steffens called it “unlovely and ill-smelling.’’ A century of sweat, slaughterhouses and sacrifices built this city, now overflowing with flowers. On this glorious day, the effort seemed well worth it.

Trip Tips: Chicago’s Lakefront

Bicycling: Bike Chicago rents at Millennium Park’s McDonald’s Cycle Center, Navy Pier, North Avenue Beach and Foster Beach. It’s best to reserve online and by the day, $30-$35 as opposed to $34-$44 per day and $8-$12 an hour. Road bikes cost more and kids’ bikes less. Rent for four days during the week and it’s $9.99 per day. It also offers guided tours and rents tagalongs, wagons, tandems and in-line skates. Get there early on fine-weather weekends. 312-595-9600, www.bikechicago.com.

Bobby's Bike Hike offers guided tours that include bikes. The two-hour Quintessential Chicago tour is 10 a.m. daily, $25, $15 for children under 12; a three-hour Lakefront Neighborhoods tour at 1:30 p.m. daily, $30-$20, and the three-hour Sunglasses at Night tour at 7 p.m. daily, $35-$25. Reserve online and save 10 percent. The store also rents bikes and is on the North Pier Docks across Lake Shore Drive from Navy Pier. 312-915-0995, www.bobbysbikehike.com.

Bike & Roll, in the boat house at North Avenue Beach, also rents bikes and offers tours. 773-327-2706, www.bikeandroll.com .

The annual Boulevard Lakefront Tour is on the first Sunday in September, and riders can choose the 15- 35- or 62-mile routes, $35. 312-427-3325, Ext. 251, www.boulevardtour.org.

Millennium Park Bicycle Station has secure parking, lockers, showers, towel service and free valet parking, www.chicagobikestation.com. For more on biking in Chicago, check www.chicagobikes.org.

Cruises: Wendella Boats offers a two-hour Chicago at Sunset tour of the lakefront at 7:45 p.m., $24, $12 for children 3 to 11. Cruises to the Navy Pier fireworks shows go out at 8:45 p.m. Wednesdays and 9:30 p.m. Saturdays, $22-$11. It also offers 90-minute lake and river tours, $22-$11, that leave nine times daily from its berth under the Lake Michigan bridge. 312-337-1446, www.wendellaboats.com.

From Navy Pier, sightseeing cruises are offered on the Tall Ship Windy schooner, Seadog speedboats and Shoreline launches, www.navypier.com.

Segway tours: Segway Experience of Chicago offers two-hour tours of the lakefront at 10 a.m., 1:30 and 5 p.m., $70, 800-979-3370, www.mysegwayexperience.com.

Architecture tours: The Chicago Architecture Foundation offers 2½-hour Segway tours of lakefront architecture at 10 a.m. every Monday and Saturday through October. Cost is $80, $70 members. Reserve at 312-663-0600.

It also offers three-hour Bike the Lakefront tours several times a year. Cost is $10, free for members. It leaves from Millennium Park, where bikes can be rented. No reservations are necessary.

Many other bus, train, trolley, boat and walking tours are offered. The foundation’s ArchiCenter is in the Santa Fe Building, across from the Art Institute, 312-922-3432, Ext. 240, www.architecture.org.

Beaches: Chicago's 29 miles of shoreline provides 15 miles of beaches open through Labor Day, www.chicagoparkdistrict.com.

Millennium Park: Free Greeter Tours are offered at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily through October from the park’s Welcome Center. Maximum group size is 10; first come, first served.

For details on the many performances and events, check www.millenniumpark.org.

Grant Park: The Grant Park Music Festival, with free classical performances at Jay Pritzker Pavilion, are held most nights from mid-June to mid-August,  www.grantparkmusicfestival.com.

Navy Pier: Fireworks shows with music are held Wednesdays and Saturdays through Labor Day. For the many free performances and events, check www.navypier.com.

Theater on the Lake: Nine plays by nine theater companies are performed through mid-August at this park pavilion on Lake Michigan at Fullerton Avenue, Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday 6:30 pm. Tickets are $17.50. 312-742-7994, www.chicagoparkdistrict.com.

Accommodations: Prices are high in summer, though bargains can be found for Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Try www.hotrooms.com, in addition to Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia. And if you’re not picky about location, try Hotwire and Priceline.

Dining: It’s easy to eat well for very little at delis. Cosi, the Corner Bakery and Chipotle all are on Michigan, as is L’Appetito, a great Italian place at the foot of the John Hancock Tower.

Information: 1-877-244-2246, www.choosechicago.com or www.cityofchicago.org/tourism. And be sure to stop by the Cultural Center, on Michigan Avenue across from Millennium Park, to get the latest information.

Last updated on August 4, 2008