Chicago
No single page on a hastily-compiled wedding web site can cover all the things to do in Chicago. If you’re planning on making a weekend of it in the city, please let us know and we’ll be happy to suggest some fun places to go and things to do that match your interests (which we’re guessing include museums, pizza, and hot dogs). Whatever you do, we recommend spending a little time in some of the neighborhoods outside of the Loop (Wicker Park/Bucktown, Lincoln Park, and Lincoln Square are nice). Tell us what you like, and we’ll tell you where to find it.
Besides being the date of our wedding, May 26th is also the annual Bike The Drive event, run by Jason’s friends at the Active Transportation Alliance. For five wonderful hours, Chicago’s magnificent Lake Shore Drive is closed to car traffic and opened up to bikes. Register in advance!
For those hoping to catch a game, bro, the White Sox are in town and playing the Marlins Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon. White Sox tickets are usually pretty easy to get in advance. The Cubs are away that weekend, but returning Monday for a subway series against the White Sox. That’s a much tougher ticket to get. If you do go to U.S. Cellular Field (nee Comiskey Park), Annie particularly recommends the comically oversized pulled pork nachos served in a souvenir Sox helmet.
Oak Park
If you’re staying in Oak Park (or just want to get there a little early), we do have a few suggestions:
Oak Park features the single largest concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright homes anywhere, as well as his Unity Temple. The Oak Park web site has a nice index of homes that makes it easy to assemble your own walking tour, and many more formal events are offered through the museum now housed at Wright’s former home and studio.
Oak Park’s other most famous former resident also has a museum, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation.
Oak Park features many boutiques and restaurants, mostly concentrated on Lake Street, Oak Park Avenue, and Marion Street, but with some pockets elsewhere as well.
Also, whether you’re staying in Chicago or Oak Park, two of our favorite green spaces are on the way to Oak Park from the city:
The Garfield Park Conservatory (right off the CTA Green Line), featuring massive green houses and outdoor gardens. Visit the Fern Room, and see what Illinois was like when there were dinosaurs everywhere!
(Jason: Please do not get your children’s hopes up; there are no actual dinosaurs at the Garfield Park Conservatory.)
(Annie: But you never know!)
Columbus Park, often cited as Jens Jensen’s masterpiece of the Chicago Park District (and also home to a refectory where we almost got married).
Nearby
If you would like to visit the the-ate-r while in town, Annie’s sister, Dara Cameron, (a grown-up actor) is in a children’s theater production of Seussical: the Musical at the Drury Lane Theater in Oak Brook, just a short drive from the wedding locale. At night, she is also in a grown up production of South Pacific at the Marriott Theater in Lincolnshire. Oh, we’re just so proud of her!