Within the city of Chicago, there are over 29 miles of lake footage and 15 miles of public beach. Its public library is considered the world’s largest, with over 2 million books. Outside of the Louvre in Paris, Chicago’s world-renowned Art Institute houses the most impressionist paintings. Why would a Chicago resident ever want to escape? Or, worse, have to look for something to do?
The good news is that, if an escape from the city- even if only for a single day- did become necessary, a Chicago resident has more than enough suitable locations within a short drive. Naperville will appeal to the soft of heart, Milwaukee to the adventure-seeker, and Geneva to the shop-mongerer.
Naperville, recently a recipient of Money Magazine’s top honors as one of the “best places to live,” is within easy reach of Chicago’s booming metropolis. The city of Naperville itself isn’t that far from Chicago in terms of mentality and aim, either. The city hosts numerous festivals and performances throughout the year, drawing in thousands from across the country. Its most tourist-apparent feature is the booming Centennial Beach, at which point (on the warmest summer days) up to 2,500 have been known to converge. It features almost six acres of fence-enclosed area with park facilities. Naperville also has the Millennium Carillon, a massive music tower featuring 72 bronze bells. In the summertime, artists from across the globe can be heard playing here.
But, for the Chicago resident who has seen beaches and musical towers in abundance, Naperville offers the undoubtedly unique Naper Settlement, a historical monument maintained by funding from the city’s historical society. Naper Settlement is a museum village of 19th century homes, shops, and public buildings. Costumed docents lead tours year-round, though it may be more attractive to attend in the summertime, when blistering cold doesn’t taint the experience.
Naperville also features a superb riverwalk that winds pleasantly along the DuPage River, stopping by covered bridges, gazebos, park benches, fountains, and the well-known Riverwalk Amphitheatre. An afternoon could be spent here alone, with only the company of a sack lunch or an engrossing paperback. Within walking distance, there is also an abundance of well-known shops, making Naperville look essentially like a dwarfed Chicago.
If you’re seeking to escape Illinois, entirely, however, this is also possible. A day can provide ample time for a leisurely drive to Milwaukee, Wisconsin (just across the border) and back. In the summer, this means access to the July Italian Street Festival. Year-round, however, the city features excitement and culture much like that found in Chicago, though perhaps presented in a more relaxed manner. For example, Milwaukee boasts the Cedar Creek Winery, or at least its adjacent neighbor- the historic Cedarburg- does so. The winery is nestled in Cedar Creek settlement, near a restored 1860’s woolen mill. A tour of the winery starts with a visit to the wine cellars and concludes with the much-anticipated wine tasting.
Milwaukee also boasts botanical gardens (Boerner Botanical Gardens) of near-European stature, boat tours, and a city’s fair share of nightclubs and bars.
Finally, within easy grasp of Chicago is the small city of Geneva, a town founded by Swedes that still harbors much of its original traditions. Geneva is a functioning city (its library sales and riverside pubs draw in many visitors from the local communities alone), but it also has a unique charm up and down its commercial district that reminds one of an old village forgotten by time. The atmosphere was obvious even to Hollywood producers, who selected the town for the filming of Tom Hanks’ “Road to Perdition.”
Within Geneva, there is shopping unlike that of anywhere else. The shops are blatantly unique to this city, such as Little Traveler, a gloriously winding shop that snakes in and out of a series of connected homes. There is also the locally owned Graham’s Chocolate, where fudge teddy bears mounted on sticks have been distributed on past Halloween evenings. There is a newer part of the town; also, hallmarked by a large shopping center called “Geneva Commons,” but for the most part, the city is punctuated by its lack of attention to certain strains of progress.
So, if you are a Chicagoan and you are bored (the combination of which, again, may be unlikely), your geographic location has afforded you a multitude of escapes from routine. So, which is it- Naperville, Milwaukee, or Geneva? Where will you be going today?
