Chicago: Lincoln Park Zoo
During my recent weekend in Chicago, I was staying with a friend who lives in Bucktown. I had all of Sunday to myself, so I decided to walk to Lincoln Park and check out the zoo. I knew it was pretty far (more than three miles), but I'm not scared of a good walk, so walk I did. When I plotted my route for the day later on, I realized that I ended up covering nearly ten miles just on Sunday, which is a lot even for me. It was such a beautiful day, and I made a lot of stops along the way so it didn't feel quite that long.
My first real stop was Lincoln Park. It was one part of Chicago that I had never been before, and there's almost nothing I won't try for free. I love parks and zoos, so I figured I couldn't really go wrong. The park was beautiful — a little closer in feel to Central Park than Grant or Millennium Parks— with tons of trees, athletic fields, ponds and statues.
On my way to the zoo I passed a marker indicating that I was standing on an old potter's field, stating that "due to various oversights, many bones likely remain here beneath the soil," which was just creepy enough to make me officially like Lincoln Park.
The zoo was really lovely, and completely free (at all times) which is pretty awesome. They had all the standard zoo fare — tigers, camels, giraffes, a polar bear, zebras, seals — although a lot of the animals were no where to be seen, and I'm always sad when zoos don't have penguins (my favorite). The new baby black rhino wasn't on view, but there was a baby hippo to satisfy my cute quota for the day.
The leaves had just started to change, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky so it was the perfect day to linger outside. I actually took the first of two outdoor naps (the other one was on Columbus Day, next to Lake Michigan) right outside of the zoo, on an incredibly comfortable bench by the South Pond. I have to say, that for park naps, Chicago's benches have no rival (sorry, New York).
No tourist activity is complete, in my opinion, without getting a squished, souvenir penny and luckily the zoo had a machine. I've been collecting squished pennies since I was a kid, and I make a point of getting one wherever they're available. They seem to be getting a little harder to come by as I get older, but I they're the perfect souvenir because they're unique and cheap. I have books and books filled with different ones, and I hope the machines (or pennies!) never go away completely.
I wish the Central Park zoo would take a cue from the second city and stop charging a ridiculous admission price. I definitely liked Lincoln Park the best of all the parks I've visited in Chicago, and if I lived there I'd probably find myself there all the time.