This is an excellent Morton Grove neighborhood park with a basketball court, two t-ball fields, a…read moreplayground, and a sandlot (with little excavators for kids). It's very friendly for dogs and short walks, given that they have both a doggie bag and disposal area as well as a tree-lined path that spans around a block in a paved circle. There are little park benches dotting the path. The playground has one set for younger toddlers, and a gigantic area for more daring, older kids. (Some of those tube slides go insanely fast, and I can see the repeated slide appeal). The area is really well maintained, and I've seen the park district come by to refill mulch and powerwash the playground equipments. There's even a "free ditial game" app learning board to help guardians set up digital games, if needed. Lovely little park with something for everyone.

First tee hosted a holiday bbq and information in greater Chicago area. We stopped by and the…read morefamily had a great time! Food, games, horseback riding, and fellowship. This event was top notch and free. We are so thankful we stopped by and enjoyed the activities. I also shared their program information to friends and family looking for lessons in the area. They have scholarships, lessons and much more to check them out. Some opportunities available in Pebble Beach, Atlanta, Minnesota, Naples, and Montana.

Great race! Not very big, but put on well, for it being a neighborhood race. The course route was…read morevery well marked, with mile markers, and cones along the way. Edgewater 5k, is one of those races that attracts members in the neighborhood; some surrounding. Majority of the runners were elementary students, that attend the neighborhood schools in the Edgewater neighborhood. Some of the older runners were former students, or teachers at Edgewater schools What interested me about this event, was that some of the proceeds benefited the local schools; which ever one you chose to donate to. No, I'm not a former student of any of the schools, but i do attend church at Swift Elementary, which is one of the schools that participated in the race. I've also volunteered at Swift Elementary, so I felt the need to support Swift. Lots of post run food at the finish: bananas, pancakes, water, etc. ATHLETICO, was even on site, giving out massages to finishers which was great. Overall this event was great, and I look forward to running it again in the future. Enjoy, if you are considering this event in the future.

Every Mother's Day Beverly has a walk to raise money for breast cancer research. It's become a…read moretradition in my family. The walk is associated with Little Company of Mary hospital and starts at Ridge Park. This is the same park where the Ridge Run starts if you're familiar with the area. There are tons of beautiful homes in the area and you get to walk through the neighborhood and see all of them. It's a nice thing to do for Mother's Day and I always run into people I know from the area.

Similar to a previous review, the pre-race communication is lacking. I registered using a Black…read moreMonday code. I selected a packet pick-up date that I forgot to put in my calendar. I totally forgot about packet pick-up leading up to the race until I coincidentally saw something on Instagram about the last chance for packet pick-up the day before the race. No reminder email about packet pick-up...just a random chance of checking Instagram having not used Instagram in many years. Mind you they charge you if you have to do race day pick-up after missing the previous pick-up chances. The race itself has drastically declined ever since the founders left the race group. The founders were eager to improve and ensure an excellent race experience. The current group does not care. No post-race survey to fix the low hanging fruit issues. The noticeable difference with the race itself is the finish line. Finishers hang out right at the finish line so you finish and run into runners and spectators blocking the area just over the finish line. That is a safety issue especially since the temps were well below freezing so couldn't see if people spilled water. The is also incredibly inconsiderate to block the finish chute after running a half marathon into a headwind. The last thing I want to do is have to navigate through a crowd to get water or my medal. The race course itself is the usual lakefront course with spectators blocking the path at multiple spots and at least one car driving on the lakefront path during the race. Not only was packet pick-up nearly missed, but I selected the Fleet Feet gift card in lieu of a shirt during registration. They ran out of gift cards at packed pick-up. They were supposed to mail me the gift card after the race. Packet pick-up was on Jan. 30 and race on Jan. 31. I emailed on Mar. 5 saying I never received my gift card. I emailed again on May 11 saying I still have not received a gift card. Finally, I received an email on Jun 5. saying the gift cards were mailed out. I received the gift card early last week. I opened the envelop yesterday on Jul. 1 and find out the gift card was valid 1/1/2026-6/30/2026. Them emailing me on Jun. 5 was their reasoning of giving me a heads up about the expiration date. To their credit, the race group did respond to emails every time I pointed out their failed promise. However, 4.5 months later to resolve an issue of their own doing is pathetic. I was given a discount code for the next year's race so kudos for them, but I had already decided that last year was my last F^3 race. The race is not worth me spending any money on. Compared to my first F^3 Lakefront Half in 2014 at Montrose Beach exposed to the Polar Vortex, this race and race group have really gone downhill. There are many other races in Chicago that offer a better overall racing experience so run this race at your own discretion or at least set the bar very low for your expectations.

I ran this race a few times before Covid and it always was a unique and fun one. For the 2022…read moreedition, F^3 was a slap in the face. They were sending out race emails BCC'd (instead of paying for a trusted sending service) so everything went to spam. The only important email that went through, on 1/21, provided 24 hours notice for the last Chicago city packet pickup. However, the more important detail shared turned out to be that the event would be 100% outside with no use of the United Club: "We will be conducting the race outside this year. After consulting with our medical director and team, we will not be using the indoor United Club in an effort to mitigate COVID risk during a time of high community spread. We furthermore will recommend face coverings while in corral areas." Despite how massive of a convenience this was, organizers seemed incapable of communicating in a timely fashion on Facebook or on the race website. I perceived this as a sly way of minimizing blowback. My position is that if the organizers didn't have to completely eat the fee for canceling the United Club week-of, they should have credited some portion of entry fees for those who wanted to run the next year. That would be in an ideal world though. In this world, the next "Race is On!" email participants received was telling us to take public transportation to the race and to gather at a bar after the race. So much for those doctor's recommendations! When complaining about this online, someone in the Chicago running community mentioned that this "independent" organization was actually bought out by some national group or private equity firm years and years ago but continues to hold on to the "independent" branding. I've been unable to verify it, but, man, being a distance runner during Covid was a frosty experience.

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Since Yelp changed the title of this listing--which was specifically the NWSI St Patrick's…read moreParade--this review is solely about the parade, and not other programming they may have. I don't think I'd heard of this parade until the last week or so, and it's only about 10 minutes away so we went to check it out. I thought it would be kind of a neighborhood parade + nearby suburbs but there was a sizable presence here. We found parking less than a ten minute walk away on a street in Norwood Park that hardly had any cars parked on it so that worked out well. The parade itself was... lackluster. (I was a bit annoyed at the woman who said they were holding standing space for people who were eventually coming. We found some space a bit further down near the library.) A surprising number of the participating groups were riding in Chicago Trolley buses! I was really kind of surprised about that. This parade has giveaways, but trying to toss from a bus with windows that only open halfway from the bottom up means nothing really gets very far. So then there's a bunch of candy and stuff halfway out in the road, but (as a reasonable safety measure!) they put out metal barricades to keep folks on the sidewalk. So since a bunch of the "floats" weren't actually walking and handing out their giveaways, someone opened the barricade and then there were a bunch of kids out in the roadway trying to catch the candy and beads and everything else that was being tossed out. I wasn't going to let my toddler out on the street and since there were kids in front of us in the street, most of the few folks walking and giving things out stopped coming the two feet back to the sidewalk where we were. It was also really weird that there was a big Teamsters semi taking up 30 feet or so of prime parade viewing space. Like... maybe they should have had a float in the parade if they wanted to participate? (I love that Chicago is a huge union town and the rest of the country would do well to similarly unionize, but it would have been nice not to block so the kids had more sidewalk space from which to watch.) It seems unlikely that it would be the parade review stand, because that would seem unnecessarily large.... Overall, the parade felt a little disorganized, chaotic, and with all the folks in buses or cars, a bit disappointing. I'm a bit shocked that it's been going for 25 years now and they haven't made some improvements. I enjoyed the Forest Park parade quite a bit more. Having said that, I can't say we won't come again depending upon what's happening for toddlers on St. Patrick's weekend. I would probably take the train next time because we can catch it at the station a few blocks away from our home and get out at the Norwood Park station and be at the exact spot we were camping out at today. I did find learn that, apparently, the key is to stand on the east side of Northwest Highway. That side was practically empty!

Wunder POP is located inside the Bunny microbakery. When the microbakery is closed up for the…read morenight, a 'pop-up' takes place on the premise. New chefs rotate on a different 'pop-up' session, offering an ever-changing theme/menu to a limit of 12 guests. So far, they have a variety of classes lined up for the year, from a byob ramen bar, exploring different types of breads, a byob Chinese and Korean dumpling tasting, learning how to preserve pickles/jams, an omakase night, and even a vegan POP for vegans! Just make sure you get on their emailing list, as some of the events are first-come, first-serve, while others require purchasing of a ticket. The hubs and I already purchased some tickets (the Spring Bounty where we get to taste some local fare from the fields and the farms) and a bread-making class (yay!!!), so I cannot wait! You'll receive a confirmation letter, but you can also call the store to confirm your purchases (if you're anal like I am). Just note that getting these tickets are easy, as the site is super user-friendly; it's the matter of getting the dates that you want, as they do go get grabbed pretty quickly! You can check out Bunny during the day for their pastries and such, and then sign-up for one (or more) of their upcoming POPs in the evening. I love the concept! +shares space with Bunny microbakery +purchase tickets online with ease! +a variety of POPs with rotating new chefs +be added to their emailing list for ticket purchasing