Enter near the Trailside Museum, in the parking lot on the south side of Chicago Avenue, then…read morefollow the trail south. There is a large field across Chicago Avenue, around the parking lot north of Chicago Avenue, but that area of Thatcher Woods is much less interesting. Go south instead. Along the path going south, I saw deer, ducks, chipmunks, and loads of birds. Local children have been building structures on the woods, so it is fun to grab some branches and add to those creations. The deer cane up so close, within 10 feet at times. Wear shoes that can get muddy. It was a bit soggy today, but the trails are definitely still passable.

Haven't been here in a while but I love this first preserve! Been here for a few events. It's a…read morelittle of country within the city limits. Great little place to get you in touch w nature. Check it out when you need to get away but stay close.

My son and I took a class. It was fun and we learned a lot. Johnny was very knowledgable.read more

We scheduled a birthday party for our 11 year old son and Johnny put on a great event! We had 12…read moreboys and each caught 8 fish and some even caught +20! He really knows what he's doing and brought all the gear plus taught the boys important lessons on how to properly fish. Highly recommend for any others looking for a different idea for a birthday party. Many kids walked away with a new love of fishing.

This place is small and intimate but it was so nice. Now, when I say that it's small, I'm…read morereferring to the greenhouse side. It isn't a huge park, but it is big enough for a little adventure. The plants are well kept. There are so many, and they don't have signs for them all, lol. So have your identifier app ready, lol. The temperature is set to maintain the plants, so you may want to have a nice jacket that you can take off while being inside. Other than that, the plants are beautiful and huge! They had parrots!!!! Lol, they weren't too talkative (until you walk away, lol) This is a great place to visit and take in different beautiful species of plants, the water system that they have set up as a coy pound, the HUGE plants that they have .... it is a great substitute for a botanical garden visit. Oh... AND IT'S FREE!!! LOL

We had a 5 year old bday party there and it was a blast! So well prepared and they really think of…read moreeverything. They have 2 main activities (terrarium craft and scavenger hunt) and two smaller activities to keep the kids busy in between (coloring and bird toy making). They have two staff to help with kids. We found with 5 year olds, having 4 extra adults was nice. They supplied tablecloths and a happy birthday banner. It was an easy way to celebrate and I would recommend. Sean did a great job being a host for the conservatory

If you are senior, DO NOT sign up for line dancing! I attended here for many years and quit after…read morethe teacher died. The horrible woman charged with "running" the class is a bully. If you don't bow down to her rants, put downs and narcissistic gaslighting she puts you out. Many of us who were put out ( about 10+ over the years) complain to management and they do absolutely nothing. We had to give up our friends and dancing and go to other classes. Great because Chicago park district classes are supposed to be free for seniors. You'll be pulling out cash in small amounts every time there's an event including a fee to get in for a class with no teacher! The boss lady comes in, turns on the music and goes on a rant if you feel tired and sit for a minute. Most people attending are over 60 years old and just want some exercise. They don't teach any new dances because they have no teacher. If there is a non-dancing event, the boss lady tries to exclude people who she kicked out by reserving tables so we can't sit at a public, park district event with our friends! Her boss knows all this! Too bad, I attended when they had a teacher.

I like the sanctuary and how big the park is to do fun activities. It is not crowded and is always…read moreclean.

Offshore contacted Eddyline and changed their order with them so I could have two matching colored…read morekayaks, a Caribbean 12 FS and a Caribbean 14 FS, and delivered them to my home in Noblesville Indiana. My local Eddyline retailer was unable/unwilling to do the same. Great communication and pleasant demeanor. Highly recommend Offshore in Lake Bluff.

We spoke with Sam from Offshore, regarding repairs to our Zodiac boat…read more After much discussion with Sam his integrity became apparent in that his honest opinion was that spending additional money to repair this boat would not be worth while. He is to be commended for his honesty in appraising the return value for the expenditure for the need repairs. He took the time to honestly evaluate our Zodiac boat rather than turn just a "quick profit". We honestly would not have know the difference. He runs his business in a forthright manner to be commended in this day and age the "Quick Profit". Thank You M. Jens

It almost seemed like a dream. From the very start, cruising through a large patch of lotus plants,…read moreit felt otherworldly. Very peaceful, going at our own pace. Enjoyed the cliff walls of Buffalo Rock and the shallow waters of some side passages. We paddled for 5 hours, covering 8 miles total. After we were done we headed to charming, historic downtown Utica for drinks and dinner at Skoog's Pub & Grill in North Utica, IL. I was impressed with the logistics and operation of the kayaking experience, from the guide* to the equipment and online booking process. *Full disclosure, the guide was my twin sister, but I am being objective...seriously.

I have mixed feelings about this kayak tour company. I signed up because although I'm a very…read morecapable and seasoned kayaker, I didn't know this river and I like learning about the ecosystems and local wildlife. For this reason I like having tour guides. Going up the river was fine. Coming back went a bit sour. I went as slow as I was capable of paddling or not paddling, but apparently it was too fast for the preference of our tour guide. I was barely touching the water with my paddle. I have no idea how I could have gone any slower. It wasn't humanly possible. After shouting at me several times, he took to chasing me down and ramming my kayak so it'd spin in circles. Would I rent a kayak here and kayak the river alone? Yes. Would I personally use a tour guide here? No I wouldn't. Would I recommend? If you're a family with little kids or a drunk sorority house, absolutely. If you know what you're doing, just go it alone. You'll probably enjoy it more. Edit: If the tour guide had concerns for group safety, he could have said so. Although ramming my kayak with his seems to be a bit of a conflict as far as my safety goes. It was an unprofessional approach when he could have simply explained why he needed me to slow down

So the weekend is approaching! It's July! It's Hot! Chicago is surrounded by water, at least on the…read moreEast side. What are your plans? Might I suggest Jet Skiing?! Let me tell you about my 4th of July Adventure....... My plans were to hang out and eat BBQ with a friend, but she wasn't feeling too well and had to cancel our plans. After making sure she was ok, I was on the verge of catching up on a series on MAX. Then it hit me, "It's a BEAUTIFUL holiday, and you are about to watch tv? What are you doing? You said you wanted to go jet skiing before the summer is over. What are you waiting for? Let's Do It!" I called Chicago Water Sport Rentals on 31st and spoke with the owner who assured me that the day was perfect and the water was fine, code for: "No Danger Here". After an exchange of "God Bless You", I hung up the phone, quickly put sunscreen on, gathered my wetsuit and sunglasses and headed out the door toward the lake. When I got to the harbor and my jet ski rental destination, that's where the magic happened. After a thorough tutorial about how to properly use and have fun on the jet ski that I was sitting on, off I went to the high seas, I mean out toward open waters with the rest of the water sports lovers. Once I got past the channel filled with boat lovers, sailers, and jet ski pros, I played around in open-calm waters while the sun and the city were beaming down on me. The views are absolutely spectacular and the experience was exhilarating! I was on that thing for an hour. Yes, an hour. Last time it was 30 minutes. This time I wanted to challenge myself. Once I got into my groove, there was NO STOPPING ME, until my time was up. ‍ Lol. I highly recommend you try something new this weekend. If you have been jet skiing before, try a new venue off the 31st Street Harbor. Then treat yourself to lunch at the restaurant directly next door. This experience will make you feel ALIVE!

We learned a lot about kayaking from the owner, John. He and his staff took their time in…read moreexplaining every detail of the equipment to us. We had a lot of fun paddling in the harbor and checking out all the boats docked there. There was quite a bit of boat traffic this Sunday afternoon so we rolled with the waves as boats come in and out. Some might find that unpleasant but we thought it was a good opportunity to get a taste of what kayaking on the lake could be like. Kayaks and paddle boards stay within the harbor, which is about 9 miles of boat docks. It's quite an different experience from other kayaking locations; it's manmade and urban and the only wildlife is seagulls. There is a parking lot though its $28 for 0-12hrs during the weekends. We chose to park on the other side of the trail and walked to this location. It's a beautiful walk! The best amenity is the private bathroom with shower. We usually don't get wet with kayak but since this is the lake, we were drenched. Highly recommend wearing swimsuit for any water activities. We'll be back to try the jet skis.

We could have done better with Expedia. He found no better flights than we found. When we asked…read morehim about booking connections for transportation from airports to hotels or from Rome to Florence. He said he could do that . . . for a price. And the hotel he booked for us in Rome was a $30 cab ride each way between the hotel and any of the major tourist attractions. When we got there, we contacted Tor, who told us it was our fault for not checking in advance. What did we need a travel agent for, if not for things like making sure we were well located?!

A friend recommended Tor to arrange our travel plans to Havana, Cuba. We met with Tor so he could…read moreget a sense of what we were interested in doing on our trip. Tor put together an itinerary to try to maximize our time to see the sights for the three days that we were there. Tor has been to Cuba many times so we had lots of questions about the process. Tor was easy to work with and returned phone calls and emails promptly. Tor couldn't have made planning this trip any easier for us. He took care of everything!