Be sure to stop in the Harper Memorial Library and go up to the main reading room on the third floor. This grand space with its massive windows and chandeliers is imposing. If you don't want to look like a visitor, wear jeans, carry a backpack and look tired. You'll fit right in. Jackson Park Jackson Park is one of those jewels that Chicagoans typically breeze by without even taking a foot off the accelerator.
Mornings are exquisite here.
Sunlight across the Lake, lagoon, and reflecting pool, cool foliage, and even a Japanese garden make for a very Zen-like experience. The Paul H. Douglas Sanctuary is a wilderness worth birders' attention, and a Sunday sunrise viewed from Promontory Point at 55th Street is breathtaking. Bring your camera and a friend. Also, the Midway Plaisance , the green at the southern edge of the U of C campus, which, like Jackson Park, is a remnant of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Its free ice rink opens the day before Thanksgiving and closes March 1.