Chicago Off the Beaten Path Tips by tiganeasca

Chicago is home to one of the very few museums devoted to black history in the United States. The DuSable Museum of African-American History is located in a beautiful park-like setting on the south side, near the University of Chicago campus. It is named for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, an African American from Haiti, who built the first permanent settlement in what became Chicago.

In addition to its 'standard' museum collections, it also functions as a cultural center, hosting performances of theater and dance as well as music, lectures, a film series, readings, workshops, and even arts education classes. The museum's collections are particularly strong in 19th and 20th century art but also include original slave documents and artifacts as well as civil rights memorabilia.

The Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is very inexpensive: $3 for adults and $1 for children (free to all on Sundays). It is located at 740 East 56th Place. Phone: 773-947-0600. Check out their website.

You can reach it by taking the Red Line el south to 55th Street (aka Garfield Boulevard). Then pick up a Garfield bus (route #55!) going east and get off at Cottage Grove Avenue -- about a ten-minute ride. Or, if you prefer, a cab from downtown will take about 15 or 20 minutes (and be that much more expensive).

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It's literally minutes away from the Magnificent Mile and very well-known to Chicagoans, but many tourists never see Oak Street Beach (or see it only from Lake Shore Drive). Go on over. How often do you get to see a genuine beach in the heart of a major American city? Keep walking north on the right-hand side of Michigan Avenue, past Oak Street. Follow the sidewalk into the underpass and it will deliver you, safe and sound, to a wonderful--and very popular--beach that extends for miles both north and south all along the city's lakeshore. Come in the summer and sit on the benches to watch the people or bring your suit and go swimming. (There are lifeguards from May until September or so...and watch out for the bike path: between bikers, roller-bladers, and runners, collisions are a real possibility!) Come in the autumn or winter and just enjoy the remarkable views, not only of the lake but of the city's skyline.

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