Night Tour of The Loop

Details

Time: July 2, 2011 from 8pm to 11:45pm
Location: Congress Plaza in front of the Congress Hotel at Michigan and Congress
Street: Michigan Avenue & Congress Parkway
City/Town: Chicago, IL
Website or Map: http://goo.gl/maps/Fy0f
Phone: 773-255-6347
Event Type: architectural, social, night
Organized By: Lee Diamond
Latest Activity: Jul 5, 2011

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Description

PLEASE NOTE NEW MEETING SPACE 2 BLOCKS WEST OF BUCKINGHAM FOUNTAIN

This night tour of the Loop focuses on impressive features of the dark in the Downtown section of Chicago known as the Loop. Community Area #32, The Loop is bordered by Lake Michigan on the east, by the Chicago River on the north and west and by Roosevelt Road on the south, and within this small area exists dozens of national and city landmarks, and canyons of skyscrapers, set on top of double and triple leveled streets, intersected and sharing space with el trains. It is the seat of government for the city of Chicago and Cook County.

Unlike the free tour of the Loop (June 15), this ride will focus on the most impressive architectural elements of the area that stand out at night. We will take upper and lower streets, we will see lakefront and walls of vintage skyscrapers in the most concentrated area of landmark buildings in the world.

The ride is $10 and you must wear a helmet and have front and rear lights to ride.

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Comment by Chris on July 1, 2011 at 3:26pm: Lee, we meet a the plaza and do we pay there?

Comment by LeeAnn Morgan on July 1, 2011 at 9:19am: Oh shoot, you are right, I forgot they changed their hours.

Comment by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on July 1, 2011 at 9:17am: Flaco's Tacos is only open until midnight. :(

Comment by LeeAnn Morgan on June 30, 2011 at 6:45am: We don't have plans to join a postride gathering at this time, however I thought I would suggest Kasey's Tavern at 701 S Dearborn - they are open until 3am, serve frozen pizzas and popcorn (and Flacos Tacos next door is also open until 3am which can be brought into the bar). My favorite bar in the neighborhood! http://www.yelp.com/biz/kaseys-tavern-chicago

Comment by Lee Diamond on June 30, 2011 at 6:27am: Julie it is so awesome of you to help me think of a good place to go after the ride! Thanks for that!

Must have:

food

drinks

be in or near Loop

be cheap

open late

Ideas?

Thanks again for your kind, generous and thoughtful offer to help think of a great place to go and then we can meet you there!

Comment by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on June 30, 2011 at 6:06am: Lee- do you have an idea of the postride establishment? Will there be one this time even though its so late? I can't do the ride but if I can would like to meet up later.

Comment by Lee Diamond on June 29, 2011 at 6:30am: Here's the route:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/39307294

Cheers - Lee

Comment by Lee Diamond on June 29, 2011 at 5:57am: Hey Leeann - this one will be a bit shorter. Roughly 12 miles, but due to the nature of the loop, it could still take 3 to 4 hours. there is a ton of stuff to see, lots of traffic lights and potentially a decent amount of traffic and a major city festival all going on so 4 hours is easily possible.

Come say hello when you're there - Cheers - Lee

Comment by LeeAnn Morgan on June 28, 2011 at 3:24pm: This will be our first bike tour with you! I see your average tour is 14 - 16 miles and 4? hours. Will this tour also be that long? Thanks!

Comment by Lee Diamond on June 28, 2011 at 6:13am: As many of you know, this Saturday July 2, 2011, we will be hosting our first ever night tour, and it’s an exciting one to start our initial venture into the night. We will be exploring the Loop, Community Area #32 and the central commercial district of Chicago. The tour will take riders past hundreds of historic buildings, monuments statues, parks, districts, markers and historic places, and discuss the various examples that look particularly brilliant at night. Since it is a night ride, in addition to our regular requirement that you wear a helmet, we are asking riders to make sure that they have working front and rear lights in order to ride.

Now you may be thinking to yourself,
“Self, isn’t this weekend still the ongoing Taste of Chicago? Won’t that affect the meeting place in Grant Park, specifically Buckingham Fountain”.

My friend, you are so correct. I take full and all credit for this wonderful example of proud planning.

Now ordinarily this would be no great tragedy, even if it was too prove additionally complicated, but despite the fact that the sign at the main entrance to the Taste of Chicago says you can bring your bike in if you walk it, I was twice rebuffed with my bike. Since the Buckingham Fountain is in the fairgrounds for the Taste of Chicago, it is likely we will have a heck of a time meeting up with everyone at the fountain, and it seems possible, that despite the rules of the Taste that permit you to walk your bikes in, others may also get turned back with their bikes.

THEREFORE, we are moving the starting location two blocks west on Congress to the Congress Plaza in front of the Congress Hotel…..Congress and Michigan. Here is the exact spot we would meet:

http://goo.gl/maps/Fy0f

This is just outside of the fairgrounds and a large area where we can begin the ride. There will be a few volunteers to try to direct those that don’t get the word that the ride space is move by waiting at the entrance, the fountain and riding the perimeter of the fairgrounds from Michigan to the LSD path and from Monroe to Balbo. Will we catch everyone? Oh….probably not, but we will do our best, and I can only apologize for the poor planning.
I have already had several people ask for a re-run of the tour for scheduling reasons, and one of the ride marshals suggested a postponed date instead of running it this weekend, but it looks like we will try to ride it this time AND then offer another ride in the late summer with a date yet to be determined. Please stay tuned for info on this.