Category Archives: playing

paddle beyond the boat tour with kayak chicago

Posted on April 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

Spring is in full swing, and already your summer sched is filling with incoming visitors. While the various boat tours traversing Lake Michigan and the Chicago River are a reliable go-to for out-of-town guests, how many times can you hear “Mies van der Rohe” before you’re snooze cruising in the sun? For an active take on the waterway tour try seeing Chicago by kayak.

There are several companies that guide kayak tours in the city, but I’d recommend Kayak Chicago. Offering tours by day, night, architectural sites, or sunset Kayak Chicago has any vantage covered. The Fireworks Paddle tour ($65) is a gorgeous way to watch the sun dim on the skyline and city lights reflect luminously on the river.

No kayaking experience is required, but I’d think twice about bringing the athletically averse on this tour. I’d also advise against the two-person kayak, despite how effective you deem your couple’s communication. Unless you regularly work the core kayaking muscle groups, you’re going to feel the burn a little. At first, I gazed longingly toward the passing booze cruises, but I found my paddling stride and enjoyed taking an active role in sight-seeing.

Just as different sights capture my attention whether I’m running, driving, or walking, it’s interesting to admire the city gliding at water level. I somewhat expected the Chicago River to look like the cave in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, ghostly souls glaring up from beneath the surface. Fortunately, the worst I saw was the expected bit of trash. While the eye is naturally drawn to the skyscraper preening above, kayaking allows you to admire the gulls nesting amid ancient driftwood.

Fireworks tours take place on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. Unfortunately, a violent storm chose to roll into town the evening of my tour so instead of a reprieve with a majestic view, my tired arms had to paddle double-time back upriver before it hit. Kayak Chicago was kind enough to offer everyone in the group a complimentary tour as compensation. Before turning back we plunged through the water arc at  Melas Centennial Fountain, an exhilarating way to anoint yourself in the Chicago River experience.

The next time you wave down to kayakers on the river, take a moment to notice what they’re seeing from below. To kayak the Chicago River, you must become aware of its movement, patterns, and passing watercraft – you must connect with the living artery of the city.

Kayak Chicago
1501 N. Magnolia Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622

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exploring underground chicago with waxwing puzzle co.

Posted on March 6, 2012 | 1 Comment

Deep beneath the city a group of strangers huddles uncovering a clue, unraveling a mystery, traversing the innards of a metropolis without stepping outside. It may be the plot of a blockbuster or post-apocalyptic novel, but this particular Saturday it’s an adventure tourism treasure hunt with Waxwing Puzzle Co.

Waxwing offers Chicago a different take on tourism. “There are a lot of tour companies that allow you to see sights and learn information,” says Waxwing founder, Andy Patton. “The idea behind adventure tourism is that it’s playful. By adding a bit of story the experience becomes immersive and ends up being like a self-guided tour.”

Patton first began organizing treasure hunts while attending the University of Missouri, and brought the concept to Chicago last year. “Chicago is great place for these activities because you’re able to draw on the city’s amazing history and cultural richness, allowing people to experience it in a new way.”

Waxwing offers several games, but the one that’s taken me on a subterranean tour of Chicago is Labyrinth. Oh you didn’t know about Chicago’s five-mile network of underground tunnels? Welcome to the Pedway. Continually under development since the 1950’s, the Pedway shelters those who live and work in and around the Loop¹. Until the last few years the Pedway has been, and continues to be, a secretive and puzzling subject for Chicagoans. This mystique makes it a perfect destination for Labyrinth.

Dashing around underground, hours pass while my team competes against three others in Waxwing’s Labyrinth game, but the passage of time is unintelligible. The multi-faceted affair keeps us busy with puzzles of all kinds while navigating the ever-altering Pedway. In some areas it’s an underground village containing every shop you’d need to survive below. Other places it’s a dim passageway that would have me looking over my shoulder were I not wrapped up in the mystery afoot. There’s a captivating air of the unexpected owing to Labyrinth’s setting – some corridors are locked, entrances unmarked, and at least one bystander is alarmed as we dive under his public bench for a clue. In my team’s case, the game isn’t quite over when we cross the finish line first and some quick thinking secures us the win.

The ways one can traverse Chicago’s downtown without seeing daylight are incredible, and Waxwing has a way of taking the landmarks you walk by every day and making them part of your own story. They have several new game concepts in development, including a Prohibition-era role play, a spy-themed tracking pursuit, and an urban cat-and-mouse game of Fugitive (Harrison not included). Until my next adventure with Waxwing, I don’t think I’ll be able to pass the unassuming Pedway logo again without thinking about all of the unseen links which connect Chicago.
 

Photos courtesy of Waxwing Puzzle Co.
1. “Best Of Home.” Chicago Pedway Guide. CBS Chicago.

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a winter’s tale: ice skating in millenium park

Posted on December 18, 2011 | 4 Comments

Chicago is known for packing in outdoor fun in the summer months, but don’t assume a drop in degrees scares everyone inside. Chicagoans can be seen gliding, staggering, slipping, and pirouetting on the ice all winter long.

Nestled under The Bean along Michigan Avenue,  the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink at Millenium Park is the most recognizable of the ten rinks citywide. Admission to all rinks is free, with the exception of the Rink at Wrigley and the McFetridge Sports Center, which is year-round indoor rink. Bring your own skates or rent them for a nominal fee and you’re off on the ice!

It’s one thing to admire the postcard-worthy vantage of the Millenium Park rink and quite another to sail gracefully into the scene with impeccable balance and rosy cheeks, the difference being that skating is much more fun! I have fond memories of ice skating as a kid, when the distance to fall was far less, but the memory of months more recently spent in a shoulder cast kept me shy of the rink for too long.

Haven’t skated in a while, or ever? It’s a bit like riding a bike, or rather, roller blading. The real challenge isn’t in the footwork, but the entertaining awareness of your fellow skaters. It’s easy to get distracted by the woman performing double axels at center ice and overlook the fellow who’s lost his balance, grasping for the edge and heading straight for you. A kid up to your knee-caps maneuvers laps between all as you manage to avoid crashing into the high school clique skating four-across around a turn.

Skating in the city, with a refreshing chill in the air, a cup of cocoa, and Mariah Carey’s encouragement through the speakers, is only improved after a few turns round the rink when you’re able to look up and enjoy the stunning skyline. The $10 skate rental fee is well worth an hour or entire afternoon of winter delight downtown, in an activity that I’m surprised to say I’ll be enjoying much more before March 11, 2012 at the close of rink’s skating season.

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink
Michigan Ave. & Washington St.
Chicago, IL 60602

Mon -Thurs: 12 pm — 8 pm
Fri: 12 pm — 10 pm
Sat (through Dec.17): 10 am — 10 pm
Sat (beginning Jan. 7): 10 am — 9 pm
Sun: 10 am — 9 pm

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Posted in chicago, exploring, impressions, magnificent mile, millenium park, playing, the loop

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[Whirly] Ballin

Posted on October 19, 2010 | 1 Comment

Agility. Speed. Strength. None of these qualities will be of any use in the highly competitive world of WhirlyBall. The declaration on the Whirlyball website instills optimism rather than disappointment as I doubt any of the above are my most prominent traits.  For weeks prior to visiting I hear whispers around the office of strategy, deceit, and past battle wounds.   I don’t get it, but am assured the thrill of the game will strike once I try.

In preparation for the epic encounter I try some research, learning Whirlyball was invented in Salt Lake City in the 1960s.  There are varying descriptions ‘basketball meets jai alai’ or ‘bumper cars meets lacrosse’  Ok?  There are hokey vocab terms incorporating “whirl.”  There are a handful of Whirlyball locations in the U.S. including Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, among others.  Finally, Kid Rock has a state-of-the-art Whirlyball court installed in his home…right so it has to be cool.

The Chicago location holds three courts in addition to a well-appointed sports bar.  Its location on Fullerton between Clybourn and Elston makes stopping in for a drink improbable if you aren’t playing, and I take the few hangers-on at the bar to be employees.  They stoop over the counter and order shots of Patron as players in various states of business casual dress dart about offering threats and challenges of Whirly prowess to their coworkers.  My culinary expectations are low, I admit, yet I am surprised by the quality of the house sandwiches, wraps, salads, and bar snacks.

The game starts and I am stuck in a corner for a several hanging minutes.  I sit in a bumper car of sorts, with a central crank to steer, somehow.  With the right combination of pedal stomping and frantic cranking I am off!  Next, one must master maneuvering the vehicle while racing, blocking, and bumping your way to the prized Wiffle ball.  Handling and passing the ball with your lacrosse-like scoop tool is your next task.  Finally, score by catapulting the ball from your scoop through a basketball backboard with a hole in it and one can almost taste sweet victory.

There are five players per team with ten minute games.  The acrid odor of gasoline stings your nostrils and adrenaline has your heart pumping.  Some participants call out commanding plays as if it were a real sport, but it is mostly a tizzy of crashing, cranking, and flinging.  It’s actually a great time.

As for those battle wounds I was warned about, a particularly nasty crash sends the crank smashing into my inner thigh and a week later it still looks like Tonya Harding took a swing at me.  Playing with less passionate competitors may lessen the opportunity for long-term bruising, but they do make it interesting.  For around $20 for two hours of play, and enough players to rotate games we had a Whirly good time.  My personal version would include more alcohol-induced maneuvering and less intensity.  With winter approaching, I’d recommend gathering a group for some indoor fun.  Why not give it a Whirl? [Ahhhh sorry I had to!]

Whirlyball
1880 West Fullerton Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614

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