Day trips by train from Chicago?

You might consider St. Louis. Gateway Station is downtown and an easy walk to the Jefferson Expansion National Memorial (Arch and Old Courthouse https://www.nps.gov/jeff/index.htm)where you could spend several hours. Tower Grove Park, Missouri Botanical Garden, and Forest Park (with the zoo, art museum, and history museum) are easy to reach by bus or light rail. The Scott Joplin House State Historic Site and Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing are not as easy to reach by public transportation but will give you a chance to see an older neighborhood in the city (Joplin House) and the Mississippi River (Freedom Crossing).

I did a quick trip from Chicago to Niles, Michigan to see their beautiful Romanesqe railroad station on the National Register of Historic Buildings. Station agent can provide some free descriptive literature.

fairviewroad said:

Re: Kenosha

Don't forget there is also a two mile streetcar loop in the downtown area that includes a stop very close to the Metra station. The hours of service are limited, but at a buck/ride, it's a cheap thrill.

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Yep, correct on that. It runs(as of now, till December 31st) till about 6:35pm on weekdays, and 6:15pm on weekends, per this website: http://www.visitkenosha.com/attractions/top-attractions/electric-streetcar-circulator

dlagrua said:

A great day trip from Chicago ( but you will need an overnight or two) is to take the EB to the Wisconsin Dells. That town is bristling with activity. The Dells is known for its large variety of water parks outside the town area but in town you can take boat rides to explore the upper and lower Wisconsin river which is very scenic. There is the H.H. Bennett photography museum, water shows, quality restaurants, hotels galore and plenty to do. A short drive from the Dells is the Circus Museum in Baraboo that was once the site of the winter home of the Ringling Bros circus. Many of the original buildings still stand and there are circus and magic shows to see. If you decide to drive from Chicago to the Dells, make a stop in Spring Green to see The House on the Rock and Talesian, the Frank Lloyd estate.

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I never thought about Wisconsin Dells, interesting. Like others, I always had that picture in my head that it was mainly kiddie parks and cheesy touristy stuff by there, but little things of true travel interest to go to. I might look up the HH Bennett photography museum, hadn't heard about that museum myself. Didn't know Baraboo had the Circus Museum, I will look that place up as well. Had visited The House on the Rock and Taliesin(sp?) years ago, and enjoyed both places.

Is there any kind of local public transit, in the area around Wisconsin Dells and Baraboo? Too bad I guess it probably is an area, where you'd need a car to get to places outside of WI Dells. And I look on Amtrak's website just now, and see that the only nearby station that allows bike reservations(on the Empire Builder) is Columbus, WI. Wish there was a closer station than that, which allowed bikes. But I guess if you want to, you could make a bigger bike trip out of going to Madison via getting off(and back on) at Columbus, WI, and potentially Baraboo and other places just outside of Madison.

Baraboo, itself, has a sort of dial a ride service, that is basically a publicly supported taxicab. But getting to Baraboo from the Dells train stop is about a twenty-five dollar cab ride. Maybe there's Uber?

I'm definitely biased, but I would say it's worth a stop in MSP while taking the Builder one way. I'm on mobile, so I'm not able to type out a list of recommendations, but it's worth spending some time in (and major destinations are easily transitable.)

If you decide to stop by, let me know and I can say hi or (if time allows) give a bit of a tour of the town.

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

NorthShore said:

Baraboo, itself, has a sort of dial a ride service, that is basically a publicly supported taxicab. But getting to Baraboo from the Dells train stop is about a twenty-five dollar cab ride. Maybe there's Uber?

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I might just check, to see if Uber(if not also Lyft) services Baraboo. Thanks for the response back, anyway.

Ed, when in Chicago are you looking for city sights or country away from the city?