A sensational park, trail, nature reserve that has been a gem for decades. As a kid, we would often…read morevisit the forest preserve to fish, go on the playgrounds, bike the extensive well-connected trails, walk..so much memories here. Great spot to host a cookout or party with their rental shelters too. Happy to see it still functioning for many folks after all these years. Wish Charleston, SC had preserves like this!

There was a wedding reception (dinner and dancing) held in Shelter A and B of this forest preserve…read more As a former Illinois resident I thought the wedding party would be uncomfortable, given this time of year. But I was wrong! Both the weather and surroundings were beautiful; I heard they sprayed for insects beforehand as well. Many picture opportunities. Open enough to enjoy the rest of reserve and share the good vibes with passersby. Some bees came out but only when we were already packing up. Maybe more available parking spaces would've been nice. Other than that, it was a good time.

I LOVE these trails and could literally get lost in these woods for hours. I highly recommend going…read morein the beginning of fall to enjoy all of the beautiful changing leaves. The trails are nice and wide and make it easy to get around other walkers. These trails are also long enough, that once you move away from the main trail that circles the pond (pink trail maybe??), unless you move over to Half Day Forest preserve (connected trails), you'll very rarely run into anyone else. The parking fills quickly at the Everett and St. Mary's entrance, but you can also park over at Half Day Forest Preserve off of Milwaukee and easily find your way to these trails with a short added mile of walking.

We paid a visit here as an enjoyable venue for getting in some fitness steps.  The daughter and her…read morefamily frequent various forest preserves, and she mentioned this one as a recent favorite.  I personally don't have a lot of forest preserve comparison data, but found the surroundings to be tranquil and uncrowded on a Sunday afternoon, the trails all graveled and well marked, existence of a couple of bridges, a good mix of sun and shade along the trails, and folks and their pets all well behaved and courteous.  Some folks were picnic'ing and there was also a wedding party photo shoot going on.  I'm not sure where this one ranks in acreage for a forest preserve, but there were plenty of trails (4 miles worth) to get in whatever mileage you might like.  So, I guess I'll go with an "it's a good as it gets" til proven otherwise!

There was a family event here so we decided to come check the place out. Even though my kiddo is…read moreonly two, she liked seeing some of the stuff they had on exhibit and they also had coloring pages and whatnot. We got here near the tail end of the event, so we didn't spend much time inside and went walking along the little trail where they had signs up with information about turkeys spread out through a little loop around the woods. It's a lovely preserve, and I'll bet it's particularly beautiful in the spring and summer. The building is small but sufficient to have some programs and there are bathrooms here. There are a few outbuildings as well; I'm not sure if there are programs there too or not. There's a good deal of parking here. Keep an eye on their calendar to have an excuse to come out, or just spend some time wandering the trails in peace and quiet.

This place is stunning. My neighbor told me about it and I promptly took a drive up here that…read moreafternoon just a few days after "peak" fall colors. It's amazing. I wasn't adequately prepared because it was a spur of the moment decision, so I didn't have a jacket or warm enough clothes, so I didn't stay or walk around too long. (And sadly their giftshop didn't have any sweatshirts -- I would've bought one if they had because it would've solved my problem. So, note to Ryerson: sell sweatshirts in the fall!). I've since come back here for an art exhibit (see my review on the Brushwood Center page for that info). I cannot wait to return again in the spring and definitely multiple times next fall. I want to explore it all.

My son and I took a class. It was fun and we learned a lot. Johnny was very knowledgable.read more

We scheduled a birthday party for our 11 year old son and Johnny put on a great event! We had 12…read moreboys and each caught 8 fish and some even caught +20! He really knows what he's doing and brought all the gear plus taught the boys important lessons on how to properly fish. Highly recommend for any others looking for a different idea for a birthday party. Many kids walked away with a new love of fishing.

Offshore contacted Eddyline and changed their order with them so I could have two matching colored…read morekayaks, a Caribbean 12 FS and a Caribbean 14 FS, and delivered them to my home in Noblesville Indiana. My local Eddyline retailer was unable/unwilling to do the same. Great communication and pleasant demeanor. Highly recommend Offshore in Lake Bluff.

We spoke with Sam from Offshore, regarding repairs to our Zodiac boat…read more After much discussion with Sam his integrity became apparent in that his honest opinion was that spending additional money to repair this boat would not be worth while. He is to be commended for his honesty in appraising the return value for the expenditure for the need repairs. He took the time to honestly evaluate our Zodiac boat rather than turn just a "quick profit". We honestly would not have know the difference. He runs his business in a forthright manner to be commended in this day and age the "Quick Profit". Thank You M. Jens

The Lake Fireworks tour was excellent. Gabby was our guide and she was excellent and very…read moreknowledgeable. The tour combined fireworks, history, and architectur. The whole family loved it.

Took a quick trip to Chicago and the one thing I heard from everyone was to do an architecture boat…read moretour. Decided on Wendella and absolutely loved it! The tour guide had a good mix information, comedy, and quiet. I showed up a few minutes before boarding and easily got a good seat. 90 minutes was the perfect length!!

Had a great time and the information was good. The sound out of the ear buds was not good at timesread more

Looking for something new and different to do on Black Friday we took…read morethe Holiday lights tour this year. We have a tremendous driver, he was a lot of fun and really made the night. The tour goes the Christkindlmarket market at Wrigley and then the zoolights at Lincoln park zoo. I wish we got to see more lights around the city, but I don't know how that would work. It was allot of fun anyway. we got to spend a good amount of time at each stop. In between on the drive our driver told some great stores, some history and sang Christmas carols. A fun thing to do even if your not a tourist but a local like us. Make be a new family tradition.

I can't say enough good things about Ben Watts Marina. From the moment I started working with them,…read morethey have been incredibly efficient, thorough, personable, and professional. What really stands out is how much attention they pay to the details. They went above and beyond to identify additional items on my boat that had been overlooked by others, which gave me a tremendous amount of confidence knowing that everything was being properly looked over. Their communication and service have been exceptional, and they completed the work even faster than I anticipated. Most importantly, I feel completely comfortable leaving my boat with them because I know it is in good hands and that they genuinely care about doing the job right. It's rare to find a marina that combines this level of expertise, attention to detail, responsiveness, and customer service. I'm extremely impressed with Ben Watts Marina and would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a marina they can truly trust.

As far my experience, having kept my boat here for the last four years, this is a great place for…read morean annual slip as well as over the winter. I think there were some updates in management and they have been treating me really great. I always have something small that I need or requests or whatever it is, it gets handled. I appreciate their attention and care for my boat.

We could have done better with Expedia. He found no better flights than we found. When we asked…read morehim about booking connections for transportation from airports to hotels or from Rome to Florence. He said he could do that . . . for a price. And the hotel he booked for us in Rome was a $30 cab ride each way between the hotel and any of the major tourist attractions. When we got there, we contacted Tor, who told us it was our fault for not checking in advance. What did we need a travel agent for, if not for things like making sure we were well located?!

A friend recommended Tor to arrange our travel plans to Havana, Cuba. We met with Tor so he could…read moreget a sense of what we were interested in doing on our trip. Tor put together an itinerary to try to maximize our time to see the sights for the three days that we were there. Tor has been to Cuba many times so we had lots of questions about the process. Tor was easy to work with and returned phone calls and emails promptly. Tor couldn't have made planning this trip any easier for us. He took care of everything!