My son and I took the train from Chicago yesterday to the Oak Park station. It was inexpensive and easy, then we met Rick at the Oak Park station.
My five year old son says, "Go on these tours of Rickshaw Rick! It will be very fun! If you like cab bikes, that is part of the tour! He is very nice! It is very, very, very cool! We even went to a church, that was really big! If you have kids, they can go on the balcony- it is cool! The only windows on the bottom of the church are on the edges, and your kid can fit into the edges, and they can sit on the balcony. If you like taking trains, you can take a train to his tours. Well, so long, bye!"
Rick has a wealth of information and stories about the town of Oak Park, both present and past, and also has fascinating stories about both Hemingway and Wright. Rick picked us up from the Oak Park train station, took us to the Hemingway house. The Hemingway guided tour is 45 minutes, so plan ahead! I thought the Hemingway tour was fascinating, but it was hard for my son to sit still and not talk for the 45 minutes. He liked the kitchen and phone, but declared afterwards that he wouldn't want to live there.
Then, Rick took us to the Unity Temple, which was closed by the time we got there, but Rick gave us information about the outside of the church. We toured the neighborhoods where the Wright homes are built, and my son and I really enjoyed learning about the architecture. Rick really is an excellent teacher, as we both learned so much! I highly recommend this tour!
If I was to do this again, I'd spend the night at one of the hotels or bed and breakfasts in the area. We ended up coming out twice to Oak Park, once by train and once by cab. Both of us preferred coming out by train, and it was much less expensive! If you take the train, make sure and make plans with Rick ahead of time as I didn't see any cabs waiting at the train station.
Resources:
Rickshaw Rick's Tours and Taxi
521 Thomas, 1st floor
Forest Park, IL 60130
www.rickshawrick.com
P: 773-771-3922
F: 708-358-0811
Train information from Chicago to Oak Park:
Travel Information: (312) 836-7000
Customer Service: 1-888-YOUR-CTA
transitchicago.com
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