Chicago lakefront ride

Took a short ride on Chicago's beautiful lakefront path on Saturday, Sept. 19. Had to dodge numerous clots of rubbernecking tourists and scramble to avoid pelotons of Lycra-clad tour wannabes, but it was still a blast.

We parked in the Millennium garage, and took the lakefront path north to Belmont. There, we turned west about two miles there to find the Roscoe Village "Guinness and Oyster Fest" that I'd found in an online listing of Chicago neighborhood festivals.

Turns out the fest organizers had found an actual sponsor: LandShark Lager, a Jimmy Buffet WorldWide Amalgamated Corp. (registered trademark, all rights reserved, see dealer for details) brand. Also, the organizers apparently hadn't paid their bribe to the Chicago Health Dept., so they weren't allowed to serve any actual raw oysters.

But for a "Guinness and Oyster Fest" featuring neither Guinness nor raw oysters, it was a darned good time.

The band playing while we were there, a local, Skynyrdish group called Hello Dave, had the crowd tapping and nodding and provided a nice vibe for the setting. Mary found the Landshark Lager passable. The "oysters Italiano" were greasy but good, and the fried oysters offered by John's corner bar were small but crispy-tasty and nestled on a little bed of cool coleslaw. Well done.

A headwind slowed us down on the way home, but it was cool southeast breeze off the lake. In all ways a very pleasant 14-mile ride. Not a lot of places on the planet with a view like this.