I had some bicycling friend come in from out of town.  Renting bikes at Millennium Park we headed down to the Lakefront Path and rode south.  At the museum Campus we did the around the Planetarium circuit and included Northerly Island as well before joining up for the path to 31st Street Beach and Marina.  That’s a great place to take yet another view back at the city — and get rid of the excess coffee we had at breakfast.  From there it’s around Promontory Point to Hayes Drive where we head west on local streets.  The Columbia Statue, Osaka Garden, back of the Museum of Science and Industry, the Midway to the Fountain of Time by Lorado Taft.  Winding through the University of Chicago campus past the Robie House we head to Valois for lunch.  After lunch we continue a bit north and west until we pass Obama’s house and head north at Drexel. The houses and building on Drexel are fabulous as we head to Oakwood.  West on Oakwood we wind up on Martin Luther King Drive (and the Chicago Chicken and Waffle House).  We stop at the Bronzeville monument and continue north to McCormack Place.  From there local streets including Prairie Avenue to Grant Park.  Now it becomes a real art tour:  Agora, Lincoln and Logan statues, and the Art institute.  There we see Lorado Taft’s earlier work the Fountain of the Great Lakes as well as many other pieces.  Normally the faint hearted would return the bikes and call it a day, but we did the River path to the Vietnam Memorial and a circumnavigation of Navy Pier before returning the bicycles.  All in all, it’s a 35 mile journey through a great portion of the Southside of Chicago.