Got a free weekend? Like trains? Sick of unpredictable and overpriced air travel? Amtrak offers car-free Chicagoans plenty of chances to make a quick one- or two-day weekend escape with "red-eye" (overnight) trains from Chicago to several cities that are a few hundred miles away. I like traveling overnight, since it offers maximum sightseeing time at your destination and cuts back on expensive hotel stays.

Last week, a friend of mine rented a shared car to get to the Farnsworth House, the famous glass house designed by Mies van der Rohe on the banks of the Fox River, about 60 miles southwest of the city. Two years ago, a few months after it was purchased by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a friend and I decided to bicycle out there. It made a truly rewarding destination for one of the best bike routes out of the city: the Illinois Prairie Path -- the nation’s first rail-to-trail, built on the remains of an old electric interurban.

We had breakfast in Chicago, rode out past Oak Park to pick up the Prairie Path all the way out to its Aurora terminus (getting lost exactly once, in a lovely forest preserve in Warrenville where the leaves were just starting to turn), and continued along the Fox River trails to Oswego, stopping for lunch. From there, it was another five miles or so down Route 34, bypassing Yorkville, to River Road and finally to Farnsworth. For the return, we saved a few miles (as it was already past dark) by taking the Blue Line from Oak Park — today, a new bridge over the Desplaines River connects the Blue Line directly to the path’s terminus in Forest Park.

This September, as with any month, Chicago’s parking meters will be fed with millions of quarters. This month, though, a few of those quarters will reserve the 150-odd square feet of public space not for the temporary storage of personal conveyances but for lively, interactive performance art. Park Yourself will feature dozens of performance artists parking themselves, but not any cars, on streets throughout the city — starting today, 8 September (traditionally the start of the “art season” around the city) and continuing through next Saturday, 16 September, in streetside locations from Hyde Park to Edgewater.