The Christkindlmarket in Aurora, Illinois is now open for the 2025 holiday season! We have created a guide for this perennial Chicagoland favorite. You can find that guide here: Christkindlmarket Aurora 2025: Tips for Your Visit. While that guide has lots of tips pulled together over our many family visits to Christkindlmarket in years past,…

Our family has embraced the tradition of the Christkindlmarket that has become so beloved in the Chicago area. For the last few Decembers (and Novembers) we have been celebrating at the Christkindlmarket at River Edge Park in Aurora, Illinois. We have visited Christmas markets in Germany and Poland, and more recently in Daley Plaza in…

Our family visits Holiday Magic at Brookfield Zoo Chicago every year. We love the spectacular light displays (over 3.5 million lights for 2025) and festive holiday spirit. We want to help make this part of your holiday tradition with our top 5 tips for a great visit and information about dates and how to reserve…

We have been sharing updates about Bramsen Tropical Forests, the massive new outdoor primate habitat now open at Brookfield Zoo Chicago. Today we have a new and exciting update to share. Timed entry tickets are no longer required to visit Tropical Forests. In the initial opening period for this brand new habitat, you needed to…

Bramsen Tropical Forests at Brookfield Zoo Chicago is now open! This gorgeous outdoor space for gorillas, orangutans and monkeys is a dramatic expansion of the primate habitats at the zoo. And great news, the long closed Tropic Worlds indoor habitats have also reopened with Tropical Forests. Even better news, both Tropic Worlds and Tropical Forests…

The new Bramsen Tropical Forests habitat opens this Friday, July 11 at Brookfield Zoo Chicago. We have been eagerly watching this massive outdoor primate habitat rise from the ground, and we cannot wait until the opening. We will be visiting this new habitat for gorillas, orangutans and monkeys on the day it is open to…