The CTA Purple Line Express from the Loop (Howard-bound trains from any downtown station) runs to the Evanston stops in approximately 35 minutes. The Davis Street stop is the most central for the lakefront and Northwestern. The CTA fare is $2.50 with a Ventra card. Evanston is the first substantial suburb north of Chicago's city limits - a city of 75,000 on a flat glacial plain along Lake Michigan, built around Northwestern University.
The Chicago Marathon is in mid-October. October in Evanston: the maple and oak trees of the residential streets and the lakefront are in full fall colour - Evanston's grid of Victorian and early 20th-century houses reads particularly well in October light with the yellow and red canopy overhead. The Northwestern campus is in mid-semester; the lakefront paths are used by students, local runners, and the general population of a well-resourced suburb on an October afternoon.
The Northwestern Lakefront
Northwestern University occupies a long, flat strip along the Lake Michigan shore in central Evanston - the campus is built on fill land that extended the original shoreline eastward, giving it direct lake access.
The lakefill path runs south from the university's Sports and Aquatics Complex along the lake edge for approximately 1.5 kilometres - a flat, paved path at the water's edge, with Lake Michigan on the left and the university buildings on the right. In October, the lake is dark blue-grey, the waves carry the beginning of the winter chop, and the Chicago skyline is visible to the south. Walk the lakefill south to the observatory promontory and back.
The Grosse Point Lighthouse (on the Evanston shore at the northern end of the lakefill) is a National Historic Landmark, built in 1873 after the ship Lady Elgin sank in a storm off this shore in 1860 with 300 passengers aboard. The lighthouse grounds are accessible.
Evanston Town
The Davis Street corridor and the surrounding streets of downtown Evanston are flat and organised around the commuter rail and CTA station. The Halim Time and Glass Museum on Main Street (entry approximately $15) is a private museum of antique clocks and Tiffany art glass - specific enough to reward an hour and entirely flat inside.
Where to Eat
Farmhouse Evanston on Grove Street is the local benchmark for Midwest farm-sourced cooking - the October menu typically runs to root vegetables, local squash, and the Wisconsin and Illinois meat producers that the restaurant has established relationships with.
Getting to O'Hare
A taxi or rideshare from Evanston to O'Hare International Airport (ORD) takes approximately 35 to 45 minutes, costing roughly $35 to 50. For the transit alternative: CTA Purple Line to Howard station, transfer to the Red Line to O'Hare - approximately 60 minutes total. For early morning flights, the taxi is the more reliable option.